Preface
This collection of essays is the result of several meetings, conducted over many years, of the international research group, the Sub-Study Group on Round Dances — 19th Century Derived Couple Dances. Operating within the Study Group on Ethnochoreology, under the auspices of the International Council on Traditional Music (ICTM), this collective was launched in 2002 at the 22nd Symposium of the Study Group on Ethnochoreology, Szeged, Hungary. It was initiated by Norwegian ethnochoreologist and dance historian Egil Bakka, who not only remained as its secretary and chair throughout but also led this research and editorial project.
The initial meeting was held in Prague (3–6 April 2003) and hosted by Daniela Stavělová and Dorota Gremlicová at the Academy of Performing Arts. The participants were: Anca Giurchescu, Anna Starbanova, Dalia Urbanavičienė, Daniela Stavělová, Dorota Gremlicová, Egil Bakka, Elsie Ivancich Dunin, Eva Kröschlova, Iva Niemcic, László Felföldi, Mats Nilsson, Rebeka Kranjec, and Theresa Buckland. Grażyna Dąbrowska and Aenne Goldschmidt contributed material to the meeting, even though they were not able to be present.
The group elected to work on and contribute material to four parallel tracks:
- Analysis and classification of round dance movement patterns, including musical parameters.
- Dancing masters/dance teachers and their material on round dances.
- Political, ideological and socio-cultural discourses on round dances.
- Organisational contexts for round dances.
Work continued on all four tracks at each of the subsequent meetings (2002–2016) with the intention to publish a monograph. It became clear, however, that track three presented the most fruitful theme to prioritise for publication of shared findings.
This edited collection could not have been realised without the generous help and support of a number of different colleagues and institutions in hosting our meetings which enabled work to be shared in person and our discussions to progress. These include: The Academy of Performing Arts, Prague, Czech Republic, April 2003, May 2011, December 2012; The Council for Protection of Ethnic Culture, Vilnius, Lithuania, October 2003; Elsie Ivancich Dunin in her home in Zaton in the Dubrovnik area, Croatia, June 2004; The Institute of Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences in Prague, September 2004; The Folk Dance Department of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest, June 2005; The Institute of Ethnomusicology, Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Ljubljana, April 2006; The Academy of Performing Arts, Prague, Czech Republic, October 2007; The Tanzarchiv, Leipzig, February 2007; The Voivodeship House of Culture in Kielce, Poland, November 2009; Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku in Zagreb, Croatia, October 2009; The Council for the Protection of Ethnic Culture, Vilnius, Lithuania, May 2012; and the Institute of Ethnomusicology of the Scientific Research Centre of Slovenian Academy of Science and Arts, November 2016. Participants also took advantage, where practicable, of the symposia and conferences held by the parent Study Group on Ethnochoreology and the ICTM. In 2005, the Sub-Study Group gave a panel presentation on selected research outcomes to date at the 38th World Conference of the ICTM.
In addition to the authors and editors listed as contributors to this volume, several other members from the Study Group on Ethnochoreology have attended meetings and contributed to the research project. We would like to thank Aenne Goldschmidt, Anca Giurchescu, Anna Starbanova, Eva Kröschlova, Gediminas Karoblis, Grażyna Dąbrowska, Judy Olson, Kateřina Černíčková, Katerina Silna, Lisa Overholser, Marianne Bröcker, Mirko Ramovš, Vaida Naruševičiūtė, and Volker Klotsche.
Our grateful thanks are due to the Faculty of Humanities, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and to the Norwegian Council for Traditional Music and Dance for their generous financial assistance in supporting the publication of this project.
We also wish to express our appreciation to the International Council for Traditional Music and the Study Group on Ethnochoreology for the organizational framework in which we have carried out our research and for granting us permission to use its logos on this publication.
Throughout the book, links and QR codes allow readers to view samples of the dances discussed. In order to access these recordings, follow the links or scan the QR code which appears alongside the relevant link. The editors want to stress that the many video examples given are a selection of what is available on the internet, we have not had the means to take material from specialised archives. We have selected material that gives an impression of the dance forms. It may not always do justice to the forms in terms of historicity, or quality of dancing. For more video links and further discussion, please see the additional resources tab on the listing for this book on Open Book Publisher’s website (https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0174).
Egil Bakka, Theresa Buckland, Helena Saarikoski, and Anne von Bibra Wharton