ORANGE CITY, Iowa | While a typical member of the Pride of the Dutchmen marching band can wear out his or her wooden shoes in one performance season, the same doesn't go for Kris McDonald, a Volksdansparen coach.
"I just wore through the wooden shoes I got in 1991," says McDonald, who coaches the Volksdansparen group with husband Todd McDonald.
Volksdansparen is Dutch for street dancers. The McDonalds organize the adult street dancers who entertain hundreds each day as part of the Orange City Tulip Festival's Straatfest.
Practice sessions each year begin in early April. The once-per-week sessions culminate on the third weekend of May when the Dutch dancers complete two sets of three dances during the Straatfest, a festival occupying a couple of city streets near the Sioux County Courthouse in downtown Orange City.
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"We ask our dancers to wear their wooden shoes for at least one practice or two prior to the festival," Kris McDonald says. "They need to get their feet ready, especially the new people who are just starting."
There is a step in one of the six dances, after all, that calls for a quick movement, a movement that can cause dancers to fall if they're not yet accustomed to the grip -- or lack thereof -- of the wooden shoes.
Each of the six dances has meaning, although some of it has been lost in translation through the years. According to McDonald, the first dance captures of the essence of rejection. A young man shows up at a young woman's door and is told to "get away from my door. Good evening."
The next dance is McDonald's favorite, the "Smiet ue Wife," also known as "Throw the Woman." The dance involves a lively came of "catch" among partners.
"The men will throw their partner to the person across from them," McDonald says. "And hopefully, the partner catches them. And then you dance with that person for a while and then get thrown back. It's the most aerobic dance we do."
When not throwing or being thrown in that dance, the adult dancers approach the audience and get spectators clapping and laughing.
Thirty to 40 couples are often involved with the Volksdansparen, according to McDonald, who began her own dancing tradition by performing with a similar group at the Tulip Festival in Pella, Iowa, during her time as a student at Central College.
The Maurice, Iowa, native began attending the Orange City Tulip Festival as a child. She has now seen her own children involved, as daughter Emily McDonald, a senior at MOC-FV High School (who is headed to Central, like Mom and Dad) is a member of the queen's court.
"We go to Pella sometimes to watch their dancers," says Kris McDonald, a Spanish instructor at Northwestern College. "They'll do some different steps, even though the music is the same."
The music in Orange City is live, always live. It comes from an accordion played by Dan Landegent of Orange City.
"Dan is really good at changing the pace, slowing it down if we don't keep the pace," McDonald says. "He reads what we're doing and adjusts."
The same adjustment, one hopes, can be made by a man who catches the woman in the "Throw the Woman" crowd favorite!
"Nobody is judging you on this," McDonald assures. "It's really all fun. As long as you're having fun, people who are watching can see that you are having fun."
