Whether you study world (folk) dance with Robin Osborne in the college setting, or on a workshop basis, her classes are fun, stimulating and educational. Learning dances from other times and cultures, opens a window into the lives and customs of people outside of our ken. Ms. Osborne’s method of teaching, not only gives the dancers the knowledge of the dances themselves, but also, the physicality and understanding of how their bodies are moving in space, as an individual, as well as in a group, with others.

She stresses floor patterns, body alignment and an awareness of the body traveling in space (locomotor skills and axial movements.) She opens the dancer to the joy of moving with a partner, or in a larger group, as a community of bodies.

Here are some of the dances in her repertoire:

The English Country Waltz from the British Isles (a couples mixer)

Formation:  Couples in a circle, men on the inside of the circle, facing each other,

right hands joined.

Style:  3/4 with a moderate tempo; graceful, social mixer

Basic Steps: Waltz (balance,) triplet, turn

Polka Zu Drien from Germany (a lively threesome circle dance)

Formation: groups of three, holding hands, facing counter clockwise;

evenly spaced, as though forming the spokes of a bicycle wheel

Style:  4/4 with a moderately fast temp; group social dance

Basic Steps: Polka with added hops (accompanied by heel/toe action, right hand star and left hand star

Troika from Russia (a spirited threesome with a traveling dancer)

Formation: groups of three facing counter clockwise (middle person will travel,)                              holding hands at  shoulder level; shape of a bicycle wheel

Style:  4/4 with a fast tempo; evoking the image of three horses pulling a sleigh through the frozen tundra; very spirited and athletic

Basic Steps: Kicking leap with stright leg thrust forward, weaving action and run

Eide Ratas from Estonia (a couples dance with many turns)

Formation: couples in a semi open position, men on the inside, facing

counter clockwise; traveling in a circle formation

Style: 3/4 with a moderately fast tempo; sometimes called “spinning wheel” with

many turns, while counter balancing partner’s weight

Basic Steps: Mazurka, turns, balance, and run

Road to the Isle from Scotland (a couples marching dance to bag pipes)

Formation: couples, facing counter clockwise in Varsovienne position

Style: 4/4 with moderate tempo. as though marching to a bag pipe band

Basic Steps: grapevine and schottische

Oklahoma Mixer from the USA (a typical relaxed Southwestern couples dance sometimes known as a “cowboy schottische”)

Formation: couples in a circle, facing counterclockwise, in the Varsovienne position

Style: sometimes called a “cowboy schotticshe”) there is a strolling quality with a bit of a swagger in the typical Southwest relaxed style

Basic Steps: walk, two step and heel/toe action that leads woman into clockwise walk to new partner and man in grapevine outward from circcle

Virginia Reel from the USA (an American country dance with roots in the English dance “Sir Roger de Coverly”)

Formation: a “longways dance” with couples facing each other, men on the left, about four paces apart from each other; four to six couples is best

Style: 4/4 with moderately fast tempo; lively

Basic Steps: Walk, bow and curtsey, right and left elbow turn, clockwise turn, holding hands, do-si-do, the reel, “sashay” and bridge/promenade

Oh, Susanna! from the USA (an American dance, set to the song by Stephen Foster)

Formation: couples in a circle, facing inward with men on the left

Style: similar to the Virginia Reel

Basic Steps: walk, bow and curtsey, grand right and left, and promenade

La Raspa from Mexico (a fun, couples “novelty dance”)
Formation: Couples, either in a circle, facing each other, men on inside; or randomly spaced

Style: 4/4 time; moderately fast tempo; lively, the scraping of the heel of the foot comes from the title, “La Raspa, which means to scratch or scrape; social dance with no deep folkloric roots; not to be confused with the more complicated “Mexican Hat Dance”

Oh, Johnny, Oh! from USA (a typical American Square Dance)

Seven Jumps from Denmark (a playful circle dance with a “game like” quality)

Miserlou from USA after the Greek dance “Kritikos” (a broken circle of dancers with little fingers linked, slow and haunting in quality)

Nebesko Kolo and Seljancica Kolo from Yugoslavia (fast paced circle dances)

Tarantella from Naples, Italy (a passionate, fiery couples dance with lots of sparks)

Mayim from Israel (sometimes called a “rain dance” this circle dance creates a sense of solidarity and community)

“It is my belief that if we all danced together on a regular basis, we would be a much happier society. There is nothing that can replace the human touch or the smiles that erupt when we gingerly step on each others toes.” Robin Osborne