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Friday, December 9, 2011 faugiemerror,coml C No. 10
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Jeanette Rackl/The Mirror
Mathematics professor Tim Sorenson directs youth dancers before the final dress rehearsal for the St. Lucia Festival Dec. 7 at St. Mark's Lutheran Church.
EMBRACING HOLIDAY TRADITION
Professor, wife direct St. Lucia Festival at St. Mark's Lutheran Church
JEANETTE RACKL
jrnrack108@ole.augie.edu
SARA WEINREIS
sjweinreis08@ole.augie.edu
For the past 17 years, math-ematics
professor Tim Soren-son
with his wife Natalie have
helped lead the St. Lucia Festival
at St. Mark's Lutheran Church by
teaching Swedish dance lessons
to youth aging from kindergar-ten
through high school.
The festival celebrates an in-ternational
tradition that origi-nated
in Sweden centuries ago.
The Sorensons have ties to
Sweden. They lived there togeth-er
in 1992 while Tim Sorenson
taught at a university there.
"I have a big belief in our at-tachment
to our ethnic roots:'
Tim Sorenson said.
Tim Sorenson also lived in
Sweden while studying abroad in
1974 and 1979.
"The St. Lucia Festival was the
only pageant we put on in high
school while I was there; being
crowned the St. Lucia was equiv-alent
to being prom queen—a big
deal," Tim said.
St. Lucia Day, officially Dec.
13, involves a maiden in white
I like tradition -
anything that gives
a person a sense of
their place in the
universe.
Tim Sorenson
wearing a crown of burning can-dles
who originally brought food
to starving villagers in Sweden.
St. Mark's celebration also
helps the less fortunate by donat-ing
proceeds to help charities in
the Sioux Falls area. This year,
admission to the celebration is a
donation toward Necessities for
Neighbors.
Ninth grade girls are crowned
St. Lucia as a rite of passage.
While growing up, all three of
the Sorenson's daughters were
crowned.
The dancers in the St. Lu-cia
Festival are divided into two
groups: kindergarten through
third grader is taught by Natalie
Sorenson, while Tim Sorenson
teaches the fourth grade through
twelfth graders.
St. Mark's started the celebra-tion
36 years ago following a visit
from the St. Lucia dancers from
Gustavus Aldophus College, the
Sorenson's alma mater.
Before the Sorensons took
over, Bob and Dagmar Johnson
lead the groups. Tim and Natalie
Sorenson were asked to take over
the direction of the Festival when
Bob Johnson overheard that Tim
Sorenson had a connection with
Swedish heritage and danced the
dances in the Festival when he
was a kid.
See ST. LUCIA , page 9
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