Spring Dance

media release: Come join us for a Spring Dance featuring Musician-in-Residence Beth Hoven Rotto and the Scandinavian American Old-time Dance Music Ensemble!

Mark your calendar for the evening of Monday, April 18, and come dance to old-time tunes played by a mix of community members and UW-Madison students, faculty, and staff under the leadership of Beth Hoven Rotto. Since forming the ensemble in February, Beth has introduced members to selected tunes from the archives at Mills Music Library, some of which may not have been played for live dances in several decades! Ensemble members have been meeting on a weekly basis to learn and practice these tunes and we are looking forward to not only sharing this music with the Madison community, but playing live for dancers.

This event will take place in the Great Hall of Memorial Union on UW-Madison’s campus. Dance instruction led by Decorah, Iowa, residents Liz Rog and Daniel Rotto will begin at 6pm, followed by the main dance featuring the Scandinavian American Old-time Dance Music Ensemble from 6:30-8:30pm. Appetizers will be provided and this event is free and open to the public. We hope to see you there!

This event is sponsored by the Nordic Folklife Project, the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures, the Mead Witter School of Music, the Mills Music Library, the Department of German, Nordic, Slavic+, and the Ethics of Care Initiative.

Fiddler Beth Hoven Rotto from Decorah, Iowa will be based at the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures as a Musician-in-Residence throughout the Spring 2022 semester. Rotto’s residency will include forming and leading a Norwegian American folk music ensemble (which will be open to both UW students and the general public) and working with Scandinavian music collections at the Mills Music Library.

Beth Hoven Rotto began playing the violin in the school string program in Wausau, Wisconsin and continued in orchestra into her college days at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. Sometime in the 1980s she heard and was impressed with a radio program featuring Scandinavian fiddle music on Wisconsin Public Radio’s program “Simply Folk” and began to pursue fiddle workshops at Folklore Village near Dodgeville and elsewhere. In 1988, Beth began an apprenticeship with Bill Sherburne, the fiddler at Highlandville Dances, which she attended in an old two room schoolhouse. She then formed the band, Foot-Notes, and they carry on the tradition of dances there since Bill Sherburne passed away in 1991.

Foot-Notes has played for community events including weddings, anniversaries, graduations, festivals and celebrations of many kinds. The band recorded Decorah Waltz in 1996 when they were invited to the Smithsonian Institutions 1996 Festival of American Folklife in Washington, DC. In 1998, Foot-Notes recorded My Father Was a Fiddler. . . in honor of the Decorah area’s rich heritage of dance music which came from tunes Beth collected from the daughters and granddaughters of some of the early fiddlers. In 2015, Foot-Notes organized The World’s Largest Schottische during Decorah’s Nordic Fest with 1881 registered dancers. For many years Beth taught a medley of Scandinavian tunes to a diverse group of fiddlers for a holiday concert. These musicians have ranged in age from 8-80. Beth has had the opportunity to lead fiddle workshops both on Zoom and in person. Most recently, she chose, researched and arranged music for a concert, Foot-Notes & Friends Play the Music of Johan Arndt Mostad- Lost Tunes from a Norwegian Immigrant’s Notebooks, which is available to watch on the Vesterheim Museum YouTube channel.