A Contra Dance for Thanksgiving

Our thanksgiving feast is fast approaching as we wrap up our second to last week at Sólheimar. We have projects and presentations layered for a continual stream of work, but as each completed work falls to the background, plans for our final celebration gain momentum and evoke excitement. Next Wednesday, less than 7 days away, will be the culmination of our very last project, and albeit hard to conceptualize, our last real day in Sólheimar.

               Included in the plans for this celebration are: a repeat reenactment of selected Egil's saga skits, a brief history of Thanksgiving (potentially in story form), a day of cooking enough food for 100+ people, and, what I want to talk about, the possibility of a contra performance! I say possibility because with all of the things we have left to do, there is no guarantee at this point that we'll pull it together, but in my personal opinion it is entirely doable...so I'm 87% sure it's going to happen.

               Contra dance is a form of line dancing evolved from traditional English country dance. As Americans began to develop their own traditions diverging from the original folk cultures brought with Europeans, contra dance was created in the rural communities of Appalachia. Though its origins are in interactions between seldom seen neighbors, as a social event that engaged everyone during a time when people lived far apart, contra still brings people together in cities and small towns across the U.S. Generally, Contras are line dances, that involve one pattern repeated to progress couples up or down the line. Most of the dancing happens in a set of four, with one couple being you and your partner, and the other being your "neighbors" – who will change throughout the dance as the progression happens. It is quite a sight when a whole room of dancers are moving together in one complex pattern, interacting with everyone for a brief moment of the rotation. Because of this intermingling, where dancers are constantly changing neighbors, dancing with their partners for only a fraction of the time, contra is a very community oriented dance. It is whimsical and creative, mentally engaging, and also provides the opportunity for individuals to add personal touches as they develop more skill. You don't go to a contra with a partner, nor do you only dance with people you know; partners switch between dances, and strangers of both sexes initiate a request to dance with any other person in the room. In this way, dancing a contra is dancing with the whole community, it brings people together to enjoy themselves.

               The contra we are hosting here is a bit different, unfortunately not the whole community will be involved – it is more of a contra sampler. A demonstration of a traditional folk dance from the U.S., that, in line with the community premise of Thanksgiving, involves a group of people collaborating in an artistic way. Everyone seems to be excited about dancing, and even a couple of the interns will be joining us for the performance! The three dances I'm thinking of trying are Lady Luck, Cure for the Claps, and Through the Looking Glass. Hopefully after trying them there will be a dance that everyone likes the best for our Thanksgiving show, as we will perform just one.

Lady Luck
A1: Circle Rt. 3/4 (8), Ladies allemande L 1x while men orbit counterclockwise 1/2 to meet their neighbor (8)
A2: Neighbor balance and swing
B1: Men allemande L 1 & 1/2 to their partner (8), partners swing (8)
B2: Long lines forward and back (8), Circle L 3/4 (6), men roll away ladies with a half sashay (2) (to face new neighbors)

Cure for the Claps
A1: Balance, petronella (8), partner swing (8)
A2: Balance, petronella (8), neighbor swing (8)
B1: Down the hall in lines of four & turn alone (8), down the hall to bend the line (8)
B2: Circle L 1x (8), balance, California twirl (8)

Through the Looking Glass
A1: Circle L 3/4 & pass through up & down (8), new neighbors swing (8)
A2: Men pass L to start a 1/2 hey (8), men allemande L 1 & 1/2 (8)
B1: Men keep L hands, pick up your partner & start a promenade across, butterfly whirl to face in (8), ladies pass right to start a 1/2 hey (8)
B2: Partners balance and swing (16)

Update: A contra dance is definitively part of the Thanksgiving feast schedule! For anyone who understood the contra notes above, we will be dancing Lady Luck to a song by Perpetual e-Motion.

Laura

Digging in the Dirt

             Way back in October our class went to spend the night at a turf house and then help to build turf walls the next day. This was an incredible experience and we really got an inside look into what Icelandic life used to be like, and how this old style of building is slowly dying out, this is the last privately owned turf house in the country. Spending the night sleeping in one of these structures was also a hugely rewarding experience and got me thinking a little about how we live to day, and what I feel I would really need in a house, and what are extras.

The farm from a distance
Photo credit: Christina Donovan

             I particularly enjoyed seeing both the historical aspect of how Icelanders used to live, and also how this can be incorporated with modern architecture techniques to make spaces that are more livable to most modern people, while still incorporating traditional building styles. Turf architecture might not be the most efficient at insulating a house, but it does a really good job based purely on the sheer quantity of dirt that is incorporated in the architecture. I was truly amazed and how warm the turf house stayed at night even with single pane windows and a really inefficient stove. I loved this, because it reminded me of how you can get by with a simple dwelling and have your needs met and be happy. 

Our host Hannes looking contemplative
 in the house he grew up in
Photo credit: Jordan Frazin

              If I lived in a turf house there would be some modifications that I would make to the interior design, mainly adding a hot water heater, but you don’t need much to be happy, especially if you’re not living with ten other people. This reminded me a lot of the backcountry skiing course that I was the teacher’s assistant for last winter where we stayed in yurts for 15 out of 19 days, and while they were definitely rustic, even with minimal insulation you could keep them warm with a fire on the cold winter nights due to small size, also having not private rooms made for a strong sense of being included because you could not go hide in your room. I really like the idea of incorporating these ideas with some more modern techniques to provide the kind of house that I would be both comfortable living in, but would not be excessive. By modern building I mean that I would put good windows in and better insulation in the roof so that it would retain heat better.

             I’m not saying that these rural housing situations are perfect for everyone, but with increased incorporation of these it seems like we could connect people to their roots better and also make their houses more efficient at the same time, which seems good to me. I find this a challenging topic though for me because I want to live simply and don’t plan on having a TV in my house ever, but also don’t want to simplify at the risk of losing information that could be valuable to my efforts of being sustainable. For this reason I will most likely have internet in my house which I think is good because it has so much information at your fingertips that can give you ideas about how to do things better or connect you with other people that are doing similar things and might be good resources. It is a dangerous tool though because it has the ability to suck time like nothing else; both because there is so much good information, but also so much junk that is designed with no intention other than to waste time. So this is what I struggle with, how connected do I want to be.  This will become even more challenging to distinguish as technology becomes more advanced and reaches more and more into every aspect of our lives.

Working on the new Turf House museum. Building a wall and some steps.
Photo credit: Lily Alverson

Dusty Reed

Geo-Thermal Power Station

Our trip to the Geo-thermal power plant between Selfoss and Reykjavik. I found the whole experience one that was both very helpful in terms of telling me how the system worked both on how they move the heat and electricity to the surrounding areas and in terms of how the whole system of how they get the heat and power from the earth and how they deal with the waste materials that get brought up in the process. Whenever we go to a big power station or governmental or cooperation headquarters I try and be as open-minded as I can while still trying to take in the information in a way that lets me take the people word as truth but not making myself out to be naive, since some time I feel that the group is a little harsher to the cooperation’s and the power stations rather than coming into the field with an open-mind not to say that that is a bad thing because it does allow some questions to be asked that might not be normally asked.  Another thing that I found to be amazing was the way in which they were able to get their information about how they operate and what they produce across thru the use of more interactive technologies and effective use of videos to get the message across. I thought that it was a great way to learn especially for me because I tend to use more technologies in my learning process because of my learning difficulties that it was very effective because it allowed me to do my primary learning using the computers and the videos but if I had any questions that couldn’t be answered by the screens then I was still able to ask the guide. This compares differently to the hydro-power plant and that tour because on that one we were guide by a person and it didn’t allow me to get a great understanding about the issues and the workings of the plant because the information that was given to me by the guide was stuff that didn’t really allow me to wonder about it was more or less just facts or ideas that I couldn’t ask about or at least I couldn’t ask about. So I feel that the use of these technologies in conjunction with hands-on work is a great step forward in terms of trying to get the message across of trying to be sustainable across to the population mostly the youth, I feel that this combination is one that could greatly improve the effectiveness of the “green” movement because it plays off of the strengths of the modern world which is the ability to present information to people in a way in which people can understand it and the use of hands on work in the field trying to get first hand experiences on trying to become sustainable is one that I feel will greatly improve the movement. I also think that is good because I feel like most people in the movement try and shy away from new tech and tend to bash on it (but I do agree that tech needs to be lessened in the importance’s of a person’s day this meaning that people need to stop worrying about having the best tech and the newest tech and focus more on trying to reconnect to themselves and each other) however, tech is a great part of the modern world and it is very much a huge part in the average person’s life so I feel by trying to use this tech to try and improve the effectiveness of the green movement is a much needed step in getting people to take action. 
By. John Charles Grunde

Cheapest in the World

November 10, 2011 – I wish I had known about the Dreamland video when I was researching Iceland last year for my Sustainable Development class. This film has so many answers about Iceland’s relationship to clean energy and to the expensive, wasteful industry that the rest of the world relies on Iceland for. I have never really formed an opinion about hydroelectric power. I guess I have always thought it was a step above fossil fueled power because it does not pollute into the air, but I know that its environmental impacts on natural aquatic ecosystems are just as bad as some of the problems that coal fired power plants cause to ecosystems elsewhere. I guess that leaves hydroelectric power somewhere in the middle of the scale of quality for energy sources in my mind. 

            I was really surprised to learn from Kristín Vala that we would need 21 Earths for the whole world to live the way Iceland does, compared to 6 or 7 for the US, simply because of how much pollution comes from the aluminum smelters - the industry that hoards most of Iceland’s hydroelectric power because it is the “cheapest in the world.” For now, I think we are lucky that Iceland’s energy is so cheap because it is better that all this aluminum smelting is done using electricity that comes from a moderately clean source, as opposed to some cheap coal fired power plant in China. But that doesn’t change the fact that the aluminum production itself releases an excessive amount of sulfur and hydrogen sulfide into the atmosphere that residents of Reykjavik and other areas in Iceland have recently started to get concerned about. It was a bit of a relief to hear that Andri Snaer’s book raised Icelanders’ interest in environmentalism. 

            If I lived in Iceland, this is definitely something that would motivate me to join a group and try to prevent the construction of any future dams and hydroelectric plants. Since I do not live in Iceland, it is not something I can easily get involved in, even though I have new found strong feelings against the future construction of hydroelectric plants. They not only send their energy to a terrible industry that produces essentially more waste than actual product, but they are ruining some of the world’s oldest and most amazing geographic features. I thought the photographer featured in Dreamland was incredibly brave to publicly display the images of places in Iceland that ALCOA was planning on destroying, and gaining the support of people who had no idea what was going on or what those places looked like. It is crazy to me that some of those people can make claims that it is not possible to emotionally connect to a place you have never seen in person. And that may be true, but that does not mean people should not want to protect it just because they have never actually been there. It was also crazy to me how they filmed a panorama view of a waterfall ALCOA plans on exploiting, trying to describe it as ugly and not special. I suppose they didn’t choose a cloudy gray day during the dreary winter season to film that shot on purpose? Hopefully Iceland’s environmental movement will grow and prosper to rise above ALCOA and the hydroelectric industry, and protect all of the remaining beautiful water sources and landscapes that would otherwise be destroyed. 

-Lily Alverson

Journal Entry

11 October 2011

          Today I went for a walk. When I first set out, there was little purpose to the walk; my work glazing figurines in the ceramic workshop had been very calming and soothing, and I was simply looking to draw out the feeling of mindfulness. As I walked up the gravel road, I began noticing the simple, archetypal changes that are signs of fall. I had grabbed my camera before I walked out the door, and decided to focus this walk on observing and doing my best to capture the little autumnal indications in my surroundings.

          The lupins by the geothermal pump were still thriving, despite the chillness of the air that became increasingly apparent as I walked on.  I have become more conscious of lupins as a non-native species in Iceland; yet it seems that there are few catastrophic side effects from this introduction of a foreign plant.  Instead, the lupins provided an unassuming, natural contrast with the faded red pump house—verdant and lush for now.

          As I moved on towards the cliffs overlooking Sólheimar, I encountered a patch of ice directly in my path.  The magnitude of the seasonal change struck me at this moment; this pool of ice hadn’t melted during the day, despite the abundant sunshine.  There was a distinctive nip in the air that made my fingertips tingle every time I shed my mittens to take another photo.  Fall seems to have hit us all of a sudden.  This swift arrival is intriguing, like watching the world in fast-forward... at least relative to my perception of a normal seasonal time-scale.

          Next I encountered the pitiful remains of our once-bountiful blueberry patch.  I was delighted to find a few blueberries still hanging on in shriveled defiance.  When I touched the berries, they immediately covered my fingers in a sugary bloodbath.  It looked as though I had pricked my finger and droplets of blood were beading on my skin; instead of my blood, however, it was the final death-throes of the blueberries.  I snapped a quick shot of my juice-covered fingers.  The simple naïveté of a peace sign seemed fitting in the company of these innocent blueberries, still sweet even as the creeping cold and frost brought them to ruin, one by one.

As I looked out over the village, I realized:

I am a part of Sólheimar, and Sólheimar is a part of me.

          Nose running and fingers beginning to itch from the cold, I turned back.  In contrast to the icy pools I met on my walk up the cliffs, this time my eyes were drawn to the sprigs of grass taking cheerful shelter near a rock.  The ruthless advance of winter had not yet wrought its fury on these delicate flora.  As it glowed in the light of the setting sun, the grass whispered to me of the waiting warmth and comfort of Brekkukot.  Closing my lens cap and turning off my camera, I hastened back home.  The comfort that met me there was as the grass had promised: friends gathered in the kitchen knitting and chatting, with the savory scent of onions in the air.  Here was home, community, security.  Yet I was immensely glad to have found another definition of home, community, and security simply by being alone in nature.

Tracy Mandel

handicraft + color

the museum visits in eyrarbakki,
a town by the coast with only 500 inhabitants,
was a reminder of what i am going to back home
and how i want to go about reconsidering my approach on design.

there is something to be said of the handicraft and essence of that time period in comparison to the development of minimalism and simplicity, how i was essentially 'educated' in regards to design.

i do not necessarily want to imitate the feel because those aesthetics have a place in history,
but more along the lines of bringing in subtleties and accents as part of the whole picture;
appreciating its forms, colors, textures, tangibility, and overall essence;
repurposing what once was into relevance for the current state of design;
understanding its historical context and what it meant to be specialized;
grasping a more holistic picture on preconceived concepts;
finding a balance between mainstream and alternative.

following are some examples
of quality pieces i thought to take note of:

and also, just a side note
being here in iceland has sparked a desire to do color studies
both from landscapes and housing.

Wrapping Up...

The last 11 weeks in Iceland have been a fascinating experience. We initially arrived in september as total strangers, unsure of what to expect. After meeting the group in the Boston airport, we shipped off to a far away country to become roommates. The first few days were spent adjusting to the time difference and familiarizing ourselves with Sólheimar, but I distinctly remember the nervous atmosphere. I also remember Karin stating something along the lines of "by the end of the trip, our interactions will be completely different than now." Not surprisingly, she was correct in this assessment. Although I adjusted to the group setting more quickly than I expected, I have continued to learn more about the group as time has passed and am closer with these people than many of my friends at home. Now, with one week left, I am finally coming to the realization that I must leave this place behind soon. This saddens me of course, but I do not intend to let the lessons I have learned and friends I have gained in Iceland. I will stay in contact with the group, and am looking forward to hearing about the extraordinary events awaiting each of us in the future. I am also looking forward to any potential reunions in the not-so-distant future.

As I go through my day-to-day life back at school and home, I will be constantly reminded of my semester in Sólheimar. Eating at the dining halls with friends will remind me of our daily lunches as a group, walking to class will cause me to think of our hikes, and cooking dinner for myself will seem like a small task compared to cooking for twelve. On the bright side, I feel very fortunate to have such great experiences to associate my daily activities with.

I look forward to returning home as well. The time has come to utilize the skills and information I have gained, and I could not be more excited to have the opportunity to positively influence my friends and family. Within our respective communities, each of us will surely be seen as a possessor of valuable knowledge regarding sustainability issues. I'm excited for each of us, and cannot wait to fulfill that role personally. As I conclude this blog entry and continue my own reflection, I realize that this semester has effected me more deeply than I could have ever hoped for, and for this I am extremely grateful. 

Bless bless,

Jordan