Dance to the Music of the World!

Leslie Hyll

Hi, my name is Leslie and welcome to my page!

Well, it's about the dance of the people of the world, the common folk.

Every day people who are not professional dancers have dances that are their own, that are a part of their own culture. These are "folk dances." They are done when we are happy, sad, as ritual, and as socialization. We do them at weddings or on Saturday night. Every culture has them. In the USA those dances may be squares or contras, in England they may be country dances, in Bulgaria they may be kolos, in Africa they may be ritual dances. But they are all done by the common people.

This is why I have chosen Geocities Heartland to set up my pages. Dancing is an activity of celebration for families young and old in which to participate. This is not about stage shows by state run companies of professional dancers. My goal is to provide information and links about international folk dance (when people get together to explore the folk dance of many countries) and ethnic dance (specific to a given ethnic group). I hope you enjoy your visit and are encouraged to get involved in the dances of your folk! 

Stuff about Leslie Hyll (self-indulgent propaganda)

• Leslie is a folk dancer and a dance leader. Folk Dancing is a great way to learn about other cultures. Here is Leslie's Folk Dance Resume
• I collect Dance Quotes about many genres of dance.
• Dance Etiquette for International Folk Dancing, but applicable to many forms of social dance.
• To support my dance habit, I work as software engineer for Northrop Grumman in Dayton, Ohio.
• I'm also interested in folk costumes, needlework, dolls, and, oh yeah, my sweetie bunny.
• My father, Lou Hyll, is also a long-time dance leader. Here are the directions for a mixer he wrote, Phrase Craze
• I recently found a book of poems written by my Great Aunt. You can read them here.
• Here's an old listing of things on my iPod. My husband is constantly adding more.

Dance Club pages maintained by Leslie

• Miami Valley Folk Dancers - International Folk Dancing for fun & exercise
• Bagatelle - French folk dance group directed by Leslie
• Community Dance of Yellow Springs - American Contra & English Country Dance

Leslie's Dance Links:

• International Folk Dancing in Dayton and Ohio - includes groups in Dayton, Columbus, and Cincinnati, and other groups in Ohio.
• Ethnic and International Folk Dance Links - non-Ohio links to ethnic groups, international folk dance groups, but generally not contras (since other pages do that so well)
• Balkan Links - I've pulled the Balkan links out separately
• French Links - I've pulled the French links out, too
• Zivio! - preserving the dance culture of the former Yugoslavia
• What is . . . Dance? - here I have pulled together desciptions of various forms of dance, some on my page and some links.

Folk Costume Resources on the Web

Silly Stuff

• Quote of the Day - with tutorial on how to create your own dynamic quote of the day
• Shakespearean Insult Generator - with tutorial on how to create your own insult generator
• Square Dancing Llamas
• Naked Dancing Llama- cheap advice
• It was very, very late one night. My sister had sent me links for Hampster Dance and Sure to make you Dance which led to Fishy Dance, which led to Cow Dance, which led to the Animated Dancing Pages Web Ring, and the links just won't stop. Please help, I want to get off!

Credits