Welcome Yule! Music, Dancing and Revels.

Joy. My tickets for the Revels have arrived so today I would like to share Cari Ferraro's post titled "Why I Revel". Here is an excerpt:

True magic can happen in a darkened theater, and Revels knows how to enchant. Whether it be the Abbots Bromley horn dance, a 900-year-old mummer's dance performed on a twilit stage with six antlered dancers and four other strange characters, or dancing out of the theater with audience and cast at the end of every first act to The Lord of the Dance, year after year in a joyful celebration, I am always moved.

Enjoy.

Sia

Related Posts:

Yule & Solstice Links

Lord of the Dance

Yule Recipes from Iceland

Art: from the Portland Revels
which is featuring music and dance from the Scandinavian countries. Different companies choose different themes. Here is a list of performances to be found in the U.S.


Notes from the Portland site:
Moon wanders its silent way...only Tomte is awake.

This midwinter the Christmas Revels follows the North star to the land of Kalevala, of Nordic gods and Julebukking, ofkantele, nyckelharpe, and hardingfele, in a happy celebrationof the solstice. Audiences will enjoy songs from Norway,Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, including carols new to many ears yet sounding familiar. Among the choral works will be Paul Hillier’s arrangement of “Personent Hodie” from Finland’s "Piae Cantiones," an arrangement of the advent carol “Folkefrelsar, till oss com” (Saviour of the Nations Come) by Linn Andrea Fuglseth of Norway’s Trio Medieval vocal ensemble, and Edvard Grieg’s stunning setting of “Ave Maris Stella”. This show will feature a number of individual performers. The Karelian Folk Music Ensemble—Igor Arkhipov, Sasha Bykadorov, and Arto Kalinkina—will bring their Finnish repertoire of songs and instrumental music, and international artist Loretta Kelley will be featured on the hardanger fiddle, joined by Portland Revels’ own fiddling master, Betsy Branch. Karin Brennesvik, with dance partners Eivind Bakken and Ola Narverud, from Oslo, will strengthen the large dance component of the show and Portland’s own..