Folkdans

Take your partner by the hand and get ready to join the hoedown with this guide to square dancing, a fun and traditional way for friends, neighbours and families of all ages to keep fit and relax. First published in 1949, American Square Dances Of...

Läs mer »

In Greece, folk dancing can boast a longer and less interrupted descent than in any other country. If we look at the ancient vase-paintings and bas-reliefs, we find that the poise, the steps and motions are very similar to those in use today. The ...

Läs mer »

The Finnish national epic, Kalevala, tells how Kyllikki makes her lover Lemminkainen promise that he will never go to war again; but he makes a condition himself: But thyself on oath must pledge thee, Not to wander to the village, Whether for the ...

Läs mer »

'A circle whose centre is the devil himself, and whose participants are dancing towards eternal death.' Thus did a medieval Danish priest describe the Ring Dance, and readers of Hans Andersen will recognise this priestly puritanism in the tale of ...

Läs mer »

A new book of dances is always a delight, and this book is set to inspire the dancer, the caller and the teacher of social dances. There are new dances, well-known dances, and dances that Greig does differently in this book and thus it is an adven...

Läs mer »

Maria Fay's third and final book covers the evolution of her approach to teaching character dance to classical ballet dancers. First written some years ago, but never published until now, it includes an entertaining narrative account, together wit...

Läs mer »

This volume celebrates the significant resurgence of interest in the anthropology of music and dance in recent decades. Traversing a range of fascinating topics,from the reassessment of historical figures such as Katherine Dunham and John Blacking...

Läs mer »

The traditional dances of Merrie England, that once earned us the name of 'the dancing English', were all but lost under the soot and grime of the Industrial Revolution. Only the devoted labours and patient research of Cecil Sharp saved them from ...

Läs mer »

From medieval times, despite the frowns of the Church, the Hungarian peasant has been an irrepressible, natural dancer. Country weddings, pig-killings, funerals, recruiting drives, all had their traditional dances, and there was even a specia...

Läs mer »

The lakes and pine forests of Sweden are a natural setting for peasant arts and crafts, and these, particularly the Swedish folk dances, are justly famous wherever such things are loved and appreciated. There is something for everyone in thes...

Läs mer »

This book gives a fascinating account of Switzerland's rich heritage of dance and song - a heritage to which all the four races of the Swiss have contributed their varying shares. The clog dances of the Alpine cowherds and their well-known yodelli...

Läs mer »

Though France is, above all, the land of civilised sophistication, the old popular traditions still live on in the countryside. In their folk dances, as in their music and costume, the different regions present a rich variety. This book ...

Läs mer »

To any lover of the dance the exotic rhythms of the Portuguese folk dances must have an irresistible fascination. Mrs. Armstrong, who has lived in Portugal for many years and made a special study of Portuguese dancing, gives in this book a de...

Läs mer »

Throughout Bulgaria at a variety of occasions, festive, religious, or social, the people will gather to join in their national Horo, a gay dance with countless variations of music and step, in a circular or chain formation for any number of dancer...

Läs mer »

Descendants of the Vikings, children of Norse legend born beneath the grey twilight of the midnight sun, the people of Norway live in a country of fjords, mountains, lakes and forests, their background here wild and terrible, there still and brood...

Läs mer »

Down the birch-lined roads of the Black Forest the peasant families, all in regional dress, gather for the dancing of the Schwarzwalder Bauerntanz. This and three other famous German dances are here described in detail with the music and danc...

Läs mer »

Poland, birthplace of Polonaise and Mazurka, possesses a passionate love of music and dancing which has survived the ravages of many foreign invaders, from Genghis Khan and his dreaded Tartars down to more recent oppressions. There are many and va...

Läs mer »

On the Eve of May Day, one of the great Celtic feasts, the people, moving in lines, were wont to urge their cattle between two fires that they might be purified and preserved during the coming year. And since nothing dies harder than traditio...

Läs mer »

After five hundred years, the influence of the Moors can still be seen in Southern Spain. In the arts and crafts, in many Spanish faces the imprint of the dark invader still shows. And above all in the dance: the famous back-bends, ...

Läs mer »

'There are other dances in Aragon,' says the author of this delightful book, 'but when the province is mentioned every Spaniard I have ever met preens himself and remarks, "Ah! La Jota".' There are indeed other dances. Mrs. Armstrong, a ...

Läs mer »

After a beribboned cock has been presented to the Mayor of certain Walloon towns the hapless bird is decapitated and the people dance around it - a strange, ritual ceremony, its analogue known also in the Pyrenees and in Spain. This and many ...

Läs mer »

"Congress is dancing" said the Prince de Ligne of the Congress of Vienna, and in 1814, when he made his famous quip, dancing was already part and parcel of Austrian life. After 1918, when Austria as a nation found herself again, the old peasant da...

Läs mer »

The great variety of folk dances found in Yugoslavia is the result of various factors, the peoples having lived under many different and social conditions. South and East were mainly exposed to Turkish influences, West and North to those of the Au...

Läs mer »

Standing at the crossroads of Europe, the bridge between east and west, Czechoslovakia combines in its folk dances and traditions the colourful wildness of the east with the more sophisticated gaiety of the west. To the lover of traditional p...

Läs mer »

From sun-drenched Provence, vibrating with warmth and the whirring 'song' of cicada, come some of the gayest and historically most interesting dances in all Europe. Here are Lou Rigaudon, 'invention of the devil'; La Farandoulo, said to ...

Läs mer »

Clogs and baggy trousers, wide checked skirts and white caps - is not this our picture when we think of Dutch folk dances? But this costume belongs only to one dance and one part of the country; even there the women are coming to prefer 'a pleated...

Läs mer »

A land of wine and song, of love and laughter - the magic of Italy is reflected in the wealth of her dances, which range from the stylised Chain dances of Sardinia and the Sword dances of Piedmont to the courting mimes that belong mainly to the ce...

Läs mer »

The dances of the French Pyrenees express a multitude of influences in their colourful variety. At the eastern end the French side is influenced by Spanish Catalonia, at the western end the famous Basque dances show some slight influence from...

Läs mer »

The charm of the folk dances of Rumania derives, to a large extent, from many strange and ancient peasant customs, including shades of 'bacchic frenzy', and the still practised initiation ordeals connected with the ritual Calusari dance. Supe...

Läs mer »

The enthusiasm with which Scottish gatherings all over the world welcome the strains of a Reel tune or a stately Strathspey is no less marked today than it was in the eighteenth century, when an English visitor to an Edinburgh ballroom noted, 'The...

Läs mer »