Join Hands and Dance

St. Olaf College, Northfield MN

Buntrock Commons was the headquarters for our registration, Genealogy events, vendors, food service, and the bulk of our Saturday Lag meetings. Ytterboe Hall was the location of air-conditioned lodging. Northfield's American Legion Ballroom was the off-campus location for our Saturday evening banquet and entertainment program.

Genealogy was located at Buntrock Commons in the ballroom on the third level, with the vendor area located in the hallway leading to the genealogy ballroom. Researchers were able to tour and make use of the extensive collections of the Norwegian-American Heritage Association, which is located at St. Olaf.

Kristi Bergland entertained at the opening session on Friday afternoon. The Dassel Leikarringlag and the Juniorspelemannslag from Bø, Telemark entertained at our Friday evening program, and the Junior Spelemanns performed again on Saturday evening. Verlyn Anderson of Hadeland Lag was the Master of Ceremonies. Norwegian Consul General Thor Johansen attended the Banquet and welcomed guests. (note - he has Telemark "roots" in Dalen and Kviteseid).

About the Bø Juniorspelemannslag:

The three fiddles in the coat of arms of the Bø municipality refer especially to the extensive historic Hardanger fiddle milieu of the community. Its male and female players and fiddle makers are and have been among the foremost in the country for generations. During the past 15 years, the Bø Juniorspelemannslag (Bø junior musicians' organization) has been active in this tradition.

The Bø Juniorspelemannslag has as its goal training children and young people to play the Hardanger fiddle. This has resulted in a close cooperation with the Bø Music School. Class-A musician Johannes Sundsvalen has for the past 10 years been both teacher and music leader of the organization in which can be found two young Class-A musicians, Per Anders Buen Garnaas and Torgeir Straand, who both have won the national competition in Class C (junior). The organization has also won the national competition in Class C.

Young members in Bø accept both challenge and responsibility as present representatives for and performers of the rich local folk music tradition. Members are acquainted with both the traditional arenas for playing the Hardanger fiddle as shown in contests, and also newer and more experimental concert and workshop arenas. Folk music performers of this organization have in recent years been community representatives and have performed excellently at many national occasions, contests, music festivals and talent competitions, and have participated in numerous difficult and prestigious national and international competitions.

There are approximately 20 children and young people who annually receive Hardanger fiddle instruction at the music school in Bø. About half of them perform at a level which allows them to appear in fiddle playing, song and/or dance programs on the national level. Thirteen made the trip to America and performed at the stevne:

Per Anders Buen Garnås (21 yrs.) Torgeir Straand (20 yrs.) Ingebjørg Bø (25 yrs), dancer Inger Marie Slåtta Olsen (25 yrs.), dancer. Margrethe Seljord (22. yrs.), leader of the Bøheringen, fiddler and dancer. These have won the Landskappleiken for lagspel junior (C-class) two years ago.

Gunn Kristin Aasen Leikvoll (14 yrs.) Eline Øye Grave (14 yrs.) Gudrun Straand (14 yrs.)

Eline's grandparents, Helge and Lilli Øye accompanied the group: they won the Landskappleiken for senior dancers in 2000.