Dancing to Rural Rhythms in West Virginia : Summer camp programs teach folklore of diverse cultures ranging from Cajun to eastern European.

Come summer, these hills are alive with sounds of music the Trapp family never imagined.

From late May to early October, weekend cowboys, Cajuns, Scots and other ethnic wannabes flock to this rural town in a mountain valley of northeastern West Virginia, about a two-hour drive west of Washington, D.C., to learn the music, dance and folklore of a plethora of nations. With a week or so of vacation time, you could see the nation’s capital and get a folksy taste of American rural life as well.

The site of the action is Buffalo Gap Camp for the Cultural Arts, a former children’s camp set on 200 lakeside acres just outside town that, since 1984, has attracted singles, couples and families from across the United States. Three-day weekends as well as five- to seven-day sessions are devoted to promoting and preserving the musical heritage of such diverse cultures as Louisiana’s Cajun country, eastern Europe, Scandinavia, England and the American West (as in country and Western). There’s even a weekend of swing-dancing thrown in to keep things, well, swinging.

At camp, steeping oneself in the traditions of the specific ethnic culture is considered almost as important as learning the music and dance. For example, this year at the Yiddish/Klezmer and other Eastern European Music, Dance and Folklore session (July 19-24), participants can study the Yiddish language with experts and dress authentically in folk costume--colorful scarves from Romania, tasseled shawls from the Ukraine and flowery skirts from Poland. Many participants bring their own costumes (some, family heirlooms brought from dusty attics), but the camp maintains a storeroom of ethnic costumery free for the borrowing.

Each year, a special family week offers an extensive program of storytelling, dancing and singing for children ages 3-12. At night, baby-sitters rove among the cabins checking up on the youngsters so that their parents can kick up their heels at the evening dances. Although this year’s special family week has passed, the camp plans another one next year, most likely in July.

The camp is owned and operated by a group of 30 investors, but most of the specific weekends and weeks are run by private dance and cultural organizations who lease the facilities for their own particular ethnic programs. This summer’s upcoming Balkan Music and Dance Workshops Week (July 25-Aug. 2), for example, is being run by the East European Folklife Center of San Jose, a nonprofit educational organization. Groups such as the Folklife Center contract with musicians and instructors, organize the classes and set up supplementary activities such as talks on the history of the culture, slide shows and videotapes.

By most lights, the price couldn’t be more right. Three-day weekends usually cost $175, including all instruction, dances, accommodations and food; weeklong sessions cost up to $435. There are varying discounts for children, depending on the program.

Participation is the byword. While folks at ethnic music festivals elsewhere might content themselves with tapping their toes along with the entertainment, nobody comes to Buffalo Gap just to watch. This is the quintessential learning vacation; you get a heaping dose of instruction, usually to the accompaniment of live music, while meeting other culture-minded people in a joyful atmosphere. And you work up a pretty good sweat while doing it all. Beginners always are welcome, and there are separate classes for novices and experienced dancers.

If you just don’t dance, they won’t ask you. You can opt instead for singing sessions, as well as workshops with folk instruments--rub boards from southern Louisiana during Cajun weekend, kavals (a kind of flute) from the Balkans during the eastern European program. When was the last time you got your hands on a well-tuned gadulka (a small, stringed instrument from Bulgaria)?

As for accommodations, this isn’t the Ritz, folks. Up to 300 “campers” sleep on bunks in rustic six- to 10-person cabins, with modern but communal bathrooms in the cabins (though 22 double rooms are reserved for instructors and staff musicians, with a few available to couples on a first-come, first-served basis). Those who want more privacy often bring a tent and camp out.

Meals are taken at long picnic tables in a big wooden mess hall that adjoins one of the large dance spaces. The food ranges from simple but hearty fare prepared by the permanent camp staff (chicken and rice stews, huge salads, spaghetti, brownies, etc.) to elaborate ethnic specialties served up by cooks brought in by the particular group running that session’s camp. There’s jambalaya and gumbo for Cajun weekend, yogurty lamb and Turkish coffee when the Middle East’s in session. There always are options for vegetarians, and coffee and tea are available all day.

You seldom hear people complaining about the down (way down) home nature of Buffalo Gap Camp, if my weekend of Cajun dancing last summer is any indication.

Women hung flouncy dresses on hangers set on nails hammered into the rough wooden walls; men stored pointy-toed boots, brightly colored suspenders and bandannas in little camper cubby holes, and we all sat up late into the night talking in the dark. Some nights we could hear giggling outside, followed by spates of silence, then more giggling--a sure sign of smooching under the stars.

Getting to Buffalo Gap Camp is half the fun. The route west from Washington took us through some of Virginia’s prettiest horse country. Crossing into West Virginia, we drove through deep green woods, alongside rivers, over little bridges and down country lanes.

Once at the camp, we registered in the big wooden rec room, grabbed out bedding (oh yes, did I forget to mention that you’re supposed to bring your own sheets, sleeping bag, pillow and towels?) and headed for our assigned bunks. The bunks are lit by bare bulbs in the rafters, and while the lack of air conditioning didn’t make for a very cool environment, the open windows and big ceiling fans kept the air moving enough to keep us comfortable.

During my Cajun dance weekend, which was titled “Buffalo on the Bayou,” some 140 Louisiana-lovers from around the country spent Friday through Sunday learning Cajun two-steps and waltzes as well as the more sensual moves of Cajun’s bluesy black cousin, zydeco.

Well-established bands from Louisiana played for the classes (although some beginner sessions used taped music because of the need to constantly stop to practice new steps). Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, regulars on the East Coast club circuit, played traditional Cajun ballads featuring accordion and fiddle, and often sung in the soulful French patois of the region. John Delafose and the Eunice Playboys (no relation to the other band of the same surname) revved up sexy zydeco numbers that set our hips gyrating from the first note.

Every night there was a dance, either on the outdoor pavilion or in the cavernous indoor dance hall, that provided beginners with a chance to practice what they’d learned, and experts an opportunity to show up the beginners.

Most experienced dancers were good sports about stepping out with novices--but not everybody. At the dance the night of my very first day of lessons--ever--I was thrilled when a tall stranger asked me to waltz. “One, two, three, one, two, three,” I said (but really quietly) as we glided around the dance floor, and when the waltz was over, I happily grabbed my partner’s hands for the two-step that was to follow.

“You’re not ready,” he said with a huff, and abruptly abandoned me in the middle of the dance floor to go find a more seasoned sidekick.

My next partner was a woman--but that’s OK, really. No, really. Would-be dancers quickly learn that if you want to learn the steps, you have to dance with anyone. While most men balk at waltzing around in arms as hairy as their own, women tend to take the whole thing in stride--to a point. During a steamy zydeco number (which often resembles sex with your clothes on), I watched one frustrated female commandeer a guy from the arms of a particularly popular woman. “You’ve danced with all the men,” she said to the other woman. “My turn.”

Though it’s always nice to have a steady partner, singles will be happy here. There’s an unwritten rule of etiquette that you only dance two dances in a row with the same person, so there’s a good chance that if you’ve sat out a few numbers because the male-female ratio is off-kilter, you’ll get into the action during the next round. But don’t wait to be asked, ladies. At dance weekends, it’s survival of the most aggressive, and women do as much of the asking as men.

After the evening dance, the in nightcapper is a stint in the co-ed Finnish sauna alongside the lake--clothing optional. Though I demurely sat on the wooden bench in my two-piece bathing suit, plenty of my co-campers felt perfectly at ease wearing nothing but a smile. After sitting around and schmoozing for about half an hour, we all jumped in the lake to cool off.

Though the accent at Buffalo Gap is on cultural activities, there’s plenty of time to just groove on the natural beauty of the setting. The two-acre, spring-fed lake, an easy walk from the bunks and dance centers, comes equipped (at no extra charge) with two diving boards, a water slide, canoes and rowboats, and all but the most ardent students play hooky from a class or two to stroll through the woods, join a game of volleyball or just sprawl on the grass listening to the birds chattering.

The end of the weekend is always bittersweet. Leaving Buffalo Gap is like leaving Brigadoon, the mythical utopia of Broadway musical fame that rose out of the mist every 100 years for just 24 hours, only to vanish for another century. But happily, unlike Brigadoon, this West Virginia haven resurfaces every summer for four magical months. And you’ve only to grab your dancing duds and head for the hills to find it.

GUIDEBOOK

With the Beat at Buffalo Gap

Getting there: Buffalo Gap Camp for the Cultural Arts is just outside Capon Bridge, W. Va., about a two-hour drive west of Washington, D.C., and about 1 1/2 hours from Dulles International Airport in Arlington, Va.

Buffalo Gap Camp particulars: Cultural weekends and weeks are scheduled at Buffalo Gap through Oct. 4. Weekend programs average about $175 (depending on the weekend), and weeklong sessions cost up to $435, both including all instruction and activities, accommodations in dormitory-style cabins and food. There’s a variable discount for children. Following is a breakdown of programs for the rest of the summer:

July 19-24, Yiddish/Klezmer and other Eastern European Music, Dance and Folklore

July 25-Aug. 2, Balkan Music and Dance Workshops Week

Sept. 4-7, Balkan Music and Dance Weekend

Sept. 11-13, Scottish Weekend

Sept. 18-20, Country Dance Weekend (American contra, square dancing and other New England and Southern music styles)

Sept. 25-28, Scandinavian Weekend

Oct. 2-4, Country Western and Cajun Weekend

For more information, contact Buffalo Gap Camp for the Cultural Arts, Capon Bridge, W. Va. 26711, (304) 856-3309. The camp staff can refer you to the organizers of particular ethnic weekends for specific information about the sessions, including whether children are welcome and if weekend-only participation is allowed at longer sessions.

Other music, dance and folklore programs: There are several other notable cultural arts camps with weekend to weeklong programs. Among the most popular:

* Mendocino Dance Weeks: The Bay Area Country Dance Society sponsors several music and dance camps during the summer, set in and around redwood country. For locations and information, write the Bay Area Country Dance Society, P.O. Box 22165, San Francisco 94122, or call (707) 765-6559.

* Pinewoods, c/o Country Dance & Song Society, 17 New South St., Northampton, Mass. 01060, (413) 584-9913. A summer-long program of weekend and weeklong sessions in English and American dance, music and song held at a woodsy lakeside camp in eastern Massachusetts, about an hour south of Boston. At 40 years old, this is the granddaddy of the heritage programs.

* Augusta Heritage Workshops, Davis & Elkins College, 100 Sycamore St., Elkins, W. Va. 262241, (304) 636-1903. Set at the edge of the Monongahela National Forest in eastern West Virginia, Augusta is the largest and most varied U.S. program. Everything from blues guitar to bagpipes, dulcimers, basket-weaving, blacksmithing, and gospel singing, plus a full range of dance, including Cajun, contra, swing and Irish ceilis.

* Ashokan Fiddle & Dance Camp, RD 1, Box 489, West Hurley, N.Y. 12491, (914) 338-2996. Set in a beautiful wooded section of the southern Catskills alongside a tranquil lake. Participants stay in bunks or nearby motels. Special weekend dance programs are offered, with a mix of traditional American and swing-dancing on Halloween and New Year’s.