Jim Kahan brief dance bio

Hi. I am Jim Kahan. I started dancing at Reed College in 1960, and have been a Johnny Appleseed of dance ever since. I ran the student group at Reed 1961-1964, as well as teaching for the Women's PE Department, and had an Israeli performing group. In Chapel Hill, NC, I started the Chapel Hill International Folk Dance Club, using reel-to-reel tapes of the Reed collection. During a postdoc in Aix-en-Provence, I taught for the CREPS (Centre regionale d'education physique et sociale), learned French dance, and performed in international, French, and Greek groups. Back in the USA, I wound up in Los Angeles for 24 years, where I went from running the UCLA international group to performing with Westwind and my own Israeli group. My interests went through Israeli, Balkan, French, English, Scottish, and Scandinavian (especially Telespringar). I developed a lot of teaching techniques and have become a master teacher (teaching how to teach folk dance). From 1994 to 2005, I lived in the Netherlands, where I did a lot of Dutch, Scottish, and Scandinavian dance. Since 2005, I have come full circle to Portland, OR, where I dance up to 3 times a week and do some leading and teaching.

Hi, Jim! Thanks for joining in. I'd be interested to see a post about what you think keeps the Chapel Hill group going strong for 44 years, in whichever forum you think they belong (Inclusive, Full Service, Performance Level). Also since you've been in performing groups, maybe you can share about what keeps a performance-level group thriving in the Performance Level forum.

Thanks, and welcome!
Sonia

Thanks for signing on, Jim. I danced a few times at UCLA in 1973 and 74, so we might have been in the same room at the same time.

I know a couple of other people who I think passed through Chapel Hill: Ed and Mary Tokas and Shawn Donaldson.

When I finally get enough together to post about how things were back in the 60's and 70's, I hope you'll point out how your memories differ from mine, if they do.

-- Denis