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Kujutledes kogukondi: traditsioonist ja improvisatsioonist tanapaeva parimustantsus

100%
Kapper S.
Mäetagused
|
2011
|
vol. 49
7-34
EN
The aim of this article is to show what is the living dance tradition in Estonia like, by whom and how traditional elements are used in spontaneous amusement dance situations. The main data have been collected by observant participation in 2010 at Viljandi Folk Music Festival where contemporarily arranged folk music was played and the audience was encouraged to dance. Today, traditional dancing is very much influenced by conscious learning through more or less organised, regular or irregular activities like dance clubs, stage folk dance groups, and festival workshops. Professional dance teachers and some musicians, especially interested in traditional dancing have taken an important role in disseminating the dance repertoire as well as performance styles. In dancers’ movement their dance learning past and background reveals. Historically, traditional dancing in its entertainment function has been rather international, but the imagined community of Estonian folk dancers is distinguished by their rather conservative attitude, expressed in quite clear ideas about “our own” and “foreign” elements in dancing while dance club people or active audience do not prefer dances with longer local history. The identity of “folk dancers” seems to be more connected with an ideal culture, based on archival data about Estonians’ dancing (deriving mainly from in the end of 19th century) while the dancing behaviour of “dance club people” could be described as intended culture which is more flexible and open. This way, comparing the dancing of both communities, a reflection of continuous balance seeking of overall Estonian culture can be seen. Nowadays, in most dancing events the improvisation is used but the level of improvisation – conservative, innovative or free – depends on individual values and decisions of dancers as well as the music, companions, place and space. Creative use of older traditions is the domain of small number of devoted enthusiasts. Generally, older traditions are unknown and their limits are not adhered to, because of the very tolerant overall cultural environment
2

Missugust omakultuuri hoiame tantsupidudel?

100%
Kapper S.
Mäetagused
|
2016
|
vol. 63
35-52
EN
Estonian Song and Dance Celebrations take place every five years, involve thousands of participants and great audiences in venues or via the media. In Estonia the tradition of dance celebrations as well as (stage) folk dance in hobby groups dates back to the beginning of the twentieth century. In the learning processes and programmes of dance celebrations traditional folk dance is used in the format of some single elements or features only. In a situation like this it is important to ask what role dance celebrations play in preserving and passing on the knowledge and skills connected with traditional dancing in contemporary Estonia. Which concepts and realisations of a dance may be compatible with the process of dance celebrations, and which of them are left aside and why? The article is based on the author’s dance ethnography (2008–2105) in two dance worlds, which partially overlap each other: it is the traditional folk dancing on the one hand, and the (stage) folk dance as a hobby, including participation in dance celebrations, on the other. The study shows that it is ourselves who create those institutional truth regimes that promote certain ideas while overshadowing alternative knowledge, although important for the preservation and sustainable development of our national culture. The main conclusions of the study are as follows: Dance celebrations do not support the propagation of the plural and diverse nature of traditional culture (on the example of traditional dancing) because their principal output, the massive productions, are not designed for that purpose, have other strengths and also other requirements in connection with its specialty to address large crowds at rather long distances. The format of dance celebration suits well for highlighting the positive, unified, and common values of national culture, while social criticism is not an attitude readily adopted, either by participant dancers or by the audience, even if such an approach is proposed by a creative team. Although the agency of the lived body as a source of knowledge can generally be well utilised in increasing one’s self-awareness in dancing, the dance celebration processes do not enhance the personal agency of participant dancers – most choices are made by the artistic teams and group leaders while the dancers’ main task is to obey the rules. This could be seen as a point of concern because low agency, meaning here unwillingness and poor ability to make intended decisions, may easily lead to alienation from the values important for the tradition of dance celebration itself and Estonian national culture as a whole.
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