Nordic Folk Dances as Imaginary Geographies

Abstract

Geography is a feature that typically belongs to the realm of folk dance. Folk dances are often defined as belonging to a certain region, and it is seldom they are considered a result of artistic creativity. In the Nordic countries, folk dancers have co-operated intensively since the early twentieth century, sharing dances with each other. In this presentation, I am arguing that this co-operation has created imaginative geographies of the Nordic region, filled not with landscapes, terrains, or water systems, but with movements, holds, and music. As an example, I will present two Nordic folk dance books from the 1960s. In these books, dances are attached to certain geographical areas, which is not merely contextual information but also entails stylistic features of a specific dance. Most dances are connected to a certain parish, and in some cases the province is mentioned, as well. In practice, for most folk dancers, the names of the areas do not have much significance as material domain, but they are elements of a map of a danced region, and as such the dances are a part of imaginative geographies, performed spaces. Following the British geographer Derek Gregory, I see folk dances as a continuation of performances that necessarily creates novelty, which allows one to experience spaces differently. The books are danced atlases presenting the Nordic region as a series of performed spaces. They address how the Nordic region has been represented in a danced form, emphasizing affiliation and unity, as well as distinction and disjointedness.