Copyright

Petri Hoppu, Elizabeth Svarstad and Anders Christensen

Published On

2024-04-25

Page Range

pp. 417–432

Language

  • English

Print Length

16 pages

15. Minuet Structures

Chapter of: The Nordic Minuet: Royal Fashion and Peasant Tradition(pp. 417–432)
The chapter analyses steps, figures, and overall structure of the ordinary court minuet and its Danish and Finnish variations. The analysis shows that the overall structure of the ordinary minuet is found in most Danish and Finnish folk minuet variations. The minuet step, main figure, and basic form of the dance have remained their most characteristic features during the centuries, although the details may vary. However, when it comes to style or dance technique, the differences between the ordinary minuet and its Danish and Finnish rural counterparts become significant.

Contributors

Petri Hoppu

(author)
Principal Lecturer at the Department of Media and Performing Arts at Oulu University of Applied Sciences
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6394-5210

Petri Hoppu PhD studied ethnomusicology at the University of Tampere, Finland, and graduated in 1995. He continued his studies in Tampere and wrote his doctoral thesis (1999) on the minuet in Finland. Today he is a Principal Lecturer at the Oulu University of Applied Sciences and Adjunct Professor (Docent) in dance studies at Tampere University. His areas of expertise include theory and methodology in dance anthropology as well as research of Skolt Saami dances, Finnish-Karelian vernacular dances and Nordic folk dance revitalization. He has been a project manager of several research projects, including Dance in Nordic Spaces (2007–2012) and KanTaMus (developing common pedagogy for folk dance and music, 2021–2023). He has written several peer-reviewed articles and co-edited the book Nordic Dance Spaces: Practicing and Imagining a Region (2014) with professor Karen Vedel and Dance Research Journal 52 (1) Special Issue In and Out of Norden - Dance and the Migratory Condition (2020) with professor Inger Damsholt. He has been the editor of the only annual Nordic folk dance research journal, Folkdansforksning i Norden, since 2002. He has been on boards of international dance scholars’ associations and giving lectures at universities in Europe and the US.

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.

Anders Chr. N. Christensen

(author)

Anders Chr. N. Christensen MA is born in Holstebro and worked as an academic assistant at Dansk folkemindesamling (Danish folklore archives) from 1992 until his retirement. He has a master's in Folkloristics from Department of Folkloristics at Copenhagen University where he has also worked as an external lecturer. He has been an hourly teacher at the folk music department at the Funen Conservatory of Music. He recorded folk life accounts and folk music from 1972, eventually in cooperation with the Folk music house in Hoager and the Danish folkore archives. In 1977 he also took up video recording of dance. He has researched Danish folk dances, including the minuet, and published multiple books and articles about dance history and practice. His extensive ethnographic fieldwork has concentrated on Danish traditions in Denmark but includes a fieldtrip to the Caribiens. He participated in Nff projects from 1981 and contributed to Gammaldans I Norden, Nordisk folkedanstypologi and Norden I dans. Other publications are: Christensen, A. C. N. (1999). Monnevet og Mollevit. Folk og kultur, årbog for dansk etnologi og folkemindevidenskab. 28(1) 94-126. and Sang til Dans. Traditioner er mange ting: festskrift til Iørn Piø på halvfjerdsårsdagen den 24. august 1997, 1997, 88: 122.