Bavarian dancing at the Hofbräuhaus-Kathreintanz

anybody interested in BAVARIAN DANCING? - lots of fun, I promise - especially the dancing lessons!

Kathreintanz im Hofbräuhaus on Nov 21rst 2009 at 7 pm
Kartenverkauf ab 2.11.09 in der Stadtinformation, Marienplatz (10 Euro)
Platzreservierung für Gruppen ab 10 Personen bei _wernergri@web.de

Dancing lesson/ Tanzkurse zum Kathreintanz im Hofbräuhaus, 2. Stock
Thursday 10/29/09, 11/12/09 and 11/19/09 6.30 pm
Die Kurse sind kostenlos und ohne Voranmeldung!

I would be, actually. I suppose there won't be any Schuhplatteln though?

... oh no, it's not schuhplattln. It's more Polka, Waltz, ...

no a bad idea! is it in english? can you add more details?

Here is a little video from BR Rundfunk on a similar dance course in 2008. In June of this year they were offered again. They were held in a pleasant set of rooms at the Hofbrauehaus, with a live Bavarian band including a harp, and a ceaselessly patient guy who led the dances. Although it is in German, the dances are learned by carefully walking through the steps, and also demonstrated. We will be going to the Kathreiner course too.

Dear me I don't know if the link to the video works--so here it is: http://www.br-online.de/bayerisches-fernsehen/abendschau/volkstanz-tanzkurs-jordan-ID1216309023634.xml

It is attached to a nice article (in German) right here

Shoot, I've already missed the first session -- do you have to attend the first to go to the second or are they all independent of each other? November 12 will be the next one...

Actually, it is not necessary to make a course to do Bavarian Volkstanz. Just find one in any little Dorf and if you can do a bit of waltz and polka, you can have a great time. They always have a Tanzleiter who shows the simple steps for one or two of the dances in a set of three and at least half of the crowd is clueless at the beginning. You fumble around and by the end of the dance you've caught on. There are some funny ones where you change partners for a few bars of a song, which can be intimidating to a novice, but you soon recognize that no one really cares if you're not a dance profi. It's just a fun time for everyone. I've done this off and on over the last 20+ years and it's great. If you don't have Lederhosen and Dirndl, guys should wear a white shirt and black trousers and any Dirndl-like dress for the girls. Do not come in jeans! When you go to one, someone usually passes out notices of the next ones for the upcoming weeks. If you're mobile you can be a Volkstanz junkie and do it Friday and Saturday every week until Lent, when it mostly pauses. Sometimes a local Tanzverein will perform a special show as well. One thing that surprised and impressed me was that even many years ago when smoking was everywhere, the Volkstanzers were almost always non-smokers.

I recommend it highly as good sport and for meeting friendly Bavarians!