Bygdedans
Bygdedans, or village dance, is the term most commonly used for a variety of regional, traditional dances of
Norway. These dances, and the accompanying music, is normally seen as the oldest living musical traditions in the country. These traditions have mainly survived in the more isolated farming communities of the country. In the urban areas and along the coastline where the interaction with other cultural expressions were more intense, these dances have been left behind in favour of new popular dances (
gammeldans) from Europe that came along with new instruments like the
Accordion.
The basic form of the bygdedans is the
gangar (walking dance in 2/4 or 3/8) and the
springar (running dance in even rhythm or 3/4) distinguished from each other mainly by tempo and intensity of the music and the dance. Both dances were characterised by a sequence of three parts: the figuring part; the free dancing part (lausdans) and the closed hold part (samdans). Through time a lot of regional variation has developed and most springar dances today have a clear ¾ pulse, which intonation varies considerably regionally. For instance in
Telemark the pulse is best characterised as long â€" longer â€" short, whereas in
Valdres it is short â€" longer â€" long. The gangar is today only a living tradition in
Telemark and
Setesdal. In the western part of Norway the ganger and its traditional tunes have been taken over by
rull/rudl a dance with a more modern waltzing style. The more athletic
Halling or Lausdans can also be seen as an heir of gangar but is mostly danced by men.
The areas of bygdedans correlate mainly with the areas where the
Hardanger Fiddle is used as the main folk music instrument. In the parts of Norway where the violin is more common, the traditional dances like,
pols and
springleik, have taken up more modern traits associated with the
gammaldans.
*
University of Oslo article on Bygdedans
