German Folkdancing - Links

dancers

Welcome

The goal of these pages is to provide information and resources related to German Folkdance. These pages grew out of a page I created for a dance series I ran for 5 years in Troy, New York at the Troy Germania Hall. If you have visited here before, I would be very interested in your feedback about the new organization of this site and particularly about the most important component of this site, the information content. Please send me email with your coments.

Links

This is my collection of links on topics related to German folkdancing. I try to make sure that each of these pages contains some useful information on the subject. I am looking for other German Dance Links. If you come across others that would be appropriate for inclusion on this page, please send an email to EBarneySmith@hotmail.com.

Contents:
German folkdancing reference materials
German folkdancing clubs
In USA & Canada
In Germany
In Austria
Elsewhere
German Tracht (costume)
German Traditions
Other topics related to German Folkdance
Online German folkmusic - both traditional and modern
German dance book publishers
German Bands

Back to the folkdancing main page.

Folkdance Reference Materials

The following links are for sites that contains descriptions of dances, online videos or music files, or other reference materials about Germany, Austrian and Swiss folkdancing.

Sites that focus primarily on German, Austrian and Swiss Folkdance
Old On-line Videos of Tanz- und Trachtenfeste
Austrian Folk Dancing - extensive collection of descriptions, MIDI files and some videos, by Mario Herger. A good site with lots of useful informaiton, but it has grown so much to include many non-German/Austrian dances that it is limited by the lack of a good search.
Dancilla.com - basically a mirror of Volkstanz.at
Getanzln.com - Contains lyrics to dance songs and tips on style and how to combine singing and dancing. - part of Mario's site
Volkstanzkreis Freising - descriptions of several folkdances (in German)
Page with sheet music for many Germany folkdances
Sheet music for several folkdances. Also has link to same music in Griffschrift notation.
Gauverband 1. - Description of several common Bavarian folkdances. Some with MP3 music from Gauverband 1.
Der Deutsche Volkstanzverein - A couple of dozen dance descriptions written in English.

These used to be good, but have morphed some and some searching is necessary to get to the good stuff:
Austrian Folk Dancing - Roland Bauer
Austrian Folk Dancing - General info - Rudolf Lidmila

Sites that focus primarily on international folkdance in general, and are not specific to German, Austrian and Swiss folkdancing, so some searching is necessary to get to the good stuff:
California Folkdance Federation - Contains descriptions of folkdances from many lands, including Germany & Austria and Switzerland.
Bob Shapiro Rec-Folk Dancing - At last count it had 2 German dances and 1 Swiss dance, but if those are the ones you are desparately looking for...

A summary of domain names relative to Tracht und Volkstanz - Helmut Zenz
German Music Publishers:
Fidula Verlag
German Book/Music Sales:
Walter Kögler Verlag, Stuttgart. Some of his folkdance books/CDs in his online catalog have links describing all the dances in their contents.
Musikverlag-Edelmann bayerische Blasmusik und alpenländische Volksmusik. Follow link Noten - Tanzlmusik or Warenkorb- Tanzlmusik
Steffi Zachmeiers Frankenseiten Volksmusik Buecher
Dieter Balsies Versand und Verlag, follow Tanzshop - Deutsche Tänze
Bogner Records - Look under "Echte Volksmusik" in their catalog. In addition to nice listening music they sell several Volkstanz CDs.
Harmonika Pauli - for about 4 Euro each you can buy Griffschrift music for many songs. The top 2 lines for each and Mp3 of the first part can be viewed before purchase for free.
Musikverlag Cornelia Schaborak - Order form for Griffschrift sheet music. About 3 euro each. They also have music for stringed instruments. Main page here

Folk dance clubs and series

This is a list of the German folkdance clubs and series (including Schuhplattler clubs) around the world. This is sorted geographically.

In the USA & Canada :
Schuhplattler Verein Alpenklang, Troy, NY (My old Verein)
Hartford Sängerbund Dancers
Alpine Dancers in Maryland/DC.
Donauschwaben club in Los Angeles, California
Donauschwaben club in Cincinnati
Gauverband Nord America Web Page (Parent organization to most NA Schuhplattler vereine.)
     Schuhplattler Vereine of the Gauverband Nord Amerika - List of all member Vereine in the Gauverband, links to their webpages, and brief info.
Washington DC Folk Dance Clubs
Kitchener Schwaben Club (Schwaben dancers & Donau dancers)

In Deutschland (Germany)
Bayern:
I used to keep a listing of all the Gauverb&aunl;nde and Vereine with webpages. Fortunately now most of them have webpages. In Bayern their is a heirarchy of membership of the Vereine. Vereine belong to a Gauverband and Gauverbände belong to the Trachtenverband Bayern e.V. . So to get a listing of Gauverbände, follow this link and then from each Gauverband page you can get a listing of member Vereine. Included below are a few links to sites of Vereine that contain particularly descriptive entries on Tanz and Tracht.

Trachtenverband Bayern e.V. - Umbrella organization to the other Gauverbände in Bayern. They have links to each Gauverband.
1. Gauverband, Bayern Good link to Volkstanz. Music by Sigi Ramstötter. Also good stuff under Wissenswertes.
Isargau, Bayern Good link to Volkstrachten. Their link to Gerbirgstrachten is broken.
GuVTEV "d´Stoabacher" Aschau a. Inn - link describing their Tracht (Gwand)
D' Chiemseer Breitbrunn - nice link describing their Tracht
»Almenrausch-Lindach« Burghausen - link to Schuhplattler musik in MP3.
D' Hartseer Eggstätt - link describing their Tracht
G.T.E.V. Saalachtaler e.V., Freilassing - descriptions and photos of Tract are on separate pages.
Trachtenverein Surtaler Lauter - Their photogallery has nice closeups of their Tracht (no descriptions).
- a good link to Tracht.
Trachtenverein Dießen - good link to Tracht.
Heimat- und Volkstrachtenverein D’Parsberger - link to Tracht.
Heimat- und Volkstrachtenverein Olching e.V. - link describing their Tracht
Heimat- und Trachtenverein Raisting - Sölb e.V. - good link to their Tracht, and some info on dance.
Heimat- und Volkstrachtenverein Starnberg - good link to their Tracht.
Gebirgstracht- Erhaltungsverein "Edelweiß" Endorf e.V. - link describing their Tracht
Vereinigung links der Donau, Bayern
Lechgau Trachtenverband, Bayern
Bayerischer Landesverein für Heimatpflege e.V.
Der Heimat- und Volkstrachtenverein Herrenau - Hallertau, Bayern
Trachten- und Heimatverein „D’ Älpler“ - Immenstadt, Bayern
Volkstanzgruppe Haxenschmeißer München
Moosburger Isartaler - Trachtenverein (Hallertau in Oberbayern)
Der Frasdorfer Trachtenverein d'Lamstoana (Chiemgau)
GTEV D'lustigen Wildenwarter (Chiemgau)
OHV Almrausch Stamm München 1893 e.V.
V.T.V. Almrausch Stamm Regensburg e.V.
Heimat- und Volkstrachtenverein Pirkensee e.V. (Oberpfalz)
Sing- und Spielschar der Böhmerwäldler Ellwangen
Volkstanzkalender - für die Hallertau und Umgebung
Volkstanz Neckartailfingen im Schwäbischen Albverein e.V. - Baden-Wurttenburg
Volkstanz- und Trachtengruppe Sontheim (Schwäbischen Alb)
Volkstanz- und Brauchtumsgruppen im WWW !!!!
Volkstanzgruppe Benthullen-Harbern (NW Germany)
Trachten- und Volkstanzgruppe Kappelrodeck, Freiburg
Schleswig-Holstein e.V. (Deutsche, Internationale und Amerikanische Tänze)
Die Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft FOLK in Schleswig-Holstein
Trachtengruppe des Odenwaldklubs
Trachtengruppe Reichelsheim in the Odenwald (Hesse)
Vellmarer Volkstanzkreis 1984 - Hessen
Folklore-Tanzensemble-Dresden, "Thea Maass"
In Österreich (Austria)
Austrian Folk Dancing - Mario Herger
Volkstanzgruppe der Landjugend Herzogenburg
German Dancing in other places:
Volkstanzgruppe Oberbayern Club Tivoli, Melbourne, Australia.
Folkdance in Switzerland

Tracht

Tracht is the German word for traditional costume. It comes from the verb tragen - to carry or wear. These links lead to pictures & text about German, Austrian & Swiss Tracht. Some of these are just photos of members of German folkdance groups in their Tracht.

History of Costumes By Braun & Schneider - has many pictures of German (& Austrian & Swiss) Tracht from many regions, and many dates
Schaumburger Tracht
Schlesier-Verein Rübezahl Berlin
Schwarzwalder Tracht
Federkielstickerei belts on the Trachtenverband Bayern website
Trachtenvereine in Bayern
Heimat und Volkstrachtenverein Herrenau e.V. Bayern
Bavarian Tracht from La Couturiere Parisienne - A page on traditional costumes (English)
Bairische Tracht from La Couturiere Parisienne - A page on traditional costumes (Deutsch)
Gauverband Nordamerika's section on Gebirgstracht (southern Bavaria)
Das Lederhosen Museum, for everything you ever wanted to know about probably the most identifyable ethnic clothing article in the world!  In English or German.
Mario Herger is expanding his site by adding pictures of Tracht from different regions.
Commercial (Note: Not all the items sold by these vendors are authentic Tracht. Much is modern Mode.)
Germany/Austria /
Trachten-Pöllmann München, supplier of Schuhplattler Tracht in Germany. Has supplied many US and CA Vereine. (website still in development)
Aigner Lederhosen
Performance Parts/SAX TRACHTENSCHUHERZEUGUNG (Haferl- und Trachtenschuhe)
Bavarian Superstore, Germany
Beckert Ledertracht - Lederhosen & Bundhosen, traditional and Mode, includes care tips.
Speith & Wensky - Pretty but Mode
Austria Store (caution - it has nasty pop-ups)
Dirndl-Dress.com - includes some history and information on care of the Dirndl
Bavaria-Lederhosen.com - contains a mix of traditional and Mode lederhosen, dirndls and shoes.
Sternberg Trachtenstube - mostly Mode

USA/Canada /
Haus of Bavaria, stateside supplier of Schuhplattler Tracht in upstate NY
Ernst Licht, stateside supplier of Schuhplattler Tracht in Pennsylvania
Bergenland Trachten, stateside supplier of Schuhplattler Tracht in Kansas

Folkdance General Information

These pages focus on folkdance more generally and not just on German folkdance.
Elisa's collection of links to non-German folkdancing around the world. My interest in dancing lead me to German folkdance and I have also tried other forms of folkdance when I have time and access. In addition to these other forms being an enjoyable way to get out and meet other people and to have the opportunity to dance more often, this has lead to a greater understanding of how the different forms are related and an appreciation for these other cultures. This is not as organized as the list of links on this page as it was created for my personal reference and remains primarily devoted to that goal.

Dance News Groups: (used to be Usenet, now sponsored by Google)
rec.folk-dancing - Folkdances, folkdancers, and folkdancing. This newsgroup has most of its volume focusing on American Contra Dance, but does have posts on non-american ethnic folkdance.
rec.arts.dance
Deja News This site has an archive of newsgroup posts from most newsgroups, including the ones listed above. If your internet service doesn't include newsgroups, you can use this site to gain access to the newsgroups also.

Traditions

These links lead to descriptions about German, Austrian & Swiss traditions.

Fahne (Flags)

Fahnen Kössinger Fahnen renovierung, konservierung, fest- und vereinsbedarf

Other Links sort-of related to German folkdancing:

Back to Elisa's page on German Folkdancing

Created and Maintained by Elisa H. Barney Smith (e barney smith@hotmail.com)

This page is located at: http://www.germandance.org/links.html