Beginning in 1953, the Stoughton Norwegian Dancers have been entertaining the young and old alike through traditional Norwegian dance.
In the spring of 1953 there was a Physical Education Demonstration scheduled for the public in Stoughton. A month before the big event, Ms. Reek, a phy ed teacher for the district, selected six junior girls and told them to find six boys for a folk dance group that would go public for the upcoming Phy Ed demonstration. The group was accompanied by a single accordian player. And so the dancers began. They performed two dances before a packed gymnasium, a schottische and the Reinlendar. Their second and final performance that school year was at the second annual Syttende Mai program following the Sunday parade. That event was held in front of the side bleachers on the athletic field at the old high school. Immediately the next fall, 3 more couples were added to the group. The Dancers were in high demand almost from the very beginning. In 1960 the group went on tour for the first time outside the midwest when they performed at the National Folk Festival in Washington D.C.. Ms. Reek had exhausted all sources of information in the United States and so in 1964 she spent a summer in Oslo at the International Summer School and researched Norwegian dance and costumes. Thus in 1964-65 more dances were added to the group including today's signature dance, the Norwegian Halling. The Norwegian Dancers continued to grow in popularity and demand and continued to make themselves more and more authentic with costuming from Norway. In 1971 Jeanne and Kay Seamonson traveled to Norway to learn more dances there but then also traveled to Sweden, Denmark and Finland to increase the Dancers' repertoire to include all of Scandinavia. Contacts in the Folk Dance world were made thru that trip which enabled the Dancers to tour to Norway for the first time in 1972. Performances were held in Bergen and Oslo.
Jeanne Reek retired as director of the Dancers in June of 1999 after 46 years of dedicating her life to this group. The Dancers were then aptly led by Polly Goepfert for the next 12 years. When Polly retired in June of 2011, Staci Heimsoth became the current director.
The Norwegian Dancers have performed all across the United States, Canada, British Columbia and have made four tours to Norway.
The Norwegian Dancers endeavor to entertain, culturally enlighten and instruct audiences with respect to traditional Scandinavian folk dance and authentic Norwegian bunads (costumes).
The book, "Folk Dance and Lore of Norway" by Jeanne Reek, Kay Seamonson and Shirley Ralph, published in 1971.
