People

Here are (in alphabetical order) some of the people behind the Frankfurt Scottish Country Dance Club:

David Callender

Dave has a vital role as »flower maid«, organiser of locations for our annual Pre-Christmas Get-Together and »keeper of the key« for the location of our annual ball — and generally a trustworthy soul to help at demonstrations and wherever help is necessary.

Indra Heinz and Tobias Hünger

We consider ourselves fortunate that Indra and Tobias found us a few years ago — both make themselves useful whenever it is necessary. Besides, Tobias is by now pretty much indispensable as our video editor for ball and dance recordings. We are also keen to find out how he will keep up as a participant in the teacher programme!

Gerd Jörger

Gerd is, so to speak, the »primal rock« of the group and has been dancing with us since the group was founded more than 40 years ago — although, with one single exception, never at balls or demonstrations. He invariably rides his bicycle to class, whatever the weather, and will almost always wear shorts. A former civil servant at the Frankfurt motorway office, he is a passionate folk dancer. He joined the Frankfurter Tanzkreis in about 1955 while still at school, and at the time had occasion to experience Franz Palm and Franziska Völker as teachers.

Thomas Kakolewski

As »court photographer«, analogue or digital, at balls and lessons, spontaneously or »by request«, Thomas occupies an important role. He is an example of the many »prey Frankfurters«, dancers who came to Frankfurt for various reasons and (frequently) stayed on.

Ulrike Köppler

Ulrike is another active club member of very long standing, was part of the team at many demonstrations and, being an RSCDS-certified teacher, is in charge of the Darmstadt SCD group on Monday nights. In Frankfurt she helps out when necessary, still comes along to demonstrations and other gigs, and is the happier if not only Anselm joins her group on Mondays (which, however, he manages only irregularly) but also various other Frankfurt dancers prop up the numbers in Darmstadt.

Anselm Lingnau (anselm@strathspey.org)

Anselm is one of the current teachers of the Club. In the Scottish scene, he is also active as a pianist, deviser of dances and composer of music, and he operates the Strathspey Server, a Web site full of information on Scottish country dancing. Anselm holds the RSCDS Teacher's Certificate (St. Andrews 1st fortnight class of 2000) and the Scroll of Honour (awarded also in 2000).

Hans-Georg »Schorsch« Lusky

Schorsch is one of those trusty souls that the Club could not do without. He's the liaison person with the »Frankfurter Tanzkreis«, Lord Keeper Of The Gymnasium Keys, strict enforcer of the membership dues and driver of the official CD player, not to forget substitute teacher for emergencies ... and lots more. It's a miracle that he occasionally finds time to actually dance!

Hannelore Mansky

As former »secretary«, official point of contact for the RSCDS, she's been another trusty soul. Hannelore has been in charge of all administration and - most importantly - of organizing the annual ball, with invitations, entrance fee collecting and, and, and ... for 20 years and has handed those jobs over to Eva in 2003. Unfortunately, recently she hasn't been able to join us as much as we should like ...

Sabine Meier-Ude

Sabine has been living quite far away for several years now, but she still turns up once a month and makes herself useful on and off stage, e.g., by brokering demonstrations, managing the production and shipping of the anniversary t-shirts and so on.

Liesl Otterbein

Liesl has been with the FSCDS almost since its inception (since June, 1963), and from 1964 she was part of the demonstration team which at the time met on Fridays, which says a lot about her talent as a dancer! She never tires mentioning how grateful she is to her husband for making this possible. In spite of some health issues, she is still closely tied to the Club, even though regrettably we tend to see her very rarely on dance nights.

Eva Schiedrum

The post of »social director« seems to have come to Eva by default. She makes sure that the club doesn't consist of just dancing - our »alternative evenings« during the school holidays as well as outings to concerts, museums and other »extracurricular« events are announced by her on the e-mail list as well as frequently (co-)organized. In addition to this she helps maintain the club's Web pages and has succeeded Hannelore as the group's secretary, taking over the administrative chores and, most importantly, the management of the annual Spring Ball including invitations, money collecting et cetera ... with some help from other members of the group.

Marie Schwarz and Matthias Lang

What would we do without our always-reliable, eager helpers, who without much ado get busy to do whatever needs to be done! Even when Matthias couldn't dance for a long time, he accompanied Marie to the dancing on Tuesdays — the way back to Mayence on public transport was so much nicer as a couple. And he has so far done very well as an active membe of the FSCDS dance teacher programme!

Dagmar Suhm

Dagmar is the second main teacher of the club as well as one of the most experienced dancers. She is very active in the German SCD scene and holds the RSCDS Teacher's Certificate (St. Andrews class of 2004).

Of course there are lots and lots of other helpful people besides those listed here who can be relied on to take care of things when necessary - for example the »flower maids« of both sexes who organize the table and hall decorations for the ball, or many others who jump in with little ado if things need to be done. All in all we are a fairly informal bunch with very little »Vereinsmeierei« (which we all aren't too keen on).