Schuhplattler Sean

Welcome to my Schuhplattler Sean page! Below you can follow my adventures in becoming a Schuhplattler. The journey starts at the bottom of this post and continues up with the most current updates right here at the top. In our Next Century Citizenship page we talk about how one becomes a citizen of the next century. The first few items are all about getting to know the history and culture of your family and ancestors. So, just like Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek who goes back to his family's vineyard in France, below you'll find my attempt to stay connected to the history and culture of my ancestors. There's a lot of shoe slapping and jumping so please do enjoy!

27 May 2013
A cool shot from 2013 Northwest Folklife. Thanks to Julie Miller for the photo!

More from 2013 Folklife...


16 May 2013
Schuhplattler shadow...

12 May 2013
My Scifi and Schuhplattler worlds just collided...

11 May 2013
Well, I survived my first full performance at Maifest in Leavenworth, WA. Didn't mess up the Maipole, didn't mess up much at all actually. Whew! Day 1 was SUPER hot so sweat like crazy but Day 2 was really wonderful. No turning back now, I am a performing Schuhplattler. When I compete in the 2013 Gaufest coming up in June, I'll be completely official. Enjoy the photos!















10 May 2013
Starbucks just made this Schuhplattler feel right at home :-)


28 November 2010
My Lederhosen, loferl (half socks), and shoes arrived today. Now we're talking Schuhplattler. Not the fancy trim on the shoes.


27 October 2010
Its my first day of Schuhplattler, aka Bavarian Folk Dancing (also done in Austria, Switzerland, and North Italy). This has been coming for a LONG time. I got started through a friend, Kory Tideman, who plays guitar and button box for Happy Hans, a local Bavarian band. I had hired them to play at my 49th birthday and soon discovered that Kory was also one of the best Hawaiian slack-key guitar players around so invited him to play at our Ballard Luau. Kory mentioned that if I was really serious about this Bavarian stuff, I should start dancing with Enzian Schuhplatter as they were looking for more men. Well, that's what I did and below is my first proof!

That is the first dance set list that I got to try out. Didn't go so well. I did OK on the Family Waltz but everything else was a hot Bavarian mess. I will say that it was fantastic to arrive at the German House and feel right at home. I have a ton of friends in the Hawaiian and local Native community that talk about connecting to ancestors and that's exactly what I felt when I walked into the German House for the first time. Got chicken skin even. And then when we started dancing it was a really wonderful feeling. Schuhplattler goes back in recorded history to 1050 when a Tergernsee Abbey monk described it in a poetic work called Ruodlieb about adventures of a knight from youth to adulthood.