Stockton Folk Dance Camp

 Aug 1st-8th
So I am finally posting about the folk dance camp I attended in Stockton, CA. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I was a little nervous because I was going totally by myself, and riding the bus there. The bus ride was long, but way better than driving by myself. I sat by a guy named Robert on the way to Sacramento. He was interesting. He had been working in Connecticut for the past 2 years and work got to hard to find out there so he was returning to Oakland where he grew up and where all his family lives. He told me a lot about the areas in CA we went through. It was also interesting because I was reading the Ensign on Temples and he commented on how the LDS temples are some of the best building he has ever seen. He asked if I had seen the Oakland temple and I said I hadn't. He explained how it is situated on a hill and how it is so beautiful. He also asked me the polygamist question, I told him we don't practice it. He said he really likes mormons because they believe in what is good, right, and true. We were driving through the mountains in Northern Cali, and he was commenting on how it was so beautiful there is no way he could ever doubt that there is a God. I asked him about his beliefs and he said he doesn't belong to an organized religion, but that he believes in kindness, truth, doing things because they are right, creation by God, family. As he was talking I felt like he basically believes everything we believe. It was nice to see that there are good people everywhere.
I also met a really nice guy when I was at the bus station waiting to go from Sacramento to Stockton. A guy that had been on the bus with me from SLC asked me where I was heading. I told him where and why and he thought it was pretty cool. He was heading home to Redding after being away for work for the last 4 months. He hadn't seen his family and was driving home from somewhere back East when his car got t-boned when he stopped for food in Laramie, WY. So he was now on the bus with all of his belongings that were in his car. While we were sitting there he offered his cell phone to a woman who was traveling with two toddlers and trying to get the pay phone to work. He then entertained her kids so she could make the call with out chasing them all over the bus station. So I finally got on the bus for Stockton (after almost missing it because I was in the wrong line). The only seat left was clear in the back by all this thug-ish looking guys. Lucky me got to sit in the middle of all of them. I don't really know or necessarily think they are thugs, they just had that typical persona. Anyway I made it to Stockton safe and sound and was picked up by a camp shuttle.

The first day was mainly check in and get a tour of the campus. I missed the tour, but being so used to BYUs outdoor campus I decided to give myself a tour. There was  a lot of neat architecture so I took a lot of pictures.

Church across the street (Methodist??)

 Robert (bus) had informed me that Stockton is one of the oldest cities in Cali, that it dates back to Pony Express days.

That night we had a opening social party where the teachers were introduced and taught a few easy dances.
The teachers for the camp were:
 Fang-Chich Chen--Taiwanese
Denes Dresziger & Gissella Santayana-- Hungarian
Christian & Sonia Florescu--Romanian (they got married the first week of camp this year)
Jerry Helt--Squares & Contras
Steve Kotansky-- Balkans
Ahmet Luleci--Turkish
Radbood Koop-- Russian
Hilde Otterholt- Hawaiian

I wasn't able to attend every teachers class but I went to the Taiwanese, Turkish, Russian, Advanced Squares, and a workshop called Dances for All Ages which was taught by a different teach every day.
I learned so much. Turkish was my favorite class, but I was surprised at how fun the Taiwanese class was as well.
Ahmet (Turkish) came to BYU a few years ago to choreograph a dance for the touring team. BYUs Folk Dance director, Ed, told me to tell him Hi from everyone at BYU. I was kind of nervous about that because I don't like relaying messages to someone I don't know from someone else. I just feel silly. So the first day of class I hung back at the end to see if I had an opportunity to talk to Ahmet. Lo and behold he came over to me and asked me if I was in a performing group. I told him that I am at BYU. He got really excited and told me how awesome he thinks BYU is. Then he said that that must be why I am different from everyone else and why he noticed me. So I took that as a good thing. Later that day I asked him if he could recommend any books for me to read about Turkey, first off because Turkey is one place I would go if I got to travel anywhere and second because I am trying to put together information for my folk dance/ geography class and who better to get book recommendations from than someone who grew up in Turkey and now teaches Turkish dance. He said he has some great books that he would send me and I can send them back when I am done. WOW! After I had showed so much interest and the fact that I was from BYU he and I became friends. It was interesting to me that we have very similar personalities and honestly I felt like I have known him forever. People at the camp would ask where we had met and when we told them we met on Monday they were very surprised. So he would come and hang out with me and my roommate during the after parties (which I will explain in a moment). One thing that was funny about Ahmet is that he still has some struggles with English. Somethings he says are pretty funny; for instance, he was talking about the meaning behind one of the dances. The basic story is that a man has lost his wife and is in his house grieving. He shuts all the windows and doors to shut himself out of the world. As he is grieving the moonlight comes through the cracks around the windows and doors. The man decides that if the moonlight can penetrate through the closed up house maybe his wife's spirit can also reach him in this darkness he feels. He then feels his wife near him and becomes joyful again. It is sweet story but while Ahmet was explaining it he got to the part about the moonlight and called it moonshine. Then he questioned that word and asked what normal English was we said moonlight. He asked what moonshine meant and someone acted out drinking. He then was kind of embarrassed but went on with the story. Later that night at the after party he asked me why "moonshine" meant to drink. I then explained what it really is and he laughed and said, "no wonder I always get weird looks when I say that."  One night when we were talking he said, " I like you. You should be my assistant. You are a good dancer, funny, and cheerful. You also can get up in the morning (I assume this meant he knows I won't ever be hung over). He offered me travel expenses plus $15/hr. I don't know if he will ever really offer me a job, but it would be awesome. I also don't know if I would take him up on it, but who knows. I was honored that he thought I made that good of an impression.

Me & Ahmet and the picture/costume party I didn't have a costume but he is wearing a Turkish one.

My roommate didn't make it in until very late Sunday night. Her name was Nicole and she was from Alaska. She is only 17  so it was fun to have someone closer to my age than most of the people there. She and I got along wonderfully.

The basic layout of the day was classes at 8 & 9, coffee & fruit break, Two more classes, Lunch, Workshops and a cultural presentation lecture, dinner, review session, and the after party.
At the review session all the teachers would briefly refresh over the dances they taught then whoever wanted could dance them with the music one time through. After all the dances were done the after party began. Basically it was an all request dance party that started around 11PM and went until everyone went to bed or all the requests were finished. There was also an outdoor courtyard that you could sit and talk in. Nicole, Ahmet, and I would sit out there until a song came on we wanted to dance to.

One of my other favorite classes was the advanced square dance class. I was a little nervous because I haven't done a lot of squares, but I thought "how hard can it be". I went the first day and we had a review/quiz where Jerry called around 30 figures that we should know to be in the class. I surprisingly knew a lot of them. My partner (Jerry's wife Kathy) pulled me through the ones I didn't. It was so much fun even though I was probably less than half the age of everyone in there. The next day we didn't have enough men so I got to be a man for the rest of the square classes. I mostly partnered with a lady named Cricket (who I think went to BYU because she knows Ed). It was crazy hard, but so much fun. I would leave that class with my mind spinning, not understanding how some of the figures worked out. Jerry is an AMAZING caller. He was inducted into the Square Dance Caller Hall of Fame in 1978 or something like that. That is a prestigious position. On Friday night at the review they do a dance called Exploding Square. It is big deal at this camp. I was lucky enough to be invited to be a lady's partner and we got a square together. To let you know how crazy this is people fight over who gets to be in the middle square. My square got together during the song before Exploding Square so we would all be together and could get the center position. I was trying not to laugh because it was hilarious. We did get the middle position and I soon learned why it is the best.
EXPLODING SQUARES
The squares line up; we had 3 rows of 4 squares. Jerry then calls you through moves that switch the ladies around the room. The guys return in the same squares after every figure. The point (if done correctly) is to get all the partners right again. We ended up with all but one lady back. Like I said Jerry is an amazing caller. He knows when you should be back. It can get messed up if just one person gets off. It was way cool though.

On Tues night they had pictures with everyone in their costumes. I took a few pictures of people. Some of the costumes were awesome.

All the international people

 Sonia & Christian in the wedding attire.

The Asian Group

California Kapela

The Brazilians

Because the camp gave me a scholarship to attend. I got to help out in different areas. One thing was helping run the music in one class a day. I ran the music for the Hungarian class. I also got to be a model for the auction. There were some costumes in the auction so there were quite a few of us that got to wear something. Mine was a vintage dress (it made me think of Anne of Green Gables). It was immodest by LDS standards, but it was a gorgeous dress. I modeled it during a wine & cheese luncheon thing and then when the actual auction took place. The hardest thing was that the dress did look amazing on me, but I would never wear it because it was immodest. People kept telling me I should bid, or that they could get a group together to bid on it if I wanted it. It was hard to explain because it is a tasteful dress. Here is a picture of me in it. You can't tell in the picture but the back is super low and it was a little big because we had to pin it. Unfortunately no one would believe me and just kept saying nobody would look as good as I did.

They also had a silent auction and I bid on a suede-leather skirt and won. It turned out to be a tiny bit tight, but it has stretched and now fits really well.

The last night of camp they have a big party. This weeks theme was Hungarian and we got to ride the "Orient Express". We had to make passports because they had border guards. Bobi (the lady in charge of scholarships) asked Nicole and I if we would like to borrow a flower head dress because it is fun to be dressed up. We said sure and followed her to her room. On the way Nicole complimented Bobi on her outfit. She said she works for Coldwater Creek and buys things when they go on clearance, plus she gets a discount. When we got to her room she pulled out two shawls (identical in style to hers) and told us to keep them. We tried to say that was too much, but she said she didn't need three of them and she wanted us to have them. Then she also pulled out some earrings that she made and gave us each a pair for pierced ears because she wears clip-ons. Finally she pulled out the actual head dresses and we tried them on. I felt very dressed up and fancy after that, but she was right, it is more fun when you are dressed up.

Me and Terry the Taiwan Teacher's Assistant

Me in my party attire, wearing the skirt I won in the auction.

The party was pretty fun. It was interesting because Nicole and I ended up on a table with people we didn't know and I think we ended up with the people that drank the most.. . . . There was wine on the table (sparkling cider for those who don't drink) and then they passed out these shots of Hungarian Brandy. From what I gathered they are pretty strong and our table got a lot of extras ( I think a few were already drunk by this point). Anyway dinner was a quite affair on Nicole and my part. We just ate our food. After dinner the border guards gave each table a handful of passports and said that the first table to get everyone back with their own passport would win a bottle of wine. (yay! I know).  I found mine easily because I still had my name tag on so I just held it out as I was walking around and someone handed mine to me. In the middle of the chaos the host announced, "Welcome to rush hour in a typical European train station. It was pretty funny, all these people fighting through one another to find their passport. Really only focusing on themselves and it was quite chaotic.

Border Guards

"Madam" Sonia telling fortunes from her computer.

Checking my passport

The band playing before dinner

After dinner we had the final dance review/ party. Ahmet danced squares with me (which was hard cause I had to do the girls part) it was a riot. We were goofing off the whole time. I did accidently go in when Jerry called "guys to the center with a left hand start". Ahemt was sure to emphasize "GUYS" for me every time after that. That night at the after party Nicole and I stayed up for the whole After Party. They played so many dances I knew. Ahmet was leaving around 2:30 AM so he said we couldn't go to bed without telling him goodbye. He probably stayed dancing and talking until 3 or so. While we were talking we got on the subject of music. (For those of you that don't know I grew up playing music, not dancing) I told him this and he asked what I play. I told him piano and cello. He said the cello is one of his favorite instruments. He has a degree in music and is a great singer. We finally said our goodbyes and Nicole and I headed to bed.

My trip home was kind of rough in the fact that I got a ride to Sacramento rather than taking the bus, but we ended up leaving earlier than planned so I made it to the bus station before my bus even left Stockton. I already had a 5 hour delay in Sacramento but this extra hour made it six. I read most of my book, and choreographed part of a Bulgarian dance right there in the bus station. I also helped a foreign lady make a call on the payphone. My bus ended up being an hour late so I was actually at the station for 7 hours, UGH! We finally left and were told that we would be making an unscheduled courtesy stop (I can't remember where now), I still don't know why we did cause I don't think anyone got off. Then when we got in the canyon we hit horrible weather and had to go super slow because you couldn't see the road. I felt like I would never get home. But I made it safe and sound then next morning.

Here are some random pictures I didn't write about above:

Mariachi band serenading at lunch

Brazilians performing in the Talent Show

 The teachers put together a dance/skit that combined and made fun of there dances. It was really funny.

Sorry this last picture is blurry, but I had to include it. The Taiwanese teacher taught a dance called the Lion Dance, and Christian wore this shirt to the review session where that was reviewed. The shirt actually flaps up to show the inside of the lions mouth. It was really funny. The Taiwan teacher loved it.

Well I hope you have enjoyed my novel about Stockton. I had a lot of fun and am excited to teach the dances I learned.