Copyright

Gunnel Biskop

Published On

2024-04-25

Page Range

pp. 85–176

Language

  • English

Print Length

92 pages

5. The Minuet in Sweden – and Eastern Part Finland – during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries and in Sweden after 1800

  • Gunnel Biskop (author)
The chapter describes the position of the minuet in the Swedish kingdom starting from the late seventeenth century. Throughout the eighteenth century, the minuet was commonly danced by people from different social classes in the country from the nobility to the peasants. The chapter discusses the minuet’s roles in multiple contexts among various groups of people. The period after 1809 when Sweden lost the eastern part Finland is examined only for the remaining part of the kingdom. The latest pieces of information about the minuet in Sweden date back to the former part of the twentieth century.

Contributors

Gunnel Biskop

(author)

Gunnel Biskop born in Karleby in Ostrobothnia in Finland is a retired editor from Kemira Ltd in Helsinki (1968–2003). From a young age she has participated in a folk dance group and has danced all the traditional minuets recorded in Finland. She is on the board of Finlands Svenska Folkdansring. Alongside her full-time work she studied folklore and ethnology at Åbo Akademi university and finished a Master of Art 1990. In the field of dance, she has published five books and participated in fifteen anthologies and written over a hundred articles. Her PhD thesis is called Dansen för åskådare. Intresset för folkdansen som estradprodukt och insamlingsobjekt hos den svenskspråkiga befolkningen i Finland under senare delen av 1800-talet (Åbo Akademi 2012) (Dance for an audience. The interest in folk dance as a stage product and object of dance collecting among Swedish-speakers in Finland during the latter half of the 19th century). Her book Menuetten – älsklingsdansen. Om menuetten i Norden – särskilt i Finlands svenskbygder – under trehundrafemtio år (The Minuet – The loved Dance. About the minuet in the Nordic region – especially in the swedish-speaking area of Finland – for three hundred and fifty years) was published in 2015. Since 1990, she has participated in the projects of Nordisk forening for folkedansforskning (Nordic association for folk dance research) and served on its board. Together with Egil Bakka et al (eds), she co-edited Norden i Dans. Folk ‒ Fag ‒ Forskning (Oslo, Novus 2007).