The story takes place in Salzburg, Austria. Dad has been there and says it’s the most beautiful city in the world. Hmm, maybe we’ll use the magic suitcase for a trip!

One of the scenes from the movie and the play shows an old Austrian folk dance called the Ländler. Those two dots above the ‘a’ mean you say it sort of like “layned-ler.” The dots are called an umlaut.

Anyway, the dance is pretty short so I wanted to see more of it and find out more about it. Videos of the dance are easy to find. What I learned was the Ländler is a dance that no one is sure how old it is, but a lot of famous composers wrote Ländler music, including Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach. Dancing became very popular in Austria in the 1800’s and the Ländler was part of it. There are some other related dances: the Steyrischer and the Schuhplattler. Check it out with your parents!

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