The Lehigh Valley Folk Dance Society
The LVFDS came into being in late October of 2006. For many years we -- Tess and Maurizio Mondello -- had been lamenting the lack of international folk dancing opportunities in the Lehigh Valley. We had thought of starting our own group, but we had to solve the practical problem of organizing our folkdance music first. Like most of the folk dance groups we knew, we thought of using our old collection of records and tapes that had been acquired over many years. The advent of the digital music age changed all that for us. In the autumn of 2006 we were able to convert our collection of folk dance music to MP3 format, and so the LVFDS was born. We started dancing with a handful of intrepid beginners, and our group has been growing ever since.
Tess and Maurizio Mondello
Tess has been folk dancing since the mid 1970's, when she got her start learning American folk dances in Girl Scouts in Indianapolis, IN. Through college and graduate school she folk danced in Chicago, IL; Rehovot, Israel; Fort Collins, CO; Urbana, IL; and Cincinnati, OH. Maurizio started folk dancing when he came to the U.S. from Italy in the mid-1980's to study physics at the University of Illinois. He has folk danced in Urbana, IL; Cincinnati, OH; and New York City. Maurizio is also an avid contra dancer. Over the years, Tess and Maurizio have attended numerous folk dance workshops taught by many of the great dance teachers of the international folk dance community. They continue to learn new dances at every opportunity.
The mission of the Lehigh Valley Folk Dance Society is to share the joy of international folk dancing with dancers of all ages and abilities. Our group is open to anyone who wants to dance. We strive to teach the dances accurately, to preserve the styling, and to convey the cultural significance of the dances whenever possible, but our main objective is to have fun dancing. Folk dancing is above all a social and recreational activity, and we seek to create a welcoming and light-hearted atmosphere.