Weavers’ Dance: Mt. Angel children continue 20-year O’fest tradition

By Jan Jackson

Sometimes a great idea just comes to the right people at the right time. That’s how Mt. Angel’s Webentanz (weavers’ dance) – also known as the May pole dance – got started.

When Mary Grant came up with the idea and ran it by the others, it seemed like a good one. They tried it, it worked and this Oktoberfest will mark the dance’s 20th anniversary as part of the festival.

“One day I talked with Mary and she said she had an idea for something and wanted to talk to some of us about it,” Marilyn Hall said.

“Mary also talked to Teresa Bryant and Nann Fleck and we met at Mary’s house to see what was going on. Mary thought it would be fun to have the children dance the May pole dance at Oktoberfest. Since Nann was from Woodburn and had some May pole dance experience, she agreed to go to the school and teach the kids how to do it.

“Don Fleck made the pole and Nan found some seamstresses to work on the streamers. We didn’t have many costumes that first year but we did pull off the dance. We are still doing it.”

Oregon’s oldest Oktoberfest began in 1966 as a traditional harvest festival and the four-day festival today draws more than 300,000 people from all over the world.

Jerry Lauzon, long-time director and current public relations director, considers the May pole dancers to be worth their weight in gold.

“These dancers are the most photographed element at Oktoberfest and get more kids in the media than anything we have,” Lauzon said.

“Sometimes we have as many as 85 kids, we have mothers dancing with daughters and it has been going on long enough that we even have people on the Oktoberfest board of directors who danced the May pole when they were children.

“Back a couple of years ago, I was talking to a German school teacher visiting Oktoberfest. As we were watching the May pole dance she asked me ‘How do you do this? We cannot get German school children to wear folk costumes any more. All they want to wear are blue jeans and tank tops.’ I responded that here in Mt. Angel we make this an exciting adventure for the children. We make it fun.”

The Mt. Angel school children have continued to perform the German Webentanz for 20 years but the women, including polka teacher Bev Fleckstein who joined them one year later, are still going strong.

They had small children when they started and now they have grandchildren dancing in the event.

“When one child grows out of their costume, we just keep passing it down to the younger ones,” Hall said.

“We have about 180 in our collection plus shoes and head wreaths and we keep our eyes out for costumes on eBay, Goodwill and any other place something we could use might show up. People are also good about donating costumes. One gentlemen from Independence came to see if we wanted a dirndl, a blouse, a pair of lederhosen and two boiled wool jackets that his father had purchased when he was stationed in Germany during the Berlin airlift. These garments are over 50 years old and they are beautiful.

“One of the good things for everybody is that there are no auditions and any child who wants to dance can.

“Though we work on the costumes year round, we only have three weeks of rehearsals starting three weeks before Oktoberfest. They practice two times the first week, three times the next two weeks, then it’s the dress rehearsal and they’re on. Both the boys and girls come in all shapes, sizes and levels of ability and we don’t worry that the kids aren’t polished dancers.

“We just try and get everybody dressed and shod either in their own costumes or borrowed ones in time for the celebration.”