JUTTA & THE HI-DUKES

Euro Roots World Music

RESIDENCIES DANCE

Our residency and workshop programs are for all ages and abilities. They are engaging, interactive, audience-pleasing, budget-friendly, educative programs focused on traditional ethnic music and dance. If you don’t see what you are looking for, contact us! Our presentations are very flexible.

Dancing to a Different Drummer (tm)
Explorations of Ethnic and Ballroom dance

Actively increasing awareness of the world and culture through dance

Understanding of the world, society, and history increases when the Hi-Dukes introduce students to the traditional circle and line dances of over twenty cultures, including the Balkan, Gypsy, Greek, Israeli, Scandinavian, Russian, French Canadian, and American traditions.

Physical coordination is enhanced by the co-ordinated, structured, and rhythmic movements of dance and awareness of music is developed as students learn dance steps that change when a musical phrase changes.

Appropriate for the 2nd Grade through College.

After seeing the Hi-Dukes do a four-day music and dance residency at the L.B. Johnson School, Jan Delgado (2012 Music Resource Teacher of the Albuquerque, NM Schools’ Fine Arts Departmen) described the Hi-Dukes program as “amazing” and arranged for the band to do a five-day series of assemblies because she was impressed with the band’s “wholistic methods of teaching” which, as she pointed out, “incorporate so many different intelligences” and because she saw that Albuquerque students benefit from experiencing the incredible scales and rhythms of the Balkan music and dances the band presents. In promoting the program to the schools, she wrote: “They are exceptional folk dance teachers and the band is really good (especially with 7/8 and 9/4 meters!)

Image from a Hi-Dukes Orchestra Residency
Click to learn about all our education programs.

Taught by experienced Dancers and Teachers

For over two decades Jutta Distler and Terran Doehrer have been developing and refining a dynamic method of teaching dance which helps students internalize the rhythms so that the dances quickly come alive.

Doehrer and Distler teach folkdance at Chicago’s Arcturus Waldorf Teacher Training Program and taught ethnic and ballroom dance classes at the Chicago Waldorf School for six years.

The two also present “Ethnorobics,” an all-ages dance program hosted by homeschooling groups, churchs, and private folks.

The two full-time musicians play various traditional ethnic instruments, like the Bulgarian end-blown flute, Greek baglama, Middle-eastern drums, and the world-famous ocarina. Doehrer and Distler are the core duet of Jutta & the Hi-Dukes, an Evanston, IL World Music band founded in 1990 that tours in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The band has a CD released on the Root-Blues record label, Earwig Music.

Our Mission

When young people learn ethnic dances they gain a greater understanding and appreciation of the world in which we live. The Hi-Dukes believe this is essential to civilization. Their goal is to encourage participants from all walks of life to explore the arts of cultures other than their own while they concurrently develop their physical abilities and social skills.

Flexible content focus and program length to fit your schools needs and interests.

Choose between Assemblies, Workshops, Residencies, and many other types of educational programing.

Workshops allow for greater exploration of a subject, and can be focused on specific areas of interest. With a repertoire of about 400 melodies and 50 dances from over twenty cultures, the Hi-Dukes can be very flexible with what can be presented.

A mixture of back-to-back Workshops and Assemblies, Residencies, Community Dances, and Afterschool events are all possible programming options.

Whether your school needs a group that can highlight your International Day activities or needs a program that focuses on a specific culture, we are happy to talk about how a Hi-Dukes presentation will enhance the educational experience of your students.

Flexible and affordable

We fit the bands size to your budget, needs, and interests.

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