Suggested Methods

1. Play the video segment. Ask students to try to define the community. Discuss the daily occupations of the musicians and the role they play in the dance. How does the monthly dance evoke and enact a feeling of community?
   
2. Scandinavians brought their traditional dance music with them when they immigrated to Iowa. Along with polkas, two popular forms of traditional dance music that are still performed today are the schottische and the waltz. Play “Henry Storhoff’s Schottische” and the “Emigrant Waltz” from the CD. Talk about the rhythms of the two songs and students’ impressions of the different styles of music.
   
3. Give each student a handout copy of the English translation of “Emigrant Waltz” and ask them to read it carefully.
   
   Explain that the words are from an old broadside ballad and that the tune is a traditional Norwegian waltz. A ballad is a song that tells a story, and a broadside was an inexpensive way of printing and distributing popular tunes before the introduction of sound recordings. Numerous immigrant communities have the tradition of ballad composition and singing as part of their folklife.
   
4. Lead a discussion on the story and sentiments of the folk song. What does the song tell us about the 19th-century history of Norwegian immigration to the United States and to Iowa? What does it say about America as the land of opportunity?

Student Activity

Have students write a description of an ethnic community celebration in which they have participated. Have them analyze the event in parallel fashion to the depiction of the Highlandville dance. Who are the key participants? What is the community? How do people participate? What historical traditions are referenced by the event? What makes people feel like they belong to a community when it is over?

HIGH SCHOOL ADDITIONS: Ask students to consider a variety of contemporary community celebrations like the Fourth of July, the Iowa State Fair, and the Highlandville dances. What do these have in common, and how are they different? What communities do they evoke, and by what means?

Home/Community Connection

Check the Iowa Folk & Traditional Arts Roster. Invite members of different ethnic communities into the classroom to talk about their various renewal events—occasions that reinforce social roles, beliefs, and values. Try to characterize them. Compare your observations.

Student/Senior Citizen Exchange

Ask elders to describe community celebrations that they remember from their youth. Do these celebrations still occur? If so, how have they changed? How has the community changed?

		Photo
		LESSON 1.7
	Beth Hoven Rotto of Foot-Notes plays the violin. How have Beth and her band learned and preserved the Scandinavian musical tradition?
				PHOTO BY RICK VARGAS