Cultural Night in Stockholm 2005

Dance events at Kulturhuset - the Cultural House - in Stockholm are scarce. However some of our most memorable dances have taken place here. This Friday night there was another opportunity, an event with an extensive programme including shows, exhibitions, concerts and dance. And even better, there was no entrance-fee.

We adjusted our time of arrival for a cabaret with parts of the October Theatre's performance "En fika med Ibo 2". We found it amusing, and the house band DangDang was impressing.

After the show they had a pause before the dance, which we used for visiting the library where Shout'n Feel It had a dance show. We could however not see anything of it as our view was blocked by the audience.

After the show we danced some swing in the library to recorded music. One of the melodies was at a high pace, which increased our pulse considerably.

When we turned back to the dance with DangDang, we were thus already warm. The music had started, but only with a listening audience.

Just after we arrived an exciting melody well suited for swing was played, and we got the dance floor for ourselves.

The DangDang band played Turkish disco, Sinatra, Italian hit songs, soul and Swedish pop music. During some of these melodies, we were grateful to take a breather and listen.

This was for us the best part the evening, with memorable music and dance.

At the last dance with DangDang, which was one more swing melody at high pace, there were hand claps from the audience, which we - still alone on the dance floor - did our best to follow and be spurred of. We however felt that our condition was insufficient.

After this we took a break and looked at a very nice photo exhibition "Weltsprache Fussball". We also listened to a string quartet and a trio there.

Club Killers - a Caribbean orchestra - played in the Theatre Bar. The dance floor was quickly filled up with solo dancers and listeners. The music was stirring and good. The small video sequence below is partly from here, partly from the library when Holiday in Harlem played jazz. This was when we passed on our way to the next event - Kvartet Traktor's dance at Café Panorama.

We had read that Kvartet Traktor was playing music inspired by gipsy and East European folk music, and we were eager to take part in that.

It was a pleasant surprise to feel the energy in this music. The dance floor was immediately filled up with dancers. Some danced in a line, but most people were dancing solo. It was obvious that the energy in the music caught the audience. The mostly young dancers expressed themselves by bouncing and jumping. But there was plenty of the most important element of dance - joy and movement to music.

We were surprised to find the only waltz for the evening here. Most of the people on the dance floor tried to dance the waltz as well.

Many thanks to all the arrangers of the Stockholm Cultural Night for this very nice event!