![Sample our Area Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5922/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Area-Studies.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
The focus of this article is on traditional folk dance in Soviet and post-Soviet Estonia. Dance variation is analyzed through the prism of postcolonial theories to reveal the sequential effects of the colonial situation developed during the Soviet period. Specific causes and characteristic traits of the Soviet influence are explored. Colonialist echoes of the Soviet regime within contemporary Estonian culture are reflected in two trends in the variation of traditional folk dance: first, “contamination” of traditional folk dance with stage dance elements promoted during the Soviet era and, second, a regular search for “genuine” folk dance as a reaction to Soviet colonial heritage.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
References, archival records, manuscripts, and audiovisual sources
ERA – Collections of Estonian Folklore Archives (1928–1944) – ERA II 1–110, 114, 128, 130–34, 135–70, 171–91, 192–256, 257–309.
ERA DV, EV, FAV – audiovisual collections of Estonian Folklore Archives
EKRK – Manuscript collection of Estonian language and folklore department of the University of Tartu in Estonian Folklore Archives – TRÜ EKRK I 9 (1956)
EFA – Estonian Film Archives
ERR – Estonian Public Broadcasting
RKM – Folklore collection of Estonian Litarary Museum (former Fr. R. Kreutzwald Estonian State Literary Museum) – RKM I 1–18 (1952–1983), RKM II 1–45, 48–89, 90–144 (1947–1962), RKM Mgn II (1957–1974), RKM Toomi (1939–1940)
SKS – Audiovisual recordings of Estonian folk dances in Sound Archives of Finnish Literature Society
TMM – archival collections of Estonian Theatre and Music Museum
Author’s personal field notes from ethnographic interviews and conversations, 2008–2013
Author’s audio and video recordings, 2008–2013
Notes
1. In this article, the term “movement text” stands for an organized sequence or complex of human body movements and motion while “dance text” includes movement text along with its meaning(s), “choreographic text” is used as a parallel term for “dance text.” Dance texts are functioning as cultural texts in the sense of Yuri Lotman (1981, 2010, 88); but for brevity and simplicity, terms “movement” and “dance” are also used in the article. The meaning of “text” should not be confused with terms “dance notation” and “dance score” that stand for recording of movement texts using a verbal or graphic sign system or the result of this kind of recording respectively.
2. I use the term “Dance Celebration” because this is the official (Kuutma Citation2002) translation of Estonian “tantsupidu” when meaning nationwide events continuously prepared and regularly held every 5 years, and to make clear distinction from other dance, music, or folklore festivals. For the essence and history of the Estonian Song and Dance Celebration, recognized as a UNESCO masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity see also http://laulupidu.ee/english/story and http://laulupidu.ee/english/history/, last accessed on 8 August 2013.
3. An international festival for authentic folklore, organized as a collaboration of three Baltic states since 1987, see also http://www.folkloorinoukogu.ee/International_Folklore_Festival_BA_264.htm, last accessed on 8 August 2013.
4. Anna Raudkats (1886–1965) was the first Estonian specially educated choreologist, dance and gymnastics teacher who started scholarly collecting of Estonian folk dances in 1913.
5. Audiovisual sources are not yet well available in everyday work of Estonian dance teachers.
6. In contrast to participatory traditional dancing where the time of starting to dance is chosen by and depends on the dancers, to some extent also the dance form (e.g. solo, couple or group dance, etc.), and where, usually, individual variation occurs, to the extent depending on dance format (e.g. improvisatory or sequence dance) and traditional community norms.
7. Musical accompaniment that is considered old-fashioned or unsuitable for other reasons, is often reworked and recorded again during the preparation process of Dance Celebration, there would not have been anything unusual in the case of “Kalur ja meri,” too.
8. This situation is slowly changing: since 2012, schools have adopted new curricula; in dance education, attention is now paid to differences between traditional and stage folk dance, and universities have become more proficient in fostering contemporary knowledge and critical thinking in young dance teachers.
9. Kristjan Torop (1934–1994) was a dance folklorist (graduated as philologist from the University of Tartu), a productive collector and researcher of Estonian folk dance, and an influential promoter of traditional dancing during the second half of the twentieth century.
10. Folklore ensemble Leigarid was established with a definite aim – to introduce Estonian folklore to tourists in Estonian State Open-Air Museum. Regular presentations have taken place on authentic farmyards every summer Saturday and Sunday at 11 a.m. from 1969 until now. Unlike many other folklore collectives in Estonia, Leigarid since their foundation have learned stage folk dances and taken part at the process of nationwide Dance Celebrations in parallel with traditional folk dancing in their museum programs.
11. Táncház (dance house) is an urban folk dance and music revival movement that started in socialist Hungary in the 1970s, providing alternatives to officially supported and mandatory youth activities and played a vital role in the everyday life of young people. The dance house as a subculture with its concept of “authenticity” was able to create common identity with the intrinsic notion of oppositional stance. (Balogh, Fülemile 2008).
12. Different forms of labajalg are, nowadays, widely considered the most unique and archaic phenomena in Estonian dance tradition.
13. At the end of the twentieth and beginning of twenty-first century, Tallinn dance club events were typically promoted with the following wording: in a dance club, “you can dance the same dances that are known as folk dances but without leg lifts and evil trainers” (http://www.lihtnetants.com/tallinna_tantsuklubi.html last accessed on 22 November 2013).
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Sille Kapper
Sille Kapper (born 1968) has been a Research Fellow at the Department of Choreography of Tallinn University, Institute of Fine Arts, since 2008 and a practicing folk dance teacher since 1986. Kapper is active in the process of Estonian Song and Dance Celebrations and a member of the artistic council of CIOFF International Folklore Festival Baltica. Kapper is also a folk dance mentor at the Estonian Folk Dance and Folk Music Association and council member of the Union of Estonian Dance Education.