Copyright

Egil Bakka, Elizabeth Svarstad, and Siri Mæland

Published On

2024-04-25

Page Range

pp. 433–454

Language

  • English

Print Length

22 pages

16. New Perspectives on the Minuet Step

Chapter of: The Nordic Minuet: Royal Fashion and Peasant Tradition(pp. 433–454)
The chapter discusses how the knowledge about the Nordic folk minuet may give a broader basis for interpreting the historical sources regarding the basic French eighteenth-century minuet step. The knowledge of how the minuet is being danced in Nordic tradition, found in the Nordic Folk Minuet as well as at Danish Royal Ballet will cast new light on the minuet step described in earlier centuries. In particular, the chapter addresses the importance of understanding the mechanics of locomotion in terms of vertical movements while analysing the minuet.

Contributors

Egil Bakka

(author)
Professor Emeritus of Dance Studies at Norwegian University of Science and Technology
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9959-1474

Egil Bakka was the founding Director at the Norwegian Centre for Traditional Music and Dance (1973-2013) and is professor emeritus of Dance studies at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He built and chaired the programme for dance studies at his university and initiated the NOFOD Nordic master programme with Danish, Finnish and Swedish colleagues and the Choreomundus Erasmus international master’s in dance Knowledge, Practice and Heritage with colleagues from France, Hungary and UK. He was the first academic coordinator of both masters. He held many positions as chair or board member of national and international organisations, institutions, research projects and conferences, has seven honorary membership and prizes and is Commander of the Royal St. Olav Order. He has conducted extensive fieldwork in Norway and the Faroe Islands and had tasks in the UNESCO environment with the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Publications: Bakka, Egil et al. ed., Waltzing through Europe: Attitudes Towards Couple Dances in the Long Nineteenth-Century (Open Book Publishers, 2020), Bakka, Egil, 'Dance and Music in Interplay: Types of Choreo-Musical Relationships in Norwegian Heritage', in Diverging Ontologies in Music for Dancing European Voices V, ed. by Ardian Ahmedaja (Wien: Böhlau Verlag, 2023), pp. 29-50

Elizabeth Svarstad

(author)
Assistant Professor in Baroque Dance at Norwegian Academy of Music
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4134-6417

Elizabeth Svarstad PhD is an Assistant Professor in baroque dance at The Norwegian Academy of Music. She holds a Master of Arts and a PhD in dance studies from The Norwegian University for Science and Technology. Educated dancer from The Norwegian Academy of Ballet, she works as a dancer, choreographer and teacher and has participated in and created a vaste number of performances in Norway and abroad. Among her research articles are 'Traces of Dance and Social Life: A Dance Book and its Context' in Relevance and Marginalisation in Scandinavian and European Performing Arts 1770–1860. Questioning Canons, edited by Randi Margrete Selvik, Svein Gladsø and Annabella Skagen. London: Routledge, 2021, and 'Dance and Social Education in Early Nineteenth-Century Christiania' in Performing Arts in Changing Societies edited by Randi Margrete Selvik, Svein Gladsø and Anne Margrete Fiskvik /Taylor and Francis, 2020), 'Kort Udtog: A Danish Translation of Gottfried Taubert’s Kurtzer Entwurff Der Nutzbarkeit Des Künstlichen Tantz-EXERCITII (1727) ' in Tauberts Rechtschaffener Tantzmeister (Leipzig 1717) edited by Hanna Walsdorf, Marie-Thérèse Mourey, and Tilden Russell (Verlag Frank & Timme, 2019), and Svarstad, Elizabeth, and Nygaard, Jon. 'A Caprice – The Summit of Ibsen's Theatrical Career' in Ibsen Studies 16, no. 2 (2016): 168–85.

Siri Mæland

(author)
Senior Researcher in Traditional Dance at Norwegian Centre for Traditional Music and Dance
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8001-9905

Siri Mæland PhD is a Senior Researcher in Traditional Dance at the Norwegian Centre for Traditional Music and Dance (Sff). She lectures regularly at Norwegian universities and supervise the folk dance revival movement in ethnopedagogy, dance analysis, and dance archive. Siri has been a member of NFF since 2001, and was elected to the board and it’s writing group in 2010. Siri has since 2020 been the vice-chair of ICTM’s study group of Ethnochoreology (ictmusic.org), an important forum and network for all scholars working and researching in this interdisciplinary field. She holds an MA in Ethnomusicology from University of Bergen. Her Ph.D. thesis in Ethnochoreology from NTNU, The Norwegian University for Science and Technology: Dansebygda Haltdalen – Knowledge-in-dancing in a Rural Community in Norway: Triangular interaction between dance, music and partnering. Her latest rresearch articles are 'Musical Dancers and Dancing Musicians, Who’s in Charge? ' (2020) , and with Quigley Colin 'Choreomusical interactions, Hierarchical Structures, and Social Relations: A Methodological Account' (2020): Choreomusicology I, in Issues in Corpeorality and Social Relations. The world of music (new series) vol 9.1. With Bakka, Egil: 'The Manipulation of Body Weight for Locomotion – Labanotation and the Svikt Analysis' (2020) in Pál-Kovács and Szőnyi (eds) THE MYSTERY OF MOVEMENT Studies in Honor of János Fügedi.