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A folk dance is a dance that reflects the life of the people of a certain country or region. Not all ethnic dances are folk dances. For example, ritual dances or dances of ritual origin are not considered to be folk dances. Ritual dances are usually called "religious dances" because of their purpose. The terms "ethnic" and "traditional" are ...
- Overview
- What makes a dance a folk dance?
- Operational definitions
folk dance, generally, a type of dance that is a vernacular, usually recreational, expression of a past or present culture. The term folk dance was accepted until the mid-20th century. Then this and other categories of dance were questioned and their distinctions became subject to debate.
For the purposes of this article, the designation folk dance will be used for convenience, without the 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 cultures do 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 also dance, for a general treatment of dance as an art form. For further treatment of the folk arts, see folk music; folklore; folk literature; folk art.
Logically speaking, the adjective folk should 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 or performance. It should also imply who the performers are. However, the term folk dance, which has been in common use since the late 19th century, along with its parent term folklore, which was coined in 1846, is not as descriptive or uncontroversial as it might seem. Much of the problem lies in the attitudes and purposes of early scholars and their audience.
Usually, the designation folk was 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 people who were illiterate and unselfconscious, carrying on supposedly unsophisticated 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 centuries postulated a sort of Darwinian social evolution that passed from imagined beginnings through existing folk dances to arrive at modern recreational dances. This attitude, which fell out of favour by the 1930s, was part of a larger worldview that sometimes went so far as to place certain other groups of people farther down the human evolutionary tree from themselves and their peers.
Not surprisingly, a backlash developed, and since the middle of the 20th century the word folk has often been avoided because of the condescending attitude its use is thought to represent. Many cultural groups around the world demanded that their performing arts not be characterized by the term. Thus, some archives and organizations found it expedient to change the word folk to traditional in 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 (United Nations 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 word folk because 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.
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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 folk 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 who perform such dances do not identity themselves as folk dancers. Others reject the word folk entirely, as having nothing to do with who they are or what dances they do.
The Folk Dance are dances that are developed by people that reflect the life of the people of a certain country or region. Not all ethnic dances are folk dances. The terms "ethnic" and "traditional" are used when it is required to emphasize the cultural roots of the dance. If some dances, such as polka, cross ethnic boundaries and even cross ...
- Bharatanatyam. Bharatanatyam is a formal form of traditional Indian dance from Tamil Nadu. It was first recorded in an ancient treatise on theater and is traditionally performed by women.
- Céilí. Céilí is a form of folk dance with origins in Scotland and Ireland. It can include reels, long dances, round dances, and jigs but is better known as Irish step dance.
- Flamenco. Flamenco originated from the Roma people when they migrated from northwest India to Spain between the 9th and 14th centuries. They introduced new instruments such as the tambourine and unique styles of dancing and dress.
- Hula. Hula, from the native Hawaiians, is meant to be a physical portrayal of the song and chant that accompany it. Modern hula is a mixture of traditional Hawaiian dance and western influences that came about in the 1800s.
- Background. Folk dances share some or all of the following attributes: Dances are usually held at folk dance gatherings or social functions by people with little or no professional training, often to traditional music.
- Europe. Varieties of European folk dances include: Ball de bastons. Barn dance. Bulgarian dances. Pravo horo. Paidushko horo. Gankino horo. Daychovo horo. Clogging. Dutch crossing.
- Middle East, Central Asia and South Asia. Armenian dance. Assyrian folk dance. Azerbaijani dances. Bihu, an Assamese dance celebrating the arrival of spring, traditionally the beginning of the Assamese New Year.
- East and Southeast Asia. 4.1. China. Yangge. 4.2. Cambodia. Romvong. Rom kbach. 4.3. India. Bhagavata Mela. Bharatanatyam. Chhau dance. Garba. Gaudiya Nritya. Kathak. Kathakali.
It's fallacy is in being unable to stand up to its own definition. "Ethnic" does not mean "non-white." "Folk" does not mean "rural." "Ethnic dance" is any dance form which can be identified as originating with an ethnic culture and expressing the movement aesthetics of that culture. It includes all ethnic cultures, whether European, American ...
People also ask
Are all ethnic dances folk dances?
Is a ritual dance considered a folk dance?
What is ethnic dance?
Why are ritual dances called'religious dances'?
What is folk dance?
What are the different types of folk dance?
Folk dances represent one of the strongest ways these (sometimes truly ancient) traditions of countries and regions can be showcased to the public. Even though many traditional dances bear the name of an ethnic dance, not all of them remained folk dances, but all of them try to emphasize the cultural roots of the particular dance.
