folk dance

Introduction
Defining folk dance
- What makes a dance a folk dance?
- Operational definitions
- Categorizing dances
  - Hawaiian dance
  - Korean dance
  - European “character” dance
The collectors and their legacy
- The first folklorists
  - John Playford and the preservation of dance
  - Johann Gottfried von Herder and the idea of the folk
  - William John Thoms and folkloristics
- The 20th-century collectors
  - Cecil Sharp and the promotion of folk dance
  - Béla Bartók and ethnographic scholarship
  - Ljubica Janković and Danica Janković and modern scholarship
The expansion of folk dance experiences
- Two American teachers
  - Elizabeth Burchenal
  - Mary Wood Hinman
- The settlement movement
- The International Folk Dance movement
- Folk dance in the United States
- Fused traditions
  - Israeli folk dancing
  - Métis dance
Trends into the 21st century
- Political uses of folk dance
  - Supporting nationalism
  - Fostering goodwill and making a profit
- Expansion and challenge
  - Dancing for enlightenment
  - Who owns the dance?

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images

Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Peasant Dance

bugaku performance

Johann Gottfried von Herder

Hungarian folk dancers in traditional costumes perform in pairs on an outdoor stage at night during St. Stephen's Day celebrations in Eger, Hungary.

At a Glance

default image

folk dance summary

folk dance: Media

performing arts

Images

Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Peasant Dance

Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Peasant Dance

Peasant Dance, oil on wood by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c. 1568; in the...

Courtesy of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Maypole dance

Maypole dance

Traditional Maypole dance from England, with circle formation of dancers interweaving;...

Culver Pictures, Inc.

hopak

hopak

The Druzhba amateur dance ensemble performing the Ukrainian hopak.

Novosti/Sovfoto

hula

hula

Hula kahiko performance at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park on the island...

Ron Ardis

bugaku performance

bugaku performance

Bugaku, a court dance adapted to Japanese tastes from the dance and music...

G. Haasch/ZEFA

tarantella

tarantella

Members of the New York City Ballet dancing the tarantella from Napoli,...

© Martha Swope

Johann Gottfried von Herder

Johann Gottfried von Herder

Johann Gottfried von Herder, detail of an oil painting by Gerhard von Kügelgen, 1808;...

Courtesy of the Library of Tartu State University

Hungarian folk dancers in traditional costumes perform in pairs on an outdoor stage at night during St. Stephen's Day celebrations in Eger, Hungary.

St. Stephen's Day event

Folk dancers performing during a St. Stephen's Day event in Eger, Hungary.

© lithian/Shutterstock.com

Béla Bartók

Béla Bartók

Composer Béla Bartók, photographed by Fritz Reiner.

Mrs. Fritz Reiner

kjelipe

kjelipe

Roma people doing the the kjelipe, an open-circle dance, during the spring...

© Elsie Ivancich Dunin

square dance

square dance

Square dance at Skyline Farms, Alabama, 1937.

Ben Shawn/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (file no. LC-USF33-006276-M4)

Hundreds of performers in yellow costumes dance in formation at the Arirang Festival in Pyongyang, North Korea, with a colorful sunrise mural and mountains in the background.

North Korea: Arirang Festival

Performers at the Arirang Festival in Pyongyang, North Korea.

© nndrln/Shutterstock.com

A group of people in traditional Serbian folk costumes hold hands while dancing the Kolo in a line outdoors, with spectators and trees in the background.

folk dance

A Guinness world record attempt for the largest folk dance, which included more than...

© Aleksandar Todorovic/Shutterstock.com

Portuguese folk dancers

Portuguese folk dancers

Portuguese folk dancers from Algarve performing one of the traditional regional folk...

M. Howard/ZEFA

Romanian folk dancers

Romanian folk dancers

Romanian folk dancers performing at a folk festival.

© Ioan Florin Cnejevici/iStock.com

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