Special to the Herald

Norwegian folk dancing is a 50-year tradition in Stoughton, Wis., a village settled by Norwegian immigrants brought to work in the wagon factories in the mid-19th Century. The wagons are gone but the dancing continues.

The Stoughton High School Norwegian Dancers proved that on Sunday, Feb. 18 at the Heyde Center for the Arts in Chippewa Falls.

These were not just folk dancers, they were 22 coordinated coeds, athletes, gymnasts, clowns and vaudevillians, as physically prepared as any amateur team you will see this year. They practice every morning before classes and perform frequently in a variety of locations and competitions. They must memorize 40 dances.

More than that, these students were handsome and beautiful moving in graceful designs, weaving through a series of choreographic mazes that required close observation to follow the large variety of intricate patterns.

Directed and choreographed by Ms. Polly Goepsert, the dancers were introduced and their exquisitely distinctive Norwegian costumes described in detail.

Over a white bodice each of the girls wore a flowing dress with a beautiful pattern indicating a town or province of Norway. The boys wore white shirts over muscled arms, red jackets, black knickers and black athletic shoes required for their jumps, somersaults and circus acts in addition to the dances.

Three talented students provided the music on electric keyboards. Dancing is aerobic exercise but the performers were are fresh at the finale as they were at the beginning. It was the large, appreciative audience that were breathless at the completion of a well polished performance.

Peter Ostroushko

A nod of his head startled a near capacity audience to respectful silence during the medley that opened Peter Ostroushko’s fascinating concert last Friday. Well known to devotees of A Prairie Home Companion which he calls his Alma Mater, Peter played melodies of the American Great Plains, Ireland, France and the Ukraine.

The mandolin looked rather fragile against his great belly as his dexterous fingers responded to the series of neurons and sensitive synapses from his creative brain.

Peter is equally talented with his vintage 1730 violin fitted securely under his generous chin, alternating melodies evoking pictures of dancers and gypsies with either instrument.

“Teelin Bay Waltz,” written in Donnegal, was soft like the mist of a Gaelic morning and lilting as Irish laughter. A colorful French folk tune seemed more reminiscent of flowered costumes of Bohemia than Norman hedgerows or Breton farms.

Lacking a program guide and his voice diminished by a virus, it was not easy to catch the titles of each song. He answered questions in a subtle, slightly sardonic manner but assured us that “Chippewa Falls is a mecca of culture and intelligence” worthy of visiting again on his way to Wausau or Green Bay, if he can find the exit.

But Peter was not a singular attraction.

He was accompanied by a guitar virtuoso Arkadiy Yushin from Minsk in Belarus playing a melodious counterpoint to the mandolin and fiddle. His hand pressed on the guitar, added unusual resonance and vibrato, a creative touch that magnified the music.

Arkan, as he calls himself, the taciturn partner of the dynamic duo, played two exquisite compositions written by himself. One seemed a concerto for guitar and another, equally beautiful, brought the audience to the edge of their seats.

His future is assured. Arkan and Peter acknowledged the applause with a brief and spirited encore. It was an unusual, carefree evening including Peter’s parody of the depression era tune, “Pennies From Heaven.”

Tom Chisholm of Chippewa Falls is a patron of the Heyde Center for the Arts.