He has founded and/or directed folk dance groups at
Earlham College, Richmond, IN, 1961 63
Maryland Institute of Art, Baltimore MD, 1965 66
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 1966 71
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, 1971 pres.
Clermont College, Batavia, OH, 1976 79
He initiated and conducted a program of dance therapy at the
Shepard Pratt Institute, Baltimore, MD, 1969 71
He has taught numerous Folk Dance Workshops, including:
Blue Star Folk Dance Camp, Hendersonville, NC
Reed College, Portland, OR
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Ken Spear's Folk Dancers, New York City, NY
Louisville Folk Dancers, Louisville, KY
Midfest, Middleton, OH
He founded and directed the following Folk Dance Performance groups:
Johns Hopkins International Folk Dancers, 1967 1970
Winners of First Prize, Fels Point Festival,
Baltimore, MD, 1968
Johns Hopkins Israeli Folk Dancers, 1967 1970
UC International Folk Dancers Performance Group, 1973 1976
David Fankhauser is an award winning teacher, recipient of the University of Cincinnati's highest honor for excellence in teaching, the Dolly Cohen Award, in 1989. He has also twice received University of Cincinnati Clermont College's Excellence in Teaching Award, an honor conferred through student ballot.
His style of teaching folk dances is especially effective for beginner dancers because of several factors:
1. His enthusiasm as a dancer and teacher is infectious, and transmits the joy of dancing effectively.
2. He introduces the rhythmics of dance through clapping exercises and simple step patterns which are immediately enjoyable to novice and advanced dancers alike. 3. He breaks down complex dances into easily learned short patterns of steps. These patterns are practiced slowly until mastered, then transitions between patterns are presented, followed by the entire dance slowed down sufficiently to allow beginners the satisfaction of performing the complete dance.
He has found that the following structure is most effective for an evening of folk dancing with dancers of a wide range of experience and dance skills:
A typical evening's program begins with an hour of teaching, starting with easy dances which can be mastered even by newcomers. The dances presented become progressively more challenging. The last dance taught (usually the fourth of the teaching hour) is intended to be challenging to all. Following the hour of teaching, request dancing is done, intermixed with reviews of dances taught during the previous weeks.
Programming of request dances is consciously blended in three ways: 1) dances are done with a range of difficulty, so that a beginner can dance at least every third dance, 2) the nationalities of the dances played are as varied as possible, and 3) dances played reflect requests of attending dancers.
Beginners are crucial to the vitality of any dance group, and are warmly welcomed into the group, with special care taken to help them with the dances.
Folk dancing is a unique type of social activity for several reasons. It involves us personally with a wide variety of cultures, music and movements of peoples from around the world. The music ranges from beautifully exotic to powerfully driving. Even strange and dissonant folk tunes become old friends. We learn about the personalities of nations through performing their dances. The variety of formations of the dances further promotes social interaction within the group: some are danced in a line or circle and do not require partners. These are therefore equally open to all dancers whether they arrive singly, or in couples. Many of the couple dances are "mixers" in which one changes partners with each time through the steps. New persons at folk dancing may therefore be integrated rapidly into the group.
The physical activity of folk dancing is an excellent form of cardiovascular conditioning. While some dances are slow and relaxing, others are aerobic to say the least. It is an outstanding (an enjoyable) means of improving or maintaining one's physical fitness.
David Fankhauser's academic history:
He has been teaching in the fields of Biology and Chemistry at the University of Cincinnati Clermont College since 1973. He is currently (1991) a tenured Associate Professor.
He has just returned from a year's sabbatical in Italy where he conducted research at the Medical School at the University of Naples (1990 91).
2 December 1991
Dances for the Pig Town Fling. 3/21/92:
Many of you may have come Folk Dancing upon occasion, admired many of the dances, but felt that you needed an introductory course to these intriguing international dances. That is the purpose of this workshop. The selected dances are among the most popular over the past 30 years, and represent the "Hit Parade of Folk Dancing". None of are particularly difficult. David Fankhauser is well known for his enthusiastic teaching style which makes learning part of the fun of dancing, even for the novice. (Not all of these dances will be taught, but the dances presented will be selected according to specific requests from the workshop participants.)