Lee Otterholt

Folk Dance Tour of Norway, June 2010.  Contact Jim Gold at jimgold@jimgold.com or see www.jimgold.com

Folk Dance Tour of Greece (Mainland and Crete) with Lee Otterholt and Jim Gold, October 2010.   Contact Jim Gold jimgold@jimgold.com  or see www.jimgold.com/

Folk Dance Tour of Eastern Turkey, October 2011.  We will be traveling to, and meeting folk dancers and folk dance teachers from Istanbul, the Pontic Coast, the Caucasus region, the formerly Armenian areas, and possibly the Kurdish region of Southeastern Turkey.  Contact Jim Gold jimgold@jimgold.com or see www.jimgold.com

Folk Dance Cruise on the Ganges, November 2011.  Contact Lise Shearer at lises@telus.net or contact Lee Otterholt directly at 949 715-9788 or at Leeotterholt@yahoo.com )

In addition, when he is not traveling, Lee teaches a weekly folk dance class every Wednesday evening 5-7 PM at Laguna Woods in the Gymnasium of Clubhouse 1.   (You should call Miram Kahn at 949 770-7026 or 949 680-9946 (cell) to get information about whether or not Lee is teaching that week and to gain access to the gated community where the class is held.)
 

       Lee Otterholt, born in the US of Norwegian-American parents, has lived and worked most of his life in Norway as a professional dancer, dance teacher and choreographer.  In Norway he founded and led the Center for International Folk Dance in Oslo, Norway.  He was a professor of folkloristic dance at the Norwegian National College of Ballet and at the University College of Oslo.  He was responsible for the establishment of 4 still-active folk dance clubs and 3 performing groups in Norway.  He led these groups to festivals all over Europe.   He also produced teaching materials (videos, books and CDs) on folk dance for use in the Norwegian school system.

     Lee has a professional education in choreography and was one of the choreographers of the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway in 1994. 

     Lee’s teaching emphasizes style: dancing well, not just “getting the steps.”  Whenever he can, he also tries to bring improvisation, self-expression and spontaneity back into the folk-dancing traditions where these elements are a central part of the tradition.  And he never loses sight of the fact that we recreational folk dancers dance because it is fun, and because these dances mean something to us – just as they were fun and meant something to the village dancers before us!