West-Frisian dance group"The Spierdijker Dancers"

Folkloristic Dance group ‘The Spierdijker Dancers’ was founded in April 1976 and at this moment the group consists of around 50 members, including 7 musicians.

The group is named after the little village of Spierdijk, a village some 10 km west of Hoorn and some 40 km north of Amsterdam situated in the heart of an area called West Friesland.

Our group dances in traditional West Frisian costumes, dating from the period 1850 – 1920.

The richer farmers’ classes wore these costumes on special occasions, like a day out during the week or on Sundays going to church. Nowadays the costumes are not in use anymore, but several dance groups in West Friesland keep the tradition alive by wearing and showing the costumes at folkloristic performances.

Our programme includes dances like waltzes, polkas and several traditional farmers’ dances.The group performs at markets, homes for the sick and elderly, for clubs of senior citizens and for foreign (mainly American) tourists on board river cruise ships.

Several tours to other countries have been made. Of course to neighbouring countries like Germany and Belgium, but also to far way countries like Japan, the United States of America and China.