History

The folkdancing group Lindwurm "Dragon" comes from Klagenfurt, the capital of the district Carinthia, which is situated in the south of Austria and is bordering on Italy and Slovenia. The dragon is the symbol of Klagenfurt. The group was founded in 1953. Actually there are about 35 dancers and 5 musicians between 18 and 35 years who are engaged in the protection and preservation of our cultural heritage, above all in folkdancing, folkmusic and "Schuhplatteln" in their leisure.

Our dances are offered by couples, the "Schuhplattler" by our boys; they show traditional austrian cultural values and are more than 100 years old. Most of them got their names from the village where they were written down. The dances contain different forms of tact as polka or waltz and show figures in rapid succession which are danced from couples in a circle. We are dancing for example different courting-dances, dexterity-dances, wedding-dances, guild-dances of the workmen as the miner-dance and special fellow-dances, called "Schuhplattler" where the boys slap on their thighs and on the soles. The boys are going to court for the favour of a girl by demonstrating their skill and fitness. A very popular "Schuhplattler" is the wood-chopper dance. It's music is known nearly all over the world.

A special characteristic of austrian dances is the clapping of the hands and the stamping of the feet. These are signs of high spirit, happiness and pleasure.

Especially in summer we have many performances for our guests all over Austria as well as abroad. In the last years we participated in International Folk-festivals in

and we made tours to Russia, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Italy and different european countries. We always had big success due to our entertaining dances and properly "Schuhplattler".