Gau-NA -- Let's Go to Brazil this Weekend!

Just before Christmas, Christine Ott came into contact with Julian Ruediger who serves as the vice president of the Middle Itajai Valley Germanic Folkloric Group Association (AFG) (Translated name: Associação dos Grupos Folclóricos Germânicos do Médio Vale do Itajaí). This organization is located in Blumenau, Santa Catarina, Brazil. Founded in 1993 with groups in the region, they currently have 18 Vereine under their umbrella, covering 5 cities. In Southern Brazil alone they estimate over 200 Vereine. Uniquely, the AFG preserves the culture of not only Bavaria, but also Northern Germany, Tyrol, Austria and even the Czech Republic.

Annually, they host a week-long, online event called AFG Tanz+Kurs. With instructors from Germany and Austria, they release one course on YouTube per day, and traditionally end the week with an in-person dance workshop. Due to the current pandemic, all workshops will be online this year. Through chatting and learning about each other’s organizations, Julian invited Gauverband Nordamerika to participate and present one workshop in their event. Their members are very curious about the history of Gau-NA. With that, we are excited to share that Michael Olk will be presenting in the AFG Tanz+Kurs on Friday, January 15. Graciously, the AFG board has offered us the ability to attend the workshops as well!

One video per day will be released, starting on Sunday, January 10^th. We realize this is short notice but we organized this and got information to you as soon as we could given the holidays and the brief time it’s been since we came into contact with one another.

To participate you must register using this link: https://forms.gle/xbZpGXUpf6TTkmDH9. Once registered you will receive an email with information to attend online. All workshops are free to attend except for the workshops on Saturday, January 16 and Sunday, January 17 that have a small fee of somewhere around $6 USD.

Following is the schedule and presenters:

Times are in the Brazilian time zone (UTC-3). Workshops will be available after the scheduled time as well.

Sunday, 10th, 18:00 hours - YouTube
Conversation with Tanz + Kurs instructors from 2015 to 2020
2015: Angela Paulus (Laisa - Hessen), Stefan Hartmann (Haubern- Hessen), Ida Bartenstein (Geldersheim - Bayern), Oliver Brust, (Geldersheim - Bayern)
2016: Franz and Karoline Huber (Sankt Valentin - Niederösterreich)
2017: Johannes Frank (Stuttgart - Baden Württemberg), Maria Rettich (Freising - Bayern)
2018: Sarah and Sönke Thede (Fockbeck - Schleswig Holstein)
2019: Patrick Welther and Reiner Adam (Heilbronn - Baden Württemberg
2020: Hans Röbl and Helga Wagner (Sandl - Oberösterreich)

Monday, the 11th, 18:00 hours - YouTube
Basic steps: Where to begin?
With Roswitha Ziel

Tuesday, 12th, 18:00 hours - YouTube
Folk groups and digital media: How to transform folklore into something digital
With Cláudia Santana and Heloísa Beckhauser
 

Wednesday, 13th, 18:00 hours - YouTube

Jugendbewegung (German Youth Movement): Why does it appear so much in the dance descriptions?
With Erwin Luttmann

Thursday, 14th, 18:00 hours - YouTube
Festivities and Celebrations of German culture
With Claudia Santana and Hélcio Liesenberg

Friday, the 15th, 18:00 hours - Youtube
History of Vereine in North America
With Michael Olk

Saturday and Sunday, 16 and 17, 16:00 hours - Jitsi Meet
Regional dances from Hessen *
With Angela Paulus and Stefan Hartmann
* At the cost of R$ 30

Times are in the Brazilian time zone (UTC-3). Workshops will be available after the scheduled time as well.

If there are any updates to the schedule or new information released to us, we will share that with you on the website and Facebook. Enjoy a look into cultures across Germany and Austria. We hope that this will be the beginning of learning and sharing across our two organizations. For more information about AFG visit: https://www.afgtanz.org.br/w/