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Teaching and Planning Committee

THE NORDIC DANCERS’ teachers collectively bring to the group decades of diverse dance experience. For some, this experience includes growing up and dancing in Nordic communities. All the teachers have participated in numerous dance courses and workshops with teachers from the Nordic countries. In addition their enthusiasm for the dances and the accompanying folk traditions strengthens their commitment to keep learning and expanding their own skills and repertoire.

The director of the Nordic Dancers is Chris Kalke and her assistant is Anja Chase. The teaching committee also includes Linda Brooks and Carol Carnahan. Lars Johanson serves as a consulting teacher. Collectively these teachers bring to the group decades of dance experience. This experience includes growing up and dancing in Nordic communities and/or participating in dance courses and workshops with teachers from the Nordic countries. In addition their enthusiasm for the dances and the accompanying folk traditions strengthens their commitment to keep learning and expanding their own skills and repertoire.

Chris Kalke

Chris grew up in Michigan and began dancing as a child with her parents and their friends in the Scandinavian community to the music of the late Per Bengtsson, Erik Nilsson, the hardanger fiddle player Ingvald Orheim, and other local musicians. She danced with the original Hoijakat (now called Nordic Heritage Dancers) of Detroit and Windsor and was one of their teachers. She joined the Nordic Dancers in 1980 and is also a fiddler with Skandal and Washington’s Spelmanslag. Chris has conducted dance workshops in various locations on the east coast and in the Midwest. She earned her silver medal in Swedish polska dancing in 2010.

Linda Brooks

Linda started doing Scandinavian couple dances during her high school years in California and continued participating in the Scandinavian dance community there until moving to the DC area in 1983. In 1985 she, together with Ross Schipper, founded Scandia DC, a recreational group focusing on couple dances from Norway and Sweden. She and Ross are the primary teachers for that group and have performed and taught at numerous venues including the Kennedy Center Millenium stage. They both have earned their Big Silver medals in Swedish polska dancing and have studied and researched dances in both Norway and Sweden.

Anja Chase

Anja Chase grew up in New York City and has been dancing since childhood, learning from her parents and their friends. She learned and performed folk dances as a member of the Finnish Women's Gymnastic Association of New York. She joined the Nordic Dancers in 1982. She has also attended numerous training courses with instructors from Finland as well as workshops with teachers from the other Nordic countries. Anja assists the director with performance planning and organizational details.

Lars Johanson

Lars began dancing in 1955 and danced to the music of the late Walter Eriksson and other Scandinavian musicians at social dances and participated in children's dance groups and adult dance groups in the New York City area before coming to this area. He joined the Nordic Dancers in 1975 and served as director from 1977 to 1995. He was one of the organizers of the Nordic Dancers' participation in the Nordlek Festivals. Lars earned his silver medal in Swedish polska dancing in 2010. He has also participated as an accordionist in the Washington’s Spelmanslag, a group of musicians playing Swedish folk music.

Carol Carnahan

Carol started Scandinavian couple dancing in the 1980s. She soon joined the Nordic Dancers of Washington, DC, and then in the 1990 began attending Scandia DC. She has attended dance camps across the US and the Nordic countries, has participated in the Nordlek folk dance and music festival since 2006, and earned her Big Silver medal in Swedish polska dancing in 2017. She is also a fiddler with the Washington Spelmanslag.

Paul Carlson

(on sabbatical)

Paul got his start playing classical violin when he was four years old. After college, he became interested in folk fiddling while living in North Carolina. He studied for several years with Jason Cade, a nationally known Irish fiddler and fiddle teacher. This experience made him become interested in Swedish fiddle music, the kind of tunes his grandmother played on the same fiddle that Paul plays today. Paul played for many years with the North Carolina Triangle Spelmanslag with Bart Brashers, the former President of the American Nyckelharpa Association. After moving to Washington, DC, he has played with the Nordic music group Skandal and the Washington Spelmanslag. In 2009 he won travel grants from the Finlandia Foundation and the American Scandinavian Association to attend and perform at the Nordlek and Kaustinen Folk Music Festivals in Finland. Since his return, he has been the full-time fiddle player for the Nordic Dancers. In 2013 he performed at the Kennedy Center as part of the Nordic Cool festival. Paul teaches violin full-time in his Classical Fiddle studio in Arlington.

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