| From: [email protected] (Dave Golber)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Date: 30 Jan 92 16:43:53 GMT
Sender: [email protected]
Organization: The Aerospace Corporation
....
Intro to dance in Norway:
What do people do NOW: Well, rock & roll of course ...
Then, of course, all the various dance crazes of the past went through
Norway too. Like the Tango. I have heard that some places have their
own Norwegian village version of the Tango.
Then before then, there was a lot of industrialization in the 19th
century, that brought in varius sorts of outside laborers and outside
influences, along with things like schottish, reinlander, polka and so
on. These got Norwegian versions too. These are called "gammeldans"
- "old dance". They are usually danced to accordion, violin, guitar,
bass groups ... pretty familiar music.
But then there are dances that were there before then. These are very
local to different regions of the country. These have names like
Telespringar (Springar from Telemark), gangar from ..., rull from ..
and so forth. These are called bygdedans ... rural dance. These are
usually danced to solo violin or hardingfele, depending on what part
of the country they are from. Really neat stuff.
OK, now I can tell you about the schedule. There's earlier stuff and
later stuff, but I'll just do May through September. I'll give place
names and regions. You can look at the map. I'll give a description
of what to expect afterwards. "aa" is an a with a circle over it.
"o/" is an o with a slash through it. "ae" is a and e stuck together.
The words in quotes are just the name of the event, not the type or
place of the event. A "kappleik" is a dance and music competition.
23-24 May "Luraasstemnet" in Atraa in Tinn. Telemark, at the north
end of Tinnsjaa. A kappleik or concert weekend.
30-31 May "Spel og Hallingkast" in Gol in Hallingdal. A kappleik or
concert weekend.
12-14 June "Brekkendagen" in Brekken, near Ro/ros in Gudbrandsdal. A
kappleik or concert weekend.
24-28 June "Landskappleiken" in Fagernes in Valdres. The national
kappleik.
3-4 July "Belg og Baaggaa" in Aalen. Gudbrandsdal. ??
15-19 July "Landsfestival i gamaldansmusikk" Geilo. Big gamaldans music
event. In Hallingdal.
26-26 July "Jo/rn Hilme-stemnet" in Fagernes in Valdres. A big
kappleik.
31 July - 2 August "Setesdalskappleiken" A kappleik in Setesdal.
Doesn't say what town.
7-9 August "Vestlands Kappleiken" in Bergen. A kappleik.
21-23 August "Folkemusikkdagane i Porsgrunn" in Porsgrunn Telemark. A
kappleik.
28-30 August "Disriktskappleiken" in Gjo/vik. A kappleik.
There are some other events which usually take place in this period
which aren't in the magazine yet ...
For more information, call the Landslaget for Spelemenn (National
Fiddler's Club) at 02-37 35 92 or 02-38 04 30. Someone there will speak
good English. (In general, young people will speak good english. Old
timers will speak heavy dialect Norwegian ... good luck!)
For all of these events except the Landskappleik, I suggest you try to
find out exactly where the event is in town ... it may be in some
little hall on a side road, or three miles out of town, or ... and the
man on the street may not know/care much about folk music or dance.
The Landskappleik is a BIG event ... 5000 people descend on a town of
10,000 (that's a guess). But the point is that you should give some
thought about having a place to stay before you get there. Call
063-61 909 and ask for Vibeke Funder.
Ditto for the Landsfestivalen i Gammaldansmusikk. Call 067 86 300.
For other places, you can probably find a place to stay when you get
there. Don't be shy about about asking people. Do watch out about
food: Stores tend to close earlier and more often there than here.
OK, so what are these events: Well, a kappleik is a dance and music
competition. Usually with dancing and partying in the evening. And
concerts too. The landskappleik is a monster example of this, with
some very fine stuff indeed. If you are there at the right time,
don't miss it! And don't bother to sleep. Hint: try to attach
yourself to some Norwegian who seems to be in the thick of things, and
find your way to the semi-private parties late at night. Incredible
music and dance.
I admit: The smallest kappleiks can sometimes be a bit of a bore.
Contestants one after another, from good to awful. Overheated room.
Long day.
Some of the events listed above may be only concerts, without
competition ... but there may be dancing performed, and there will
probably be a party in the evening.
Some of these events I know very well what they are, having been to
them more than once. Others I don't know about.
If you're interested in Scandinavian dance, you should subscribe to
Nordiska News, 7016 17th Ave NW, Seattle WA 98117. If you are
interested in Scandinavian music, you should subscribe to the Sound
Post, of the Hardanger Fiddle Assoc. of America, 2745 Winnetka Ave.
North, Suite 211, Minneapolis, MN 55427
Ha det!
David Golber
|
| From: [email protected] (Johan Garpendahl)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Nordic folk dances
Date: 3 Feb 92 01:36:20 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (Lord of the News)
Organization: Dept of EE, University of Linkoping
...we'll start with the dances in the viking days.
One type of dance that was common in those days is still living on the
Faero islands. Everyone who wants to joins a long "train" of dancers.
There is a lead singer who will sing a song of a 100 verses or more.
Everybody sings during the refrain. The dance should go on for hours,
so you really get into the groove. If you need to, you can go home to
eat or sleep for a while and come back and join the dance again later,
because these parties don't take four hours, rather four days.
In the middle ages there are also ring dances and the Playford dances.
I haven't looked that much at the historic dances (aka hysteric
dances:-) yet, so don't take my word for the one and only truth.
Moving into the 18'th century we find more of the contra dances;
minuets and stuff.
19-th century is more interesting in a nordic perspective. As far as I
know, (and I don't know enough, I'm afraid) this is when the nordic
folk dance is beginning to develop. Naturally, much of the influence
comes from Europe. It's becoming common to dance in pairs. We have
polka and schottis from sometime around 1850.
Also different types of polska is being developed. There are a lot of
different kinds of polska if you go up to Dalarna, H�lsingland, and
J�mtland. Polska is usually divided into two phases (or three phases or
four), one pre-step where you are "walking" with your partner and a
phase where you are dancing around with your partner.
The music is most often 3/4 beat, and the rythm is often very
specialized and very different in different areas.
In 1880 in Uppsala, the folk dancing society called "Philochoros" was
founded. They have taken notes of much of the swedish folk dances, for
better and for worse. For worse, since they have not always preserved
the folk traditions as they where. Their notes have made dances that
used to be rather free in performance more strict and "fancy" looking.
Some of them had some ballet background, which has influenced their
views on some of the dances.
On the other hand, hadn't it been for them, some of these dances would
not have been available at all today.
I think the boston waltz hits Stockholm in 1900. Since then, I think
most of the inspiration comes from the USA ....
Hope this tells you something about Nordic (Swedish) dances ....
Johan
--
Johan Garpendahl | Email: [email protected]
Linkoping University | Phone: +46 - 13 - 28 13 24
Dept. of Electrical Engineering | Fax : +46 - 13 - 13 92 82
S-581 83 LINKOPING // SWEDEN | This space is left blank.
|
| To: Multiple recipients of list SWEDE-L <[email protected]>
From: Mats Onnestam <[email protected]>
Subject: swedish traditions
I'll try to give some input on this theme about folk-dancing, Swedes
and their 'roots'. I would suppose that Swedes [do] not dance
'folk-dances' very often. I would even tend to say that most of us
don't even know how to do it, but there still a fairly active movement
that does and has festivals all the time. I would compare this to the
same kind of festivals you would find in the US where people dance
squaredances and listens to CW music. Does the existence of these mean
that the average American knows how to do it, or even feels it as a
part of his 'roots'? Of course not!
Swedish 'folk-dances' have never been a tradition known to a greater
part of the population. They were invented about 100 years ago as a
pastime for the upper class in the countryside, the Swedish
'folkdrakter' 'folk-dresses' are from approximately the same age and
also used by the upper class.
The movement with 'folkdans' and 'folkdrakter' was very strong in
Sweden about 10 - 20 years ago, around the time of the 'Grona vagen'
the green wave, when everyone should return to nature. A friend of
my family was and still is very active in this movement but she now
says that she's for the moment the only one in Stockholm that can
produce a real 'folkdrakt' and that the courses in 'folkdans' has
almost no visitors. The Swedes have turned to Work-out and Hip-hop
instead.
So, 'folkdans' was fashion, just like downhill skiing, windsurfing,
yuppie's and skateboards.
But, back to the track, does this mean that we don't care about our
'roots'. I would say no! I don't think that 'folkdans' is a part of
a Swede's roots and never has been. August Strindberg, Selma Lagerlof
and Astrid Lindgren are parts of the roots, the long summernights
and all the midsummer traditions, Lucia and the huge 'julbord', and
even Carl-Michael Bellman, Evert Taube and Ulf Lundell with all their
hymns to the consumption of wine and 'snaps' are. And all this very
Swedish culture and tradition is practiced in Sweden, every day, by
almost every Swede.
I guess I could ramble on for a while about this, but I won't. I will
just give one more example. Dagens Nyheter presented the statistics
over movie successes in Sweden the last ten years. Which films were
in top? Easy to guess: Lasse Abergs Sallskapsresor, Astrid Lindgrens
Ronja and Gosta Ekmans Jonssonligor all outclassed the American
box-office successes. That should give you an idea of the Swedish roots
more than anything else.
Mats
<[email protected]>
|
| From: Michael Palmer <[email protected]>
To: Multiple recipients of list SWEDE-L <[email protected]>
Folk dances were quite common in provincial, farming areas in the late
1700's and early 1800's and many types of folk dances such as various
village polskas have been danced at least since that time. Long dance
has been performed at least since the 1500's. Although the nobles
indulged in their own dances more related to those danced in other areas
of Europe at the time, polskas and other folk dances at that time were
danced not so much by the nobles as by farmers (peasants) and it is, in
fact, a provincial peasant tradition.
Mats is probably thinking of hambo when he mentions folk dance being
invented in the last 100 years. Hambo was an attempt to bring taste of
the peasant dance traditions to the upper classes in the cities in the
end of the 1800's and it is still quite popular in Sweden. Often
Swedes who can dance no other folk dances can dance schottis and hambo.
The dance was a merging of several different village polska traditions
into one dance that could be uniformly taught throughout the country,
and the early music for hambo was primarily taken from the music played
for polskas in and around Rattvik parish in Dalarna. More recently, new
music has been written specifically for this dance.
Folk costumes were worn by peasants at least in the 1700's and 1800's.
Folkdrakter from these periods are preserved for study at many
locations around Sweden, and are on display in a few of those
locations. The costume that I am copying (including the detail of the
hand-stitching) is Brunskogs museum in Varmland and dates from the late
1700's. It belonged to a woodsman and farmer (not someone from the
upper classes) and is typical of the folkdrakter preserved from
northern Varmland and western Dalarna. The preserved costumes range
from every-day peasant clothes (today's equivalent would be blue jeans)
to "Sunday best". Then as now, fancier clothes were saved for Sunday,
weddings, funerals, etc. These fancier costumes are the ones generally
displayed in museums, but they were still peasant costumes, not the
costumes of wealthy nobles as suggested by Mats.
Mats is perhaps thinking of the folk costumes that were popular in
Sweden at the end of the 1800's and in the early 1900's during a period
when city Swedes rediscovered the quaint beauty and folk traditions in
the province of Dalarna. Many folk costumes during that time were made
up and not based on the peasant costumes. Every area of Sweden that did
not have extant folk costumes invented them at the time, but many of
these were totally fantasy and not based on old examples from the
peasantry. However, they were still an attempt at preserving and
fostering a folk tradition.
Although the church tried to squash these traditions twice in the
1800's, they did survive in some regions. Dalarna was one such region,
and after all it was the peasants of Dalarna under the leadership of
Gustav Vasa who around 1520 finally freed Sweden of her suppressive
Danish overlords.
The good news is that there are [a] few who research and study the folk
arts on their own or in small groups, and there are schools where one
can go and actually study them!
Michael Palmer
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