NORDLEK is a big folk festival that occurs every three years (and only once every 12 years in Norway) and includes Nordic countries – Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Greenland. This year it took place in Norway – in Arendal from 16 to 21 of July. Also, for people under 26 years old, the yearly Norwegian Folk Summer Camp conveniently took place there right before the festival, on 12-16 July.
Several members from the BUL – Kristiansand, including myself, attended NORDLEK, and some members also went to the Summer Camp.
BUL – Kristiansand – is a place in the city centre, where everybody (even those without any dance experience) is welcome to come and learn traditional Norwegian (and not only) folk dances and music. Starting on Monday 19th of August, classes (19h-21h) will resume, and these classes are focused mostly on new dancers. It is free for anybody under 26 years old and the place is located just 50 meters from BARE!
Even though NORDLEK is a folk festival primarily focused on tradition, I was also gladly surprised to see some modern dance performances there. A group of very skilled dancers was involved in the opening ceremony, showing interesting movements and compositions, mixed with traditional elements. Moreover, since it took place in the inner harbour of Arendal, dancers also used water as another “stage” for self-expression. With the live music and special light effects, the opening ceremony presented a unique event! Also, during the festival, I was lucky to witness another modern performance. This time at the Arendal cathedral (Trefoldighetskirka). That was a unique and experimental performance with dance and music. I would say it looked somewhat surreal, dream-like, especially inside the church! You could barely witness anything folk tradition-related there. But it was beautiful and innovative. I thought it was a great idea for the organisers to include such modern elements into the NORDLEK program! I believe that true artistic (dance in this case) self-expression shouldn’t have boundaries and could include a variety of traditions and movements.
One great option the NORDLEK organisation provided was to become a volunteer in exchange for a festival pass, food and even free accommodation. Many of us chose that option and didn’t regret it! The workload was reasonable and left us with enough free time to enjoy the festival and attend classes and workshops.
Karen Sophie Lund (a dancer and the social media manager at the Bul – Kristiansand) attended many dance courses: Norwegian, Icelandic, and Greenlandic, the latter being her favourite, with dance elements like “tapping” and “stomping.” Also, she chose to attend a special 4–hourlong workshop for the dance instructors.
“At the workshop for the dance instructors, they provided us with the different techniques across language barriers – so you could actually teach without words, and also be able to adjust to students of different dance levels” – says Karen.
Overall, Karen enjoyed NORDLEK, and made new friends from other countries. Even though there were a lot of people attending, Karen believes there would have been many more visitors, if there was a better media coverage of the festival in Norway!
A few months before NORDLEK 2024, Karen contacted more than ten newspapers (among them: Aftenposten, VG, Dagbladet, Agder, Telemark) and a few TV companies (TV2 and NRK) to see if they could spread the news about the festival. However, none of them agreed to write about it. She believes it is because it is a non-profitable and alcohol-free event.
“It is very sad because NORDLEK is a very big event that happens only every 3 years and only once in 12 years in Norway!” – says Karen.
Interestingly enough, while many Norwegians didn’t hear about the festival, some international guests travelled from far to attend. There were some Americans from Texas, Chicago, Washington DC area, Canadians from Toronto and even some members of the Finnish community in Switzerland!
It was a nice surprise for me at the opening ceremony, to run into one folk dancer I knew from the Washington DC area where I came from. Her name is Carol, and she is an active member of the Nordic and Hungarian dance groups in the US. She travelled specifically to attend NORDLEK and was very excited to be part of it!
Norwegian Summer Camp (“Nordisk sommarleir”), organised by the national youth organisation (“Norges Ungdomslag”) took place in Arendal right before the festival. It takes place every year for anybody under 26 years old, and it lasts for around 4 days. The camp includes courses in music, dances and other aspects of the Norwegian culture, like language, arts and crafts. Four members from BUL – Kristiansand attended the camp, including Eiliv Ulvestad Henschien (23 y. o.) and Ulrik Vikestad Thorsen (24 y. o.). The total number of participants was nearly 200 people.
Eiliv and Ulrik joined Bul – Kristiansand in the beginning of 2024 after they heard about the place from a friend.
“I wish I knew about that place earlier! Unfortunately, there were no information available anywhere about such an opportunity, and now I want to help spread the word and attract more young people to this wonderful dance community! I’m thinking of making a stand at UIA about the folk dances in Kristiansand – so more students know about it!” – says Ulrik
“I learned about it from Ulrik, and it certainly made it easier for me to join BUL when I already knew someone from there” – adds Eiliv.
Both Eiliv and Ulrik share very positive thoughts about joining the folk group:
Ulrik: “Dancing is a great social activity to meet new people. And you don’t need to talk much, but you’re being social through dancing. It’s fun to learn and make mistakes together. I think people of our generation are too much involved with the digital world and losing touch with the real connection to others. I find it’s much more giving and rewarding than digital media. And I find Bul-Kristiansand to be a very friendly environment!”
Eiliv: “For me, dancing is a great way to improve my body image and to become better at coordination, while learning a new skill! And it is so much fun! On top of that, dancing can help you to feel more confident with body moves at other social events, like weddings. I didn’t dance before at all, but now I feel more confident on a dance floor!”
Also, Ulrik believes that the main idea behind folk dancing is to socialise:
“Dance is a way to expose yourself to others, expressing yourself. Dancing as a social activity has a meaning. But also, there is no pressure to dance when you come to Bul – you can just come to socialise and feel like a part of a community. It is not a professionalised arena, it’s firstly a place to socialise”.
Eiliv and Ulrik attended Nordisk Sommarleir for the first time, and were very much impressed by everything they were taught there:
Ulrik: “It was fun and challenging in a good way. You could choose courses and we mostly chose dances ”.
Eiliv: “One of the courses I enjoyed was the one about “free dance” for men, and it involves very cool tricks – jumps, swing etc. “Halling” ( or “ Lausdans”)– the term for such tricks, and it came from a certain region. These tricks can be very physically demanding, but interesting for most guys”.
Ulrik: “Yes, this was also my favourite part of folk dancing to learn! I like it a lot because it is
very much physically demanding. It is a very good training for guys! So folk dancing provides lots of variety in terms of difficulty levels. I want other young men to know that folk dancing is not just some couple dances like waltz; you can really show off with some very complicated tricks!”
Eiliv: “They also have that special “hat kicking trick”, it’s called “hallingkast” ( or “rundkast”). It is a very famous trick and they did a whole competition at NORDLEK!
Ulrik: “There was one young American guy – Gavin (he came to visit his Norwegian relatives), who was so good at it, and he took the 2nd place in the hat-kicking competition!”
So, after the Summer Camp, the guys went to the festival and could practice what they had learnt there during the various workshops and free-dancing events. Also, at NORDLEK, they tried to attend as many dance courses as they could. Ulrik really liked to learn about Icelandic mazurka, while Eiliv enjoyed some Finnish dances a lot! And they both loved the chain dances from the Faroe Islands, which included singing alongside dancing.
“Generally, it was very interesting to find similarities between folk traditions in music and dancing among different Nordic countries” – says Ulrik.
Besides learning so many new dances, Eiliv and Ulrik pay special attention to the new connections they’ve made during Summer Camp and NORDLEK.
Eiliv: “We met new friends from other countries that we wouldn’t have met otherwise and exchanged contacts, and we will meet in the future at the various folk festivals. This summer camp was a great bonding environment for like-minded young people!”
Ulrik: “Yes, we are already discussing meeting some of them next year in Iceland – at ISLEK festival”
If you want to try folk dancing or just meet new people here in Kristiansand – please join the Monday classes starting 19 August at the BUL (located across from BARE – student house) from 19h to 21h. Free for anyone under 26 years old!
