folkdance (brittanica)

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folk dance

Primary Contributor: Joann W. KealiinohomokuARTICLE

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folk dance, generally, a type ofdance that is a vernacular, usually recreational, expression of a

past or present culture. The termfolk dance was accepted until the mid-20th century, when this

and other categories of dance were questioned and their distinctions became subject to debate.

For the purposes of this article, the designationfolk dance will be used for convenience, withoutthe extended discussion of terms that a more scholarly treatment would require. It is important,

however, to examine other ways to write and think about the types of dances that might be

characterized as traditional. It is also essential to note that people in many non-Western culturesdo not themselves describe any activity as dance in the way that English speakers do. This article

examines possible ways to look at and define folk dance, how various groups might conceive of

their dances, and how the study of folk dance was born and developed. See alsodance, for a

general treatment of dance as an art form. For further treatment of the folk arts,seefolk music;folklore; folk literature; and folk art.

Defining folk dance

What makes a dance a folk dance?

Logically speaking, the adjectivefolkshould modify the noun dance to indicate a certain kind of

dance and dancing and perhaps the style or some other distinguishing feature of the dance orperformance. It should also imply who the performers are. However, the termfolk dance, which

has been in common use since the late 19th century, along with its parent termfolklore, which

was coined in 1846, is not as descriptive or uncontroversial as it might seem. Much of theproblem lies in the attitudes and purposes of early scholars and their audience.

Usually, the designationfolkwas used by those who did not consider themselves to belong to the

folk and were confident that they knew which other people were the folk. Some of these

observers described folk communities with condescension as peasants, simple or quaint peoplewho were illiterate and unselfconscious, carrying on supposedly primitive and ancient

traditions. Such writers concluded that true folk dances were created anonymously and

transmitted from person to person. Many scholars of the late 19th and early 20th centuriespostulated a sort of Darwinian social evolution that passed from imagined beginnings through
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existing folk dances to arrive at modern recreational dances. This attitude was part of a larger

worldview that sometimes went so far as to place certain other groups of people farther down the

human evolutionary treefrom themselves and their peers.

Not surprisingly, a backlash developed, and since the middle of the 20th century

the wordfolkhas often been avoided because of the condescending attitude its use is thought to

represent. Many cultural groups around the world demanded that theirperforming arts not becharacterized by the term. Thus, some archives and organizations found it expedient to change

the wordfolkto traditionalin their names. For example, in the 1960s the Folk Music Archives at

Indiana University was renamed Archives of Traditional Music. Similarly, in 1980 the

International Folk Music Council, a nonprofit organization supported by UNESCO (UnitedNations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), changed its name to International

Council for Traditional Music. Its study section on dance broadened in scope from folk dance to

ethnochoreology, the study of all dance forms in a culture.

Although many academics in the 21st century avoid any use of the wordfolkbecause of its past

misuse and possible offensiveness, those who do accept the term often mean traditional,

authentic, or from olden times. Those who want to avoid implying that culture is static may

refuse to use any such categorical term.

The descriptors traditionaland authentic are problematic too when applied tofolk dances that are self-consciously developed, revived, and restaged for public display in order

to reinforce a national identity, to attract tourists, or both. Examples include dances performed by

the Bayanihan Philippine National Folk Dance Company and the numerousfolklrico groups

from Mexico. Neither does the word traditionalcomfortably identify dances that are transplantedfrom one context to another, such as the European folk dances performed by the Matachines

Society of the Yaqui Indians of southern Arizona in the United States and Sonora, Mex. Nor do

these terms include the fusions of folk dances from two or more cultures into new forms thatrepresent newly established communities, such as the multicultural Israeli folk dances and the

fused traditions of the Mtis of Canada. These are discussed below.

Operational definitions

Of major significance, a point that is critical to the understanding of folk dance is the following

fact: folk dance is not a universal genre of dance. When folk dances are compared from one

culture to another, they have in common no universal movement, figure, form, style, or function.Neither does a specific movement, figure, form, style, or function identify a dance as a folksocial
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sciences+arts entertainment+sports recreation+tourism dance. The simplest approach to

definition might be to say that folk dances are those dances identified with and performed by folk

dancers. By the same reasoning, folk dancers are those persons who perform folk dances.

Yet these circular definitions are inadequate. Some persons who perform what outsiders define

as folk dances do not themselves identify their dances as folk dances. And some persons whoperform such dances do not identity themselves as folk dancers. Others reject the wordfolk

entirely, as having nothing to do with who they are or what dances they do.

The matachines dances are a good example of how fluid the definitions of folk dance and folk

dancers are. The Yaqui Indian Matachines Society is a group in northern Mexico and southern

Arizona whose members continue to observe a sacred vow to dance their devotions for theVirgin Mary with medieval European folk dances taught to them after 1617 by Jesuit padres.

These Yaqui do not think of their dances as folk dances, nor do they think of themselves as folk

dancers, although persons from the outside readily make those assignments. Although the origins

of the matachines dances of other parts of the Americas are similar, the dances themselves are

different. To complicate matters further, in parts of Europe there are matachines folk dancegroups that have nothing in common with the Yaqui society or the other American groups. What

the dances are, who performs them, and what insiders and outsiders call the dances and thedancersall these designations vary, although the dances are known by the same name.

Categorizing dances

Within any given society, there may or may not be multiple classifications ofdance. If the performers and the observers characterize any dances as folk dances, then they are

likely to identify other types of dance as well. If there is only one category of dance, it is unlikely

to be labeled as folk dance or in any other particular way. European cultures have dances that are

identity markers. Some examples include the Schuhplattler(slap dance) ofGermanyandAustria, thejota of Spain, thejigof Ireland, the tarantellaof Italy, and the hopak(orgopak) of

Ukraine. These dances are secular, recreational, and celebratory, and they are used as national

identifiers. Such dances are effective in arousing national pride and sentiment.

Complex societies make distinctions between activities on the basis of theirfunctions. Typically, anthropologists identify theological, aristocratic, educational, and economic

institutions, often referred to as the temple, the court, the academy, and the market. Dances may
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be associated with each of these, and they influence the folk dances of a society. A common

movement vocabulary often characterizes a culture as a whole, and a cultures dances may

have distinctive features. Even so, the dances will differ in style and function. As illustrations,the following paragraphs examine some of these aspects in Hawaiian dances, Korean dances, and

European character dances.

Hawaiian dance

Hawaiian society has long had both formal classical dances and folk dances. Both categoriesinclude certain common characteristicsprimarily the use of hand gestures that illustrate a song

or chants and the flexed-knee stepping that gives the appearance of swaying hips. In pre-

European days the dedicatedhuladancerwas trained in a sacred venue (hula halau). After agraduation ceremony (uniki) that authorized the dancer to move from the temple to the court, he

or she was allowed to perform for the aristocracy.

European influences nearly destroyed the hula, but it was saved from extinction when it was

redefined. The hula survived by association with the market and the academy. It thrivedprimarily as a tourist attraction in the first half of the 20th century. Then, with the so-called

Hawaiian Renaissance, hula blossomed as an art form in the second half of the 20th century.

Dances that are learned in the hula halau are not considered to be folk dances. Hawaiian folk

dances are the casual, informal dances performed, often improvisationally, at a family gatheringor other informal event. But all Hawaiian dances use characteristic movements that are

associated worldwide with Hawaiian hula.

Korean dance

In modern Korea there are at least six different kinds of dance: court, folk, shamanistic,

Confucian, Buddhist, and modern concert dance. Today these classifications usually refer to thestyle of dance rather than the occupation, class, or religion of the dancers. Korea has national

dance academies that teach these forms. The dances and dance styles formerly restricted to royalaudiences (the court) have become the Korean classical dances, and they are performed regularly

in public concerts (the market). In conversation, Koreans classify their dances into four types:

court, folk, sacred, and modern concert dance.

Many uniquely Korean gestures and body movements characterize all Korean dances (except formodern concert dance), regardless of classification. These characteristics include the sliding of

each foot forward on the floor to end in an upturning of the toes (echoing the shape of the

dancers slippers), the lifting and lowering of the shoulders, and the frequent use of triple metres

in the music. Korean dance classifications are distinguished by style and content. Koreanclassical court dances tend to be slow in tempo, dignified and refined. Korean folk dances, on the

other hand, are lively and earthy. They are performed for festivals and celebrations. One

favourite folk dance is the farmers dance. It is performed by a group of men who circle thedance space in single file, carrying drums and lifting each knee high as they locomote. They

wear the loose pajama-type clothing associated with rural Koreans, with a helmetlike hat to

which is affixed long streamers. At a certain point in the dance, the dancers vigorously rotatetheir heads so the streamers fly out like whirligigs.
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European character dance

Character dancing is a selected borrowing of folk dance movements and styles toprovide divertissements for story ballets. It is a specialization taught as part of theclassical ballet

curriculum. Along with their rigorous training inballetacademies, dancers are trained to perform

so-called character dances that use stereotyped gestures and styles selected to portray the idea of

a particular nationality, occupation, or personage. This is exemplified by the Chinese, Spanish,and Arabian divertissements in Pyotr Ilyich TchaikovskysNutcrackerballet. When, say, a

Polish mazurkais performed by a formally trained classical ballet dancer, thatcharacter dance is

not considered to be an authentic folk dance by either the dancer or the audience.

The collectors and their legacy

The first folklorists

John Playford and the preservation of dance

As early as the 17th century, dances performed by rural folk (country dances)were collected and distributed through popular publications for public distribution. Typically,

country dances are characterized by longways formations, in which facing rows of couples

walk or skip briskly through maneuvers, instructed by a caller. The 17th-century English musicpublisher and booksellerJohn Playford edited and published as many as 900 country dances

through seven editions ofThe English Dancing Master. The first was published in 1651. His

work was carried on after his death by his son Henry through the 17th and final edition in 1728;after the first edition the work bore the abridged title The Dancing Master.

The Playford dances are still consulted, especially in the United Kingdomand the United States.

Those dances, which were transmitted from person to person before being published, have beenpreserved in the same form through many generations. The publication allowed a different sortof dancera city office worker, perhapsto perform country dances of another time and place.

Questions of whether such dances are folk dances and whether modern groups performing them

are folk dancers remain a matter of controversy. But most contemporary groups who dance the

country dances consider themselves to be folk dancers and the dances to be folk dances.
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The late 18th and 19th centuries were an especially vibrant period in Europe and the Americas. It

was a time of intellectual and artistic efflorescence: the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution,

Nationalism, and Romanticism. People increasingly depended upon the written word to recordand convey ideas. Literacy defined a class of people, often even more than family pedigree.

Literate persons usually lived in urban areas, a demographic fact that led to the perception of

rural people as belonging to a lower class than those from urban areas. At the same time, thecomplications of urban life made the perceived simplicity of the country attractive.

Johann Gottfried von Herder and the idea of the folk

The late 18th-century German critic, theologian, and philosopherJohann Gottfried von Herder

was apparently the first to use the wordfolk(in German, as Volk) in print. Herder recorded andanalyzed Germanic languages at a time when Germany was beginning to emerge as an

identifiable political entity from a collection of principalities and city-states. Herder, who was

particularly interested in traditionalsongtexts, published collections of old songs from many

parts of the world. In his research he discovered many traditional Germanic songs, tales, and

customs transmitted by ordinary people who lived customary lifestyles. They were HerdersVolk. Herder collected folk traditions, including folk dances, to prevent their loss and to

encourage nationalistic pride.

Into the 19th century, throughout Europe, more and more agrarian workers emigrated from thefarms and small towns to find employment in the new factories of the cities. Those people who

still pursued an agrarian lifestyle, often bereft of formal education, were dismissed by the literate

as backward, even inferior folk. Yet as they seemed in danger of extinction, they becameviewed with nostalgia, especially by Romantics in Germany and elsewhere. Their way of life

seemed simpler and unspoiled. Collecting the remembered traditions of the folk became a

popular and respected activity.

One consequence was the forming of an image of the happy peasant. Painters, writers, musicians,and choreographers portrayed this character in their arts. Musicians wrote dances that were not

danced. Dance academies often adopted particular movements and whole dances from the

idealized folk. (In classical ballet, examples are thepas de basque [Basque step] and tour debasque [Basque turn], adapted from the steps of Basque dances from the Pyrenees.)

William John Thoms and folkloristics

The English antiquarian William John Thoms (using the pseudonym Ambrose Merton) coined

the English wordfolklore in August 1846, taking credit in a letter to the periodical The

Athenaeum.

Four years later, his pride as inventor of the term was restated inNotes and Queries, a weekly

publication that he founded in 1849 and edited for 23 years and that continued to be published

into the 21st century. Both publications began to accept submissions relating to the preservationof folklore. It is clear from discussions in his periodical that Thoms did not mean anything more

specific byfolkthan people of older times.
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Two dance games are mentioned repeatedly by the magazines correspondents in the 185052

period, and they are never associated with class, occupation, education, or residence: London

Bridge Is Broken Down, for children, and the Cushion Dance, for adults. The first may berelated to London Bridge, a round-dance game that in its various forms (including London

Bridge Is Falling Down) continued to be played by children in the early 21st century. The

second is a round-dance kissing game in which a solo dancer carries a cushion into the center ofa circle of other dancers while they all sing a song. At the end of the song, the solo dancer drops

the cushion in front of someone of the opposite sex; the chosen person kneels on the cushion and

is kissed by the soloist. The kissed person becomes the soloist, and the previous soloist joins thecircle. The action repeats until everyone has been kissed and has danced in the centre. The

cushion dance was done at weddings and seems to have been popular in Englandand Germany.

The correspondents toNotes and Queries, in what was a 19th-century equivalent of a chat

room, sought to establish the games texts and origins. Since the magazines beginning, old-time dances have been discussed oftendancing games, contra dances, quadrilles, jigs, reels,

and so forth. The occasions for dancing, such as Christmas, weddings, and balls, are also

mentioned, but the performers are not. The magazine has played an important part in preservingaccounts of old dances.

The study of folklore and its variants quickly took hold in scholarly circles in Great Britain and

the United States. The termfolklore soon acquired a formal discipline of theories and methods

for research as well as a forum for the exchange of information and ideas. The discipline wascalledfolkloristics. By 1878 the Folklore Society had been founded in England. In 1888 the

American Folklore Society was founded and began to publish theJournal of American Folklore.

By 1890 the Folklore Society in England had begun publishing its peer-reviewed journal,Folk-

lore. Both societies and their journals were still operating in the 21st century.

By the end of the 19th century, many collectors around the world had been working to documentand archive their national folk arts. The 19th-century Polish collector Oskar Kolberg, for

example, had published nearly 70 volumes documenting Polish folk dancing; he is but one ofdozens of scholars, antiquarians, and visionaries who have a place in the annals of early folk

dance scholarship. Following the collectors were revival movements, folk dance societies,

museums, and archives.

The 20th-century collectors

Cecil Sharp and the promotion of folk dance

The English musician Cecil Sharp was a teacher and principal of Londons HampsteadConservatory of Music. According to his colleague and biographer Maud Karpeles, Sharp saw

his first English Morris dances in 1899. He was inspired by this experience, having thought

previously that English folk songs and dances were extinct.

For the remainder of his life, Sharp collected and promoted English traditional songs and folkdances. He began publishing those songs in 1907, followed by works on Morris dances (five

volumes, 190913), sword dances of Northern England (three volumes, 191213), and country
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dances (six volumes, 190927; the last volumes were posthumous). In 1911 he founded the

English Folk Dance Societycomplete with a prescribed repertoire, grade levels, and

examinationsto train folk dance teachers and demonstrate folk dance performances. Theevidence suggests that Sharp believed that the forms he tried to maintain were revivals of ancient

dances, originally developed by rural folk from ritual origins.

From 1914 to 1919 Sharp and Karpeles visited the United States. In Appalachian Mountain

communities they found many old dances and songs taken to the Americas by settlers of Scottishand Irish ancestry. Some of these were still being performed in England, but others were

preserved only in the United States. The most celebrated of these dances Sharp named the

Kentucky Running Set; it was a longways dance of the country-dance style, in which two linesof dancers facing one another reel off so that each couple in turn moves to the beginning of the

paired line. In 1915 Sharp encouraged the development of an American branch of the English

Folk Dance Society. The Country Dance and Song Society was thus established; it was stillactive in the early 21st century.

Bla Bartkand ethnographic scholarship

The Hungarian composerBla Bartkwas inspired by the folk music and dances

that he collected and analyzed and used as themes in his compositions. As an avid field worker

he experienced firsthand the music and dance of Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria,Moldavia, and Yugoslavia, as well as Turkey, Algeria, and Morocco. He was probably the first

musicologist to bridge east and west. Although he worked with folk materials throughout his

career, from 1912 through 1915 he devoted himself almost entirely to the collection and study offolk music and dances. In the field he enjoyed and participated in the folk culture of his hosts. As

a musicologist he recorded with the equipment available at that time, took extensive notes, and

analyzed his material in detail. World War Iended his extended collecting expeditions; in 1940

he moved to New York, where he again focused on his ethnomusicological work. Bartk is butone of a long list of distinguished scholars who have researched Hungarian folk dances (another

was Gyrgy Martin). But Bartk ranged farther in his explorations of other eastern European

regions, as well as of Arabic and Turkish cultures.

Ljubica Jankovi and Danica Jankovi and modern scholarship

Two sisters from Serbia, Ljubica Jankovi (18941974) and Danica Jankovi (18981960),

devoted much of their lives to collecting and analyzing folk dances from southeastern Europe.

Between 1934 and 1964 they published eight volumes and several monographs of danceresearch. In the work they analyzed about 900 dances, describing choreography, music, and

costume. They wrote about the cultural background and preservation of the dances, and,

especially noteworthy, they recognized the contribution of gifted dancers to the refinement of

the dances. The adaptation of a dance for the stage, they felt, took that dance out of the folkrealm and made it an adapted dance; they refused to call anything a folk dance except an

anonymously created dance performed in traditional settings. The Jankovi sisters coined the

termparaphrased folk dance for adapted dances.
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Other scholars continued to struggle with terminology and the differences

between dances in traditional cultures and their derivatives in other contexts. In his influential

article for theJournal of the International Folk Music Counciltitled Once Again: On the

Concept of Folk Dance(1968), the German folklorist Felix Hoerburger observed that folkdances generally fell into two categories: first, dances that were transmitted through the

generations by members of a traditional culture, and second, dances that were derived from the

first category but performed by different dancers for different reasons. He labeled these firstexistence and second existence, respectively. Although the labels were useful, they presented

their own problems. But scholars have yet to agree on a unified approach to researching and

analyzing folk dances.

In the early 20th century, social and educational reformers, many of them influenced by theeducatorJohn Dewey, foresaw many benefits to the wide teaching of folk dances. At the

University of Chicago, Dewey established and directed the experimental Laboratory Schools,

which opened in 1896. He championed the use of folk dancing in the classroom as a means ofphysical education and as an example of what he called art as experience transposed into creative

imagination. Several of his students went on to develop his ideas; two of the most successful

were Elizabeth Burchenal and Mary Wood Hinman.

The expansion of folk dance experiences

Two American teachers

Elizabeth Burchenal

In 1903 the American educator Elizabeth Burchenal introduced folk dancing as physical

education at Teachers College ofColumbia University in New York. Later, as athletics inspector

for theNew York City public schools, she introduced folk dancing into the curriculum. Sheorganized annual folk dance festivals for schoolgirls; by 1913, 10,000 girls were doingMaypole

dances in the New York City borough parks. For six years she traveled and studied folk dances

in several European countries and published many books about the folk dances she learned. Sheand her sister Ruth established the Folk Arts Center in New York City, with exhibition galleries

and an archive of American folk dance. Elizabeth Burchenal was also one of the founders of the

American Folk Dance Society.

Mary Wood Hinman

Another American scholar and teacher, Mary Wood Hinman, worked in New York and Chicagoto train teachers and encourage folk dancing among local ethnic organizations. After traveling to

several countries to learn folk dances, she developed a teacher-training school in Chicago that

prepared women to teach folk dances in schools, parks, and settlement houses. (Teaching at aChicago private school as well, she inspired and encouraged the future great modern dancer

Doris Humphrey.) In 1930 she helped establish the Folk Festival Council of New York; this
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private service organization sponsored folk dance festivals with performers from numerous

ethnic organizations. In addition, she developed and taught a course titled Dances of Many

Peoples at what is now theNew School University in Manhattan.

The settlement movement

Both Burchenal and Hinman participated in the settlement movement (seesocial settlement), anidealistic social-welfare movement begun in the late 19th century. In the larger U.S. cities of the

early 20th century, neighbourhood institutions called settlement houses fostered the health of

urban neighbourhoods and their inhabitants through education, recreation, and social services.Folk dancing served several of the organizations goals, furthering individual health through

exercise and recreation as well as neighbourhood vitality through mutual acceptance and

appreciation. Immigrant women could perform dances of their youth to remain connected withtheir past and feel accepted in their new country, and people could learn dances from many

nations, ideally learning an appreciation of their neighbours heritages. These organizations were

especially active in Chicago and New York.

Some of the folk dance teachers who worked in the settlement houses made lasting contributions.Michael Herman and Mary Ann Herman, for example, developed a series ofsound recordings of

the music for folk dances from many parts of the world. With the recordings, dances could be

performed even when live musicians were unavailable. Yet the use of recordings had a lastingeffect on the form of the folk dances that were being taught outside of their original setting. Early

recordings were no more than three minutes in length, so a new time restriction went into effect.

And the unchanging music meant codified, unchanging dances.

The International Folk Dance movement

Another outstanding and influential teacher from the settlement movement was Vytautas Finadar(Vyts) Beliajus, a Lithuanian who immigrated to the United States as a teenager. His family

joined relatives in the Lithuanian community in Chicago. He organized the Lithuanian YouthSociety, where he taught folk dancing; the group performed at the 1933 Chicago Worlds Fair.

He soon expanded his expertise to include Mexican, Hindi, Italian, and Hasidic Jewish dances. In

1942 he started a newsletter for dancers who were overseas in the armed forces during WorldWar II. The newsletter developed into the journal Viltis (Lithuanian for hope), which covered

all aspects of folk dance for the hobbyist. He continued to edit the journal until his death in 1994.

Although he was not a scholar or traveling collector, he was a major influence on theInternational Folk Dance movement in the United States.

The broader folk dance movement gained momentum in California, inspired by a ChineseAmericanman, Song Chang, and his Swedish wife, Harriet, who wanted to re-create the

camaraderie they experienced while folk dancing during a visit to Europe. They and their friendsorganized a group called Changs International Folk Dancers. The group performed at San

Franciscos Golden GateExhibition (193940).

In the 21st century the International Folk Dance movement remained one of the most active

repositories of folk dances and their performance. Its members learned dances from all over the
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world, without regard to their own ethnic background. They borrowed or adapted folk dances

that were culturally foreign to them, and they did not consider themselves to be the folk. The

dances in their repertory were generally handed down by someone elses ancestors and not theirown.

The dances of the International Folk Dance movement became increasingly popular withrecreational dancers, at first in the United States and eventually in countries around the world.

The dancesmost of them from Europe, with a few fromNorth America and Japanwerecodified and decontextualized so that dancers could perform them any place in the world.

Folk dance in the United States

The folk dance movement spread in unexpected ways. In the United States the industrialist

Henry Ford promoted the square dance by organizing square-dancing parties for thousands of

people, especially his employees and their families. In 1926 he built Lovett Hall, an enormousdance hall in Dearborn, Mich., to encourage square dancing, partly to counteract what was

commonly seen as the lascivious nature of popular dances such as the Charleston. Until 2005square dancers continued to meet at Lovett Hall.

Square dancing has an honoured place as an American folk dance, although Congress has neverdeclared a national dance. Other forms of dancing have also been identified as American folk

dances, such as Appalachian clogging, Cajun dancing, country (including contra) dancing, and

line dancing. Included in the folk dance category by some commentators are Native Americanpowwow dancing, African American dances first known among slaves in theSea Islands of

Georgia (such as Patting Juba and the Ring Shout), the stepdancing that was developed by

young African American men, the dances done by Mardi Grasgroups from Louisiana, and thedomesticated dances of various immigrant groups.

Throughout North America groups keep their cultural ties and heritage alive by

sharing their folk dances with their children and with each other. These domestic groups are not

International Folk Dancers, nor are they folkloric troupes performing for tourist events. Rather,they represent a joyful way to preserve an ethnic legacy. In Hawaii, for example, folk dance

groups represent Asian countries, Pacific Island countries, Puerto Rico, Portugal, and Scotland,

among other places. Californiasethnic dance groups include representation from the Balkan

countries, Iran, India, and Latin America; an annual ethnic dance festival in San Franciscoshowcases their work. The annual Holiday Folk Fair in Milwaukee, Wis., has drawn thousands

of amateur dancers since 1944. New York Citys immigrant groups from hundreds of countriescelebrate cultural events with folk dancing. South Florida is especially rich in groups thatcelebrate their Caribbean heritage with dance. In Phoenix, immigrants of East African and

Southeast Asian origin meet in dance halls, bars, or homes to do folk dances to popular music.

Folk dancing persists anywhere immigrants have settled, and the dancing public is larger andmore diverse than it may at first appear.

Fused traditions
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Israeli folk dancing

Israeli folk dancing is a synthesis that began with a conscious determination to

create a new folk dance tradition shortly after the new nation of Israel was established in 1948.

The newly devised folk dances were designed to represent the new nation, provide a way toembody the new identity, and unite people from various traditions. Fred Berk and Rivka Sturman

adapted traditional folk dances from eastern Europe and theMiddle East, choreographing them

to represent and celebrate the new state of Israel. They were prolific choreographers anddedicated teachers, determined to preserve their dances in sound and print. Thehora, a closed-

circle dance that originated in Romania, is the signature piece of the Israeli dance repertoire.

Israeli dances include characteristic movementsfor which the dancers hold hands and moverapidly around the circle with running, hopping, kicking steps that have a bouncing, joyful

qualitythat derive from Yemeni folk dances, the tcherkessia from Russia, and the Arabic

dabkah (often spelled debka ordebkah).

More recently, Israeli dances have incorporated materials from Greek, French, Turkish, Latin,and even American rock dances. Israeli dancing has become popular in many countries as an

addition to the International Folk Dance repertoires. Notably, Israeli dancing is popular in Japan,

where some folk dance clubs are dedicated to the performance of Israeli folk dances only.

Mtis dance

Mtis, a word of French origin, is the name by which people of mixed Native American andEuropean ancestry are known. Beginning in the mid-1600s, the children of French, Scottish, or

English fur traders who married Cree, Ojibway, or Saulteaux Indian women developed a new

and distinct culture, neither European nor Native American. Communities of Mtis are foundthroughout Canada and parts of the United States. They are particularly proud of their folk

dances, which are a unique offshoot of Celtic jigging accompanied by tunes played in a

distinctive manner on the fiddle and accordion. As in many Celtic dances, the arms hang downby the sides of the dancers, although they are more relaxed than those of Irish step dancers. The

dancers employ a rapid footwork considered to resemble that found in Indian powwows. Their

dances include step dances performed in unison by mixed-sex groups. The step dances areregularly performed in public to demonstrate Mtis pride and are also used in competitions.

Trends into the 21st century

Political uses of folk dance

Supporting nationalism
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Folk dances and their association with national identity have made them vehicles

for government propaganda. InNazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, the government used

charming folk dances to embody the mystique of an idyllic Germany. These folk dances wereexpected to engender loyalty and the kind of national pride that served the ideology of the Third

Reich; Germans were to be knit into a unified and supposedly superior race, in part through

such activities.

Folk dances were pulled from their normal contexts to become national symbolsto the outside world in the years after World War II, especially incommunist countries. Gifted

dancers were selected and professionally trained to perform theatrically enhanced and

decontextualized folk dances. The resulting folk dance troupes would tour the world as

evidence of the success of their governments in unifying their countries and earning the supportof the folk. Most of these companies represented eastern European nations, including

Romania, Bulgaria, the former Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia), and the

former Yugoslavia (now Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia,Slovenia, and Kosovo). Similarly, certain governmentsfor example, those ofNorth Koreaand

Chinahave used dance in mass performances to symbolize the peoples support of their

political systems.

Fostering goodwill and making a profit

Not all ethnic and national performances are ideological in nature. The United Nations has

encouraged cultural exchange as a means of fostering goodwill between countries. Culturaltouring includes folk troupes, among others; to represent folk dance, the United States has

supported a group from Berea, Ky., for example.

National, state, and local tourist agencies have gone beyond ambassadorship and have discovered

the value of dances and dance troupes that are identified as their own. Visitors can be

entertained, absorb some local culture, and support the economy. Around the world, fromMongolia to the remotest islands, dances are polished, choreographed, packaged, and presented

as authentic.

Expansion and challenge

Dancing for enlightenment

Two late 20th-century phenomena use folk dances as a medium to achieve idealistic ends. The

two are Circle Dances and Dances of Universal Peace. The organizations have similar goals, but

their histories differ and they are not connected.
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The Circle Dance phenomenon was developed by the German dancer Bernard Wosien, who

encountered circle-type folk dances in his European travels and was impressed with the

spirituality they inspired in him. He found an established spiritual and ecological community atFindhorn, Scot., and joined the group in 1976. More dance groups formed in Scotland and

England and spread from there. The repertory grew with the number of teachers. The dances

became known by several names, including world dances, circle dances, or the original sacredcircle dances. Circles are unbroken, and dancers move as one; these characteristics became part

of a view of the act of doing the dances as a meditative or spiritual experience. The phenomenon

has spread in person and on the Internet; the dances are relatively simple to learn and teach.Laura Shannon, a dancer, teacher, and writer who lived in Findhorn, was instrumental in

spreading the movement; she was especially interested in the dances of Armenia, Greece, and the

Balkans.

The Dances of Universal Peace were developed by Samuel Lewis from California, who was aSufi and Zen master. He had been a student ofmodern dance pioneerRuth St. Denis, who

inspired him with her understanding of dance as a means to attain wisdom. In the late 1960s, he

and some followers began performing folk dances as a spiritual practice, and soon the movementgained momentum. Lewis died in 1971, but his foundation continued to draw on many of the

worlds mystical and religious traditions. The more than 500 dances in the repertory are

accompanied by lyrics representing the various sacred foundations of the dances. Members carry

their dances to many countries in their quest to encourage peace and intercultural harmony.

Who owns the dance?

In the 21st century, questions of ownership have reached far into the practice of music and

dance. Several Native American groups and the Republic of Croatia, for example, have insisted

that traditional arts should have the protection of copyright, so that they could gain recognition

and control how performances would be used. Performing groups and organizations in GreatBritain resisted laws that would require the licensing of all music, live or recorded, used for

dance. Similarly, the U.S. Congress was considering questions of the ownership and copyright ofintangible assets in the United States. In folk music and folk dance, which were long considered

to be anonymously created and commonly ownedthat is, in the public domainchallenges to

the status quo became more common. Groups were claiming to be the folk and asserting rights.

Once again, questions of authenticity and provenance arose, and dancers and scholars had toreexamine their definitions of folk dance and folk dancers. The United Nations has been working

on the matter from several directions: In 2003 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and

Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted the Convention for the Safeguarding of the IntangibleCultural Heritage to establish an approach to the preservation and protection of nonmaterial

cultural properties such as dance, language, ritual, and craftsmanship, and in the first decade of

the 21st century the World Intellectual Property Organization of the UN was actively working toestablish howproperty rights extended to traditional knowledge.

Joann W. Kealiinohomoku

ARTICLE

Additional Reading
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The best reference works are two exhaustive sources of material. Bruno Nettl and Ruth M. Stone

(eds.), The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, 10 vol. (19982002), includes material on

folk dances from all over the world; the set is a valuable resource for students of folk dance.Likewise, Selma Jeanne Cohen,International Encyclopedia of Dance, 6 vol. (1998), covers

specific types of dance as well as the dance of many countries. Both of these sources are

available online by subscription as well as in print.

Folk music, which is entwined with folk dance, is treated very well in Philip V. Bohlman, TheStudy of Folk Music in the Modern World(1988). Other general treatments of value include

Mary Clarke and Clement Crisp, The History of Dance (1981); Richard Crawford,Introduction

to Americas Music (2001); Marshall Stearns and Jean Stearns,Jazz Dance: The Story ofAmerican Vernacular Dance, updated ed. (1994), which shows how African American

influences permeate popular dance forms in the worlds cities; and Mary Bee Jensen and Clayne

R. Jensen,Folk Dancing, new, enlarged ed. (1973).

Richard M. Dorson (edFolklore and Folklife: An Introduction (1972), establishes the connection

of all traditional performance, not just storytelling, to the field of folklore; another valuablegeneral treatment is Robert A. Georges and Michael Owen Jones,Folkloristics: An Introduction

(1995).

European dances have been exhaustively studied and presented by Nigel Allenby Jaff andMargaret Allenby Jaff in the European Folk Dance series, a collection of six works titled 10

Dances from, including Brittany, Denmark, Finland, Portugal, Sweden, and the Netherlands

(198287); a summary treatment of the research is Margaret Allenby Jaff,National Dance(2006). Specific regions are treated in Gyrgy Martin,Hungarian Folk Dances, 2nd ed., rev.,

trans. from Hungarian (1988); and Mike Seeger and Ruth Pershing, Talking Feet: Buck, Flatfoot,

and Tap: Solo Southern Dance of the Appalachian, Piedmont, and Blue Ridge Mountain Regions

(1992). The influence of ritual is the subject of Iris J. Stewart, Sacred Woman, Sacred Dance(2000). Practical instruction is an important focus of Joan Lawson,European Folk Dance: Its

National and Musical Characteristics (1953, reprinted 1980); and Beth Tolman and Ralph Page,

The Country Dance Book(1937, reissued 1976).

Cecil J. Sharp contributed immeasurably to the field of dance research. A useful survey of his

contribution is Maud Karpeles, Cecil Sharp: His Life and Work(1967). Among his own works

are Cecil J. Sharp, The Country Dance Book, 6 vol. (190922, reissued from various editions, 6vol. in 3, 197276), and The Sword Dances of Northern England, 3 vol., 2nd ed., rev. by Maud

Karpeles (1951); Cecil J. Sharp and Herbert C. Macilwaine, The Morris Book, 5 vol., 2nd ed.

(191124, reprinted 5 vol. in 2, 197475); and Cecil J. Sharp and A.P. Opp, The Dance: An

Historical Survey of Dancing in Europe (1924, reprinted 1972).

Two valuable essay collections are Ann Dils and Ann Cooper Albright (eds.), Moving

History/Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader(2001); and Maureen Needham (ed.),I See

America Dancing: Selected Readings, 16852000 (2002).

Political considerations in the promotion of folk dance are treated in Anthony Shay, ParallelTraditions: State Folk Dance Ensembles and Folk Dance in The Field,Dance Research


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Journal, 31(1):2956 (Spring 1999), which compares dances in different contexts; James R.

Dow and Hannjost Lixfeld (eds. and trans.), The Nazification of an Academic Discipline:

Folklore in the Third Reich (1994); and Naima Prevots,Dance for Export: Cultural Diplomacyand the Cold War(1998).

Research in ethnochoreology is reported in several publications. Academic research onfolkloristics the study of folklore and its associated genres, is published inJournal of American

Folklore (quarterly) andJournal of Folklore Research (3/yr.). The International Council forTraditional Music includes dance research in the annual Yearbook for Traditional Music (which

was established as theJournal of the International Folk Music Council). Other academic journals

that sometimes include articles about folk dance includeDance Research Journal(semiannual)andEthnomusicology (3/yr.).

The JVC Video Anthology of World Music and Dance (1990), produced by Ichikawa Katsumori

and directed by Nakagawa Kunihiko, is a collection of 30 VHS tapes and 9 books that

documents hundreds of dances from around the world; it has also been recorded on DVD in 30

discs (2005).

LINKS

Related Articles

Aspects of the topic folk dance are discussed in the following places at Britannica.

Assorted References

major reference (in dance (performing arts): Folk dance)

source in ritual dance (in dance (performing arts): Defining according to function)

steps and formations (in dance (performing arts): Folk dance)

influence on

modern western dance (in Western dance: Effect on folk dancing)

Pavlovas performance (in Anna Pavlova (Russian ballerina))

music accompaniment

(in folk music: Folk music in historical context)

asymmetrical time measures in musical rhythm (in rhythm (music): Time) violin(in stringed instrument: Solo uses)

traditions

Central Asia (in Central Asian arts: Folk dance)

East Asia (in East Asian arts: Social conditions)

Ireland (in Ireland: Music and dance)
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/150714/dance/25714/Folk-dance#ref392767http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/150714/dance/25714/Folk-dance#ref392767http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/150714/dance/25666/Defining-according-to-function#ref392611http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/150714/dance/25666/Defining-according-to-function#ref392611http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/150714/dance/25681/Folk-dance#ref1121865http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/849211/Western-dance/22140/Effect-on-folk-dancing#ref384885http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/849211/Western-dance/22140/Effect-on-folk-dancing#ref384885http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/447366/Anna-Pavlova#ref166535http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/212168/folk-music/261483/Folk-music-in-historical-context#ref500972http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/212168/folk-music/261483/Folk-music-in-historical-context#ref500972http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/501914/rhythm/64631/Time#ref529723http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/569200/stringed-instrument/53713/The-music-of-stringed-instruments#ref95359http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/569200/stringed-instrument/53713/The-music-of-stringed-instruments#ref95359http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/102325/Central-Asian-arts/13949/Folk-dance#ref314141http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/102325/Central-Asian-arts/13949/Folk-dance#ref314141http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/176529/East-Asian-arts/283183/Social-conditions#ref603110http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/293754/Ireland/23041/Music-and-dance#ref287034http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/293754/Ireland/23041/Music-and-dance#ref287034http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/150714/dance/25714/Folk-dance#ref392767http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/150714/dance/25666/Defining-according-to-function#ref392611http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/150714/dance/25681/Folk-dance#ref1121865http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/849211/Western-dance/22140/Effect-on-folk-dancing#ref384885http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/447366/Anna-Pavlova#ref166535http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/212168/folk-music/261483/Folk-music-in-historical-context#ref500972http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/501914/rhythm/64631/Time#ref529723http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/569200/stringed-instrument/53713/The-music-of-stringed-instruments#ref95359http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/102325/Central-Asian-arts/13949/Folk-dance#ref314141http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/176529/East-Asian-arts/283183/Social-conditions#ref603110http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/293754/Ireland/23041/Music-and-dance#ref287034


17/17

Islam (in Islamic arts: Folk dance; in Islamic arts: Developments in dance)

South Asia (in South Asian arts: Dance and theatre; in South Asian arts: Folk dance )

Southeast Asia (in Southeast Asian arts: Diverse traditions in the performing arts)

Switzerland (in Switzerland: Folk arts)

LINKSOther Britannica Sites

Articles from Britannica encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

folk dance - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Young people of the United States or Canada doing square dances for the sheer fun of itare folk dancing. So are young people of Mexico performing their traditional dancesbefore an audience of tourists in Mexico City. Yet if the people of these nations had

always lived as they do today, they probably would not have any folk dances. The same

thing is true of the people in most other countries.

The topic folk dance is discussed at the following external Web sites.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/295642/Islamic-arts/13819/Types-and-social-functions-of-dance-and-theatre#ref316679http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/295642/Islamic-arts/13832/Dance-and-theatre-in-modern-times#ref316703http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/295642/Islamic-arts/13832/Dance-and-theatre-in-modern-times#ref316703http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/556016/South-Asian-arts/65244/Dance-and-theatre#ref532624http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/556016/South-Asian-arts/65257/Folk-dance#ref532666http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/556535/Southeast-Asian-arts/29508/Diverse-traditions-in-the-performing-arts#ref402331http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/577225/Switzerland/256962/The-arts-and-sciences#ref424033http://kids.britannica.com/ebi/article-9274369/folk-dancehttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/295642/Islamic-arts/13819/Types-and-social-functions-of-dance-and-theatre#ref316679http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/295642/Islamic-arts/13832/Dance-and-theatre-in-modern-times#ref316703http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/556016/South-Asian-arts/65244/Dance-and-theatre#ref532624http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/556016/South-Asian-arts/65257/Folk-dance#ref532666http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/556535/Southeast-Asian-arts/29508/Diverse-traditions-in-the-performing-arts#ref402331http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/577225/Switzerland/256962/The-arts-and-sciences#ref424033http://kids.britannica.com/ebi/article-9274369/folk-dance

folkdance (brittanica)

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