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| 007, lisence to dance!! |
Hi Everyone!!
We are a bit late, but hey, better late than never. As some of you guys who visited Finland may remember, we had our big ”Oldies dances” on the 18th of February! We were so exited, and it really was just as fun as we thought it would be, so now we are going to tell you some thing about it :)
The Oldies Dance Tradition
The Oldies Dance (Wanhojen tanssit in finnish) is an event, where the second-year-students celebrate the fact that the third year students have finished their schoolwork and the second-year-students are the oldest in school now. The Oldies Dance can be considered as the finnish version of the prom dance, but as this more traditional and festive event.
The Oldies Dances has been celebrated all way from 1930s, but those times it was not as big event as nowadays. From 1950s oldies dances were celebrated all over Finland and the nature of the party was slighty different from today's Oldie's Dance. The Oldie's Dance was far more unformal from the beginning to 80s, where most student would just dress up in their grandparents old clothes and fool around the whole day. The Actual dances are a pretty new tradition, for example in Oulu only 25 years old.
The dances that are danced, are usually some pair dances, like the walz of the state of Wien and salon dances, like Pompadour.
The Oldies Dances has been celebrated all way from 1930s, but those times it was not as big event as nowadays. From 1950s oldies dances were celebrated all over Finland and the nature of the party was slighty different from today's Oldie's Dance. The Oldie's Dance was far more unformal from the beginning to 80s, where most student would just dress up in their grandparents old clothes and fool around the whole day. The Actual dances are a pretty new tradition, for example in Oulu only 25 years old.
The dances that are danced, are usually some pair dances, like the walz of the state of Wien and salon dances, like Pompadour.
Dresscode
You may have some questions about the clothes that we wear on the day… Well, it can be a bit difficult: At the oldies dances, males mostly use a suit, a tuxido, a morning dress or a full coat. normally they are rented, but if one wants, they can also buy it and maybe use it again. (especially in our school, where there are more girls than boys, and most of the guys dance 2 or 3 times)
You may have some questions about the clothes that we wear on the day… Well, it can be a bit difficult: At the oldies dances, males mostly use a suit, a tuxido, a morning dress or a full coat. normally they are rented, but if one wants, they can also buy it and maybe use it again. (especially in our school, where there are more girls than boys, and most of the guys dance 2 or 3 times)
As can be guessed, the girls dresscode is more varying than boys. For girls the Oldies Day is the Princess
Day (of course not forgetting your wedding day). We get to spend years and years dreaming of our dress. At the actual dances you will be able to see real ball gowns, elegant gala dresses and historical dresses on the ladys. As a rule, the dresses are really, really fancy. Some of the students also wear the finnish national costume, but that is very rare, since they aren’t so stylish nowadays.
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| Dance at the sports house :) |
The Oldies Day
The Oldies day is held every year in the middle of February on a Friday. Before the big day, the second-year-students have practised the dances for approximately two or three months, for us who are in Lyseo. The preparations for the dances start in December for most of us as so: we have 75minute dancing lessons three times a week, for about 8 weeks, and on the last week before the dances we may train for 4 hours in a row some days. This year we learned 8 dances, which combined with all the fancy speaking in the actual preformance, lasted about an hour: once at the sportshouse and the other time with all the schools of Oulu.
The Oldies day is held every year in the middle of February on a Friday. Before the big day, the second-year-students have practised the dances for approximately two or three months, for us who are in Lyseo. The preparations for the dances start in December for most of us as so: we have 75minute dancing lessons three times a week, for about 8 weeks, and on the last week before the dances we may train for 4 hours in a row some days. This year we learned 8 dances, which combined with all the fancy speaking in the actual preformance, lasted about an hour: once at the sportshouse and the other time with all the schools of Oulu.
For girls, the Oldies Day usually starts very early with the hairdresser and make-up. Some of the girls have to (get to :D) wake up even at three o'clock, and head for a hairdresser or beauty salon, where their hair is made and make up applied. After the beaty salons there is mostly photografing at the school (starting after 7): of course we want as many photos as possible to remind us of our unforgettable day :)
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| Dance at Ouluhalli :) |
After these things, the actual dances can begin. In Lyseo, our school, we danced first for parents, teachers and other guests at a sportshall nearby. After the first dance we headed back to school for lunch. After lunch we were entertained by the freshmen of Lyseo. The tradition is that the freshmen will organize a Oldies Gala, where the old are given some.. hmm.. entertaining missions = we just fool around and have fun :)
After both of the dances we had an elegant reastaurant dinner, where we (of course) still had our fabulous dresses on. After the dinner the programm was much more easy-going. We went home and took off our formal clothes, and changed into a more relaxed party-mode ;) In the end of the whole day we had a disco where we partied in a more modern way, and as a sort of thank you for our hard work :) The memories are fantastic, and totally worth it!!
Greetings from the snowy, but sunny Finland!
Anna and Jossu :)
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