Abstract
The written history of German sword dance has seen a number of quaint twists. With the rediscovery in 1455 of a short Tacitus quote (98 C.E.) presumably proving the existence of the sword dance in ancient Germanic times, claims were soon made that it had persisted for millennia. From the late nineteenth century onward, nationalists and body culture theorists, each in their way, favored the idea of revitalizing an ethnic German dance form. This article aims to delineate the respective discourses, and illustrates these by portraying the choreographic renditions of an imagined German sword dance tradition by Olga Desmond and Harald Kreutzberg.
Full Text 
Sign-in/Register to access full text options
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Published version (
Free)
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
