Dance and the Formation of Norden Emergences and Struggles

Dance and the Formation of Norden Emergences and Struggles Karen Vedel (Ed.) Dance and the Formation of Norden Emergences and Struggles © Tapir Academic Press, Trondheim 2011 ISBN 978-82-519-2648-5 This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means; electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission. Layout: Type-it AS, Trondheim Cover Layout: Mari Røstvold, Tapir Academic Press Printed and binded by: AIT Oslo AS Photo cover: The Red Song. Living Movement, 1982. Photographer: Francois Couderc. (The Living Movement Åben Scene Archive) The publication was made possible with support from: • • • • • Faculty of Humanities, NTNU, Trondheim Letterstedska Föreningen Nordic Culture Fund Stiftelsen Clara Lachmanns Fond Stiftelsen Rolf De Marés Minnesfond Tapir Academic Press publishes textbooks and academic literature for universities and university colleges, as well as for vocational and professional education. We also publish high quality literature of a more general nature. Our main product lines are: • Textbooks for higher education • Research and reference literature • Non-fiction We only use environmentally certified printing houses. Tapir Academic Press NO–7005 Trondheim, Norway Tel.: + 47 73 59 32 10 Email: [email protected] www.tapirforlag.no Publishing editor: [email protected] Tracing Dance Fields Anne Fiskvik and Egil Bakka During the first decades of the 20th century, big political changes happened in Norden. After a long period when the region had had only two independent countries, Sweden and Denmark, two new nation states were established: Norway in 19051 and Finland in 1917.2 This gave the central part of Norden the states and borders it more or less has kept since. When the two leading countries lost their dominant role as small empires and the two provinces or colonies gained independence, the four central Nordic countries slowly came on equal terms and became comparable in new ways. The period chosen for analysis, 1900–1930, was therefore central in the construction of the present Norden. Using Norway as a case study, this chapter explores how dance was situated on the public arena during the three first decades of the 20th century, and how it contributed to the emerging nation state. Applying key concepts from Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory, such as the «invention» of new expert roles, the identification of dominant agents and the distinction between different forms of capital, the aim is to discuss whether and how the dance activities in the chosen period can be understood as happening within one field constructed by several subfields. The tracing of a national dance field is meant to serve as basis for a later exploration of a Nordic dance field. The aim of giving a reasonably 1 Norway was in union with Denmark during 1450–1814 together with Iceland, the Faroe Isles, and Greenland, and in union with Sweden during 1814–1905. 2 Finland was a part Sweden until 1808, and then a province of Russia during 1808–1918. 57 Tracing Dance Fields deepened discussion of one national field is already a challenge for a chapter of this size. An attempt is made, however, to contextualize the discussions with examples and perspectives from the other three countries. The tracing of a Norwegian dance field is thus meant to function as a pilot study, exploring methods that hopefully can be applied on other countries in later publications. In this volume, the analysis and discussions of the material on Norway will be loosely contextualized with examples and complementary perspectives from Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. The chapter approaches its topic through three different, but large areas of dance activities: folk dance, theatre dance, and ballroom dance. They cannot be consistently delimited; there will no doubt be overlapping and there will be material that falls between the delimitated areas. While recognizing that both categories and periods may overlap, there is still a need to work with open, broad-genre concepts, which seems suitable and in tune with the understanding of that time period. Thus, in this chapter the genre of folk dance is taken to include the organized folk dance revival, the traditional dance, which the revival aimed to represent, and the popular dance, which was not dependent upon dance schools and not considered of value by the folk dance revival. The term ballroom dance includes what dance schools taught for purposes of social life in a broad sense and for purposes of competition. The term theatrical dance includes presentations of dance for audiences, on stage, or in other settings, irrespective of what social status and value were attributed to it. The genre concepts of the time, typically, however, brought the valued dance material into the limelight, such as folk dance, and left out material of lower status, such as the social dance of the lower classes in cities. In the area of Norwegian theatre dance, this is perhaps not so much reflected in the discourses of the time as in the priorities of later research, since dance shows in varietés and vaudevilles seem to be reviewed just as much as classical ballet. It is beyond the scope of this chapter to counteract such imbalances of source material fully even if attempts are made. Three Agents, Three Events Three central dance agents, and important initiatives of theirs, are focussed as points of departure for the following discussion. The aim is 58 Anne Fiskvik and Egil Bakka to let these agents lead us into the centre of the emerging field and to see them as part of a broader context, to identify their particular capital and estimate their power in the field(s). To some degree, this can be seen as resonating with the following statement by Bourdieu about dominant players in the field of science and the games they play. A small number of agents and institutions concentrate sufficient capital to take the lead in appropriating the profits generated by the field – to exercise power over the capital held by other agents, the smaller holders of scientific capital. This power over capital is in fact exerted through power over the structure of the distribution of the chances of profit. The dominant players impose by their very existence, as a universal norm, the principles that they engage in their own practice. (Bourdieu, 2004: 62) Having selected the point of departure mentioned above and chosen what can be considered central agents in Norwegian dance, it is necessary to state the awareness of the problem this brings about. Subscribing to canonized historical accounts that single out important individuals and singular events as what triggered new development has been criticized as «chronicle of stars» fashion (Bakka and Biskop, 2007: 302). The intention is to balance this by bringing in other kinds of material. The Emergence of a Norwegian Dance Field? The question of emergence is approached by focusing on some central events as a beginning of a historical account. Bourdieu mostly approaches fields where the game is already on and rarely discusses how fields emerge. In his article on the literary field, however, he does approach the question. The existence of the writer, as fact and as value, is inseparable from the existence of the literary field as an autonomous universe endowed with specific principles of evaluation of practices and works. […]In fact, the invention of the writer, in the modern sense of the term, is inseparable from the progressive invention of a particular social game, which I term the literary field and which is constituted as it establishes its autonomy, that is to say, its specific laws of functioning, within the field of power. (Bourdieu, 2007: 89) 59 Tracing Dance Fields It seems that Bourdieu sees the invention of central agents in a field as what is opening the field, and this idea will be tested. The three first decades of the 20th century were a period when dance to a much larger extent than before was dealt with as a theme from the perspective of cultural politics. New, stronger, or more specialized expertise on dance developed in Norway. Maybe it can be said with Bourdieu that new roles were invented. The events in focus are the following: In 1902, Hulda Garborg, living in Kristiania, started her work to create the Norwegian song dance, a work which was closely portrayed in the short-lived periodical Symra in 1902 and 1903, and which resulted in several booklets within the first years. In the 1920s, more agents became visible in the field through establishing periodicals and publishing books for folk dancers. The resources and channels Hulda Garborg made available brought about a broad discussion around folk dancing and also, one might claim, paraphrasing Bourdieu, the invention of the revival folk dancer in Norway. In 1910 actor/dancer/instructor Gyda Christensen began to build a semi-professional ballet company at the Nationaltheatret in Kristiania. This establishment was the first of its kind in Norway, and it became an important beginning of, and created a good foundation for, a Norwegian classical ballet within professional theatre, and accordingly, one could perhaps say, invented the Norwegian ballet dancer. In 1913, the First lieutenant3 Hjamar Svae opened what he called a Dance conservatoire4 in Kristiania. It was in no way the first dance school in the capital, but the name chosen seem to signalize higher ambitions than the usual dance school. His main achievement was, however, the periodical Dansen, which he initiated somewhat later, trying to invent dance experts looking across genre borders. From 1925 to 1928, the brave venture to publish a Norwegian dance magazine claiming to cover all dance forms succeeded in spite of the relatively open animosity between some of genres. This magazine brought fashionable social dance and Norwegian dance teachers to the forefront for the first time. The dance teacher, later Major Hjalmar Svae, was the main publisher and wrote a number of articles. The magazine also featured articles on folk dance and theatrical dance. Hulda Garborg and Gyda Christensen both contributed some articles on their dance genres. 3 4 «Premierløytnant». «Dansekonservatorium». 60 Anne Fiskvik and Egil Bakka By the early 1930s Dansen had stopped and some of the strong activity present in each of the genres before or during the 1920s weakened or took other forms, but many structures and organizations remained.5 Dansen might be seen as a symbol for an emerging dance field. Periodicals, particularly the four volumes of Dansen, newspaper material, and books on dance from the first decades of the 20th century are analysed to learn what kind of capital is valid in each of the genres. Attempts to identify some central positions are made, and the positions occupied by our three selected individuals are discussed together with the three described events considered as central in Norwegian dance history. A new dance genre is established with Hulda Garborg’s song dance. The classical ballet is established in Norway with Gyda Christensen’s ensemble and an ambitious magazine covering all the genres is started by Hjalmar Svae. Can these events be seen as the building of one or more dance fields? In order to deepen the discussion, the three persons and the connected events will be contextualized before going into more detail. The Larger Context for the Three Agents The political differences of the past were obviously strongly influencing how dance was situated in the four central Nordic countries. As for theatre dance, Denmark and Sweden had had important Royal Ballet companies since the late 18th century. During the Russian era, the influence of the Russian ballet was strong in Finland, and the national ballet company was established as a part of the national opera in 1922, only a few years after independence. Norway was still in the early 20th century in the very beginning stages of the development toward a permanent ballet company. Ballroom dancing seems to have recruited many of its teachers from the area of ballet and might also for that reason be situated differently. When it comes to folk dance, however, one might assume 5 Noregs Ungdomslag organized its specialized work with folk dance in this period, and it has been the basis for this work in Noregs Ungdomslag up to present (Norden i dans 2007:515). Hjalmar Svae became the first president of Norges danseforbund when it was established in 1935 (personal communication from Eva Svae 2010). The activities definitely weakened in folk dance, the column Leikarvollen ceased by 1932, and Gyda Christensens ensemble dissolved in 1919. 61 Tracing Dance Fields that all four countries were on more equal terms. The traditional and popular forms lived on in a slowly changing continuity. The idea to revive or revitalize folk dance was, however, a radically new idea that caught on and established itself in all the countries, as also discussed in Petri Hoppu’s chapter. There was an obvious similarity across the countries in this respect, but folk dancing was also situated differently, being part of the processes of building the identity of new nations in Norway and Finland, and not in Denmark and Sweden. Hulda Garborg The Starting Point for Hulda Garborg’s Song Dance In January 1902, the Norwegian authoress, Hulda Garborg wrote a book review in the Kristiania newspaper Dagbladet (25 January, 1902). The review was on a booklet by the Danish ethnomusicologist Hjalmar Hulda Garborg, 1912. Photographer: Helland & Co, Fotografisk Atelier in Kristiania (Oslo). (Klara Semb Collection, Rff, Trondheim) 62 Anne Fiskvik and Egil Bakka Thuren on Dance and Balladry on the Faroe Isles.6 Garborg summarizes Thuren’s findings, stressing particularly the ideas that the Faroese ballads and the dance had come to the Isles from Europe via Norway. One argument was that the Faroe Isles and Norway share many ballads and that many ballads have topics from Norwegian history. The assumption about chain dance accompanied by ballads as a dominating genre in Western Europe in the high Middle Ages and their spreading from there to the Nordic countries had already been proposed by the folklorists, for instance Axel Olrik and Molkte Moe (Liestøl and Moe, 1912).7 The Norwegian ballads, which had been forgotten for a long time, were now, according to Garborg, getting new attention. This came mainly from classical singers who performed the ballads in an affected, educated style. She ends her article with the idea that the national and liberal youth clubs throughout the country ought to start singing and dancing the Norwegian ballads in a Faroese style. Within a few months after her review, Hulda Garborg had put her own idea into practice and created a «norsk songdans», a dance in Faroese style to Norwegian ballads. The Faroese dance is a chain dance where dancers hold hands in curved line or circle and dance with a step of the branle simple type (Thuren, 1901: 5). The Norwegian song dance, developed from this, kept the step, but added pieces of mostly simple choreography to the refrain of the song (Bakka, 1985: 25). Garborg’s idea and her song dance caught on very rapidly, and in a few years it had spread to all parts of Norway and even to all the Nordic countries (Bakka & Biskop, 2007: 384). It also triggered discussions and various kinds of publications. Based on this response, it seems evident that there were eager wishes from many young people to learn the new dance, and it was embraced with enthusiasm from leading personalities. As will be suggested below, it further seems that this new dance genre had a large potential as cultural capital and that it was well in tune with other trends of the time. 6 These isles are situated north of Scotland and were under Norwegian reign in the medieval ages, but have since then belonged to Denmark. 7 Probably Hulda Garborg first heard this in lectures Moe gave at the university already in the 1890s (Garborg, 1922: 5) 63 Tracing Dance Fields A Larger Context: The Movement for Norwegianness8 Hulda Garborg and her work with the song dance were firmly rooted in «Norskdomsrørsla» (the movement for Norwegianness), and the promotion of the «Nynorsk» – New Norwegian language. Garborg became the first lady of this movement during the first decades of the 20th century. She was a politically radical authoress, married to the intellectual front figure of the movement, the author Arne Garborg, and engaged in promoting Norwegian dance, costume, and theatre. Norway was a sovereign state until 1380 and had a written language, which was in use from 1050 until around 1400. From 1380 until 1814, Norway was united with Denmark and Danish language eventually became the only written language, a situation that remained until the late 19th century. When Norway got a modern constitution in 1814 and was united with Sweden, ideas of independence arose, and ideas of getting back a Norwegian written language. The language debate in the 1830s indicated two different courses to follow: either to norwegianize the Danish language, or construct a new Norwegian written language, building on dialects which were pointing back to the Norse language. Both courses were taken, and by the end of the 19th century Norway had two official written languages, the latter of which «Norskdomsrørsla» was promoting.9 It was the self-educated Norwegian linguist Ivar Aasen who around the middle of the 19th century took upon himself to reconstruct a new Norwegian written language, «Nynorsk». He based his work on five years of extensive fieldwork collecting Norwegian dialects and wrote a grammar, a dictionary, and a book with samples for the new language. Aasen’s idea was to try and find a common denominator for the rural dialects, using Old Norwegian as a guideline to obtain a consistent linguistic structure when there were many variants in the dialects. After his work was completed in 1873, his adherents worked to have the language accepted, and they had an important breakthrough in 1885. The «Norskdomsrørsla». The «Nynorsk» language won its first official recognition with the Act of Parliament on May 12, 1885, when the Parliament with the Liberal Party in the majority made the following request. The government is requested to see to that the Norwegian Folk language (Ivar Aasen’s term for «Nynorsk» in his grammar of 1848) gets the same status as DanoNorwegian as a school and official language (Hallaråker, 2001. Internet). 8 9 64 Anne Fiskvik and Egil Bakka first large organization to work for Norwegianness and the «Nynorsk» was Noregs Ungdomslag (the Norwegian Youth Association) established in 1896. Its bylaws’ preamble sounded: «Noregs Ungdomslag will work for popular enlightenment on fully Norwegian grounds and for solidarity and cooperation among rural youth» (Kløvstad et al., 1995: 42, translation EB). Hulda Garborg’s work with Norwegian song dance needs to be understood as a part of this context, and the whole movement had Norwegian rural culture as its cultural capital, a capital they wanted to see increase in value in competition with the international, bourgeois, urban culture. With the new language as the core, the «Norskdomsrørsla» was promoting rural costumes, music, dance, and food, etc., as the basis for the cultural identity. Above similarities between Norway and Finland in terms of their use of folk dance in building of new national identities were pointed out. Folk dancing was closely connected to questions of language in both countries, but in quite different ways. Danish and Norwegian can be seen as two dialects rather than two languages in terms of relatedness, whereas Swedish and Finnish are not related.10 Therefore, «colonial» Danish did not remain as minority language in Norway, but developed into the socalled educated daily speech11 of the upper classes. As a koiné12 language that emerged in the educated classes in Norway during the union with Denmark, it was a spoken variant of the Danish language with Norwegian pronunciation and with some other peculiarities. Considered the first language for some 5% of the population around 1900,13 it was developed into «Bokmål», a version of Norwegian which, at least in this period, had affinity to urban values. Norwegian folk dancing was mostly connected to «Nynorsk» based on rural dialects. In Finland the «colo- 10 Swedish belongs, together with Norwegian, Danish, Faroese, and Icelandic, to the Northern Germanic group of Indo-European languages, whereas Finnish belongs to the Finno-permian group of the Uralic languages together with Sami and Estonian (Dalby, 2006). 11 «Dannet dagligtale». 12 A koiné is a stabilized contact variety, which results from the mixing and subsequent levelling of features of varieties, which are similar enough to be mutually intelligible, such as regional or social dialects. This occurs in the context of increased interaction or integration among speakers of these varieties (Siegel, 2001). 13 http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dannet_dagligtale#cite_note-Ven.C3.A5s_1998-2 65 Tracing Dance Fields nial» Swedish was a minority language in the Swedish-speaking regions of the country. Therefore, the folk dance movement split into two sets of organizations, one for the Swedish and one for the Finnish population, and folk dance organizations were connected to the support of both languages. In Sweden and Denmark, language politics was hardly any important issue for folk dancers. An other difference between the national Nordic folk dance movements is to which degree and how they invented «folk dance traditions». In Sweden, choreographies from the Opera ballet, inspired by traditional music and dance, were pragmatically adopted by folk dance pioneers as folk dance, and the tradition of choreographing «folk dances» in a similar style continued. Inventions were also common in the Finnish-speaking organization in Finland. In Norway, Hulda Garborg intentionally invented the song dance tradition in a modernistic spirit. In Denmark and on the Swedish side in Finland, folklorists influenced early folk dancing more, and inventions were fewer. (Bakka and Biskop, 2007: 301–306) These differences were already identified and discussed at around 1920. In early discussions about the possibility of cooperation between Danish and Swedish folk dance clubs, the Danish leaders report the understanding that Swedish activity is «in reality no folk dance, but merely fabricated and made up figures»14 (Hembygden, 1921: 3–12). Forms of Capital and Noregs Ungdomslag In «The Forms of Capital» (1986), Bourdieu distinguishes between three types of capital: Economic capital: command over economic resources, i.e. cash, or assets; Social capital: «the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition»; Cultural capital: forms of knowledge, skills, education, and advantages that a person has, which give a higher status in society (Bourdieu, 1986: 241–258). These concepts will be used to situate the three agents and their environment. By 1920, the national organization Noregs Ungdomslag (The Norwegian Youth League Association) had a considerable economic capital. […] som i verkligheten inte är någon folkdans utan blott uppdiktade ock påhittade olika turer. (Translation from Swedish by E.B) 14 66 Anne Fiskvik and Egil Bakka It had a large number of «ungdomshus» (youth houses – community houses), it had «kaffistover» (coffee shops) promoting Norwegianness in food, staff dress, and interior decoration and hotels in towns, typically called «Bondeheimen» (the farmer/peasants home). It even had shops for traditional costumes and handicrafts and several other business ventures aimed at the rural population in the countryside and those who moved out and settled in towns and cities. The organization had a large social capital, for a country with a total population of 2.6 millions. Its networks consisted of 765 local clubs, 28 regional structures, and the national organization with a total membership of some 56,000 according to statistics from 1920 (Moren, 1922: 381–382). It is a question whether cultural capital can be attributed to an organization, and how it can be done. One could, for instance, look at all the embodied cultural capital possessed by individual members. They may have learned or absorbed the capital in the organization and may use it to the benefit of the organization, but it is a question if it makes sense to say that the organization as such has cultural capital. Maybe just the song dance, the invented tradition, which had been created and promoted within Noregs Ungdomslag, could be seen as a part of the organizations cultural capital. Other kinds of dancing would not «belong» so exclusively to the organization. The song dance and the national repertoire of «turdans»15 was knowledge and competence the organization as such could safely «sell» and take credit for. The promotion of the language («Nynorsk») and popular enlightenment were certainly more important aims for Noregs Ungdomslag, but even if Noregs Ungdomslag was a leading organization in this respect, it was not alone, as it could seem to be in the work with song dance. The so-called national dances16 had been given a status as part of the national identity already from the 1850s at the peak of national romanticism in Norway.17 They kept their status as a kind of vague cultural capital, 15 «Turdans» derives from the French «tour», or figure, a term used mainly in contradances, but which Klara Semb used for dances mainly she had collected and published in her manuals. Her «turdansar» had a fixed order of motives in contrast to the old couple dances the so-called national dances later called «Bygdedansar» which are improvised and soloistic. 16 The so-called national dances were old couple dances such as Springar, Gangar, Rull, and Halling, the latter also danced as solodance (Bakka 1978). 17 One example is the violinist Ole Bull’s attempt to create a Norwegian Peasant Ballet on stage in Bergen in 1850 (Bakka & Biskop, 2007). 67 Tracing Dance Fields perhaps more for the country, than for organizations or individuals in our period. They had their public arenas in the shape of competitions and lived on as traditional dances in many rural communities. They were too different from community to community and so improvised and complicated that folk dance teachers had problems to write them down or teach them. This was probably the most important reason why they did not find their way into the national folk dance repertoire. How did folk dance become cultural heritage in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden? For one thing, some clear similarities between Denmark and Finland can be seen. It was, according to the canonized histories, clubs of the capital cities that initiated folk dance collection and publication of results. Then national organizations for folk dancing were established, for instance, Landsforeningen Danske folkedansere in 1929 and Finlands Svenska folkdansring in 1931 by the clubs throughout the countries. There was another main difference, at least between Sweden and Norway with regards to popular dancing and community halls. In Sweden, the large movement, building folk parks and community houses all over the country were practically unrelated to folk dance clubs (Folkets hus ock parker, 1939). The member clubs of Svenska Folkdansringen were marginal in building of community houses. Noregs Ungdomslag catered more or less for both popular dancing and folk dancing in their community houses. It built perhaps half of the community houses in Norway before 1930 (Bakka, 1988: 169). This gave the folk dance movements of Sweden and Norway very different profiles. Finland also had youth associations parallel to Noregs Ungdomslag. They had similar activities and built their houses all over the country as well. They were not the only organizations to do that, but probably the most eager ones. Hulda Garborg’s particular capital Hulda Garborg (1864–1934) was the main agent for folk dance up to 1921, as the unquestioned authority on song dance. Her most important social capital was her marriage with an important Norwegian author, Arne Garborg, who was an intellectual leader of «Norskdomsrørsla». Her own family background may seem not to have given her much capital at least not of Norwegianness. Her parents started out at a large farm near Hamar, in central eastern Norway, but ran into problems, so Hulda grew up with her divorced, poor mother, and had little contact with her bankrupt and alcoholic father. She did not have a dialect 68 Anne Fiskvik and Egil Bakka sufficiently archaic to give her a basis for speaking or writing the New Norwegian language, and her parent’s cultural capital was probably of the international urban style, typical for large farms and small towns in eastern Norway. Maybe her knowing the international urban style, to which she had a certain access, was a kind of cultural capital which made her stand out when she later started working for a Norwegianness she aspired to but did not really possess herself (Obrestad, 1992:12ff). Most of the other agents of the movement had their capital from rural society, which per se was probably considered more important, being the capital of genuine Norwegianness. From interviews with people who knew her later in life (1911–13) (Lars Nygaard Rff-intervju), Garborg’s status and her impressive posture, deportment, and looks were her main capital on stage. Her dance competence when she danced couple dances like the Springar with young accomplished traditional dancers was sufficient but not that impressive. Her authority, knowledge, and deportment were also her main capital when she was teaching song dance, not her pedagogical ability (Lars Nygaard Rff-intervju). All this could be analysed as the embodied kind of cultural capital. From a general point of view, her fiction books, novels, plays, and poems, many of them quite radical, were most central for her status. It could probably be seen as «cultural capital of an institutionalized state» (Bourdieu, 1986: 47). This gave her a status in circles of the arts and the intellectuals, also recognized in the circles of Norwegianness. Hulda Garborg – a Dominant Player in Nordic Folk Dancing? Hulda Garborg stands out as a very successful cultural entrepreneur in the Nordic context. When she initiated her invention of the song dance, she was already a first lady in the nation building and national circles of Norway. Two research-based biographies and several smaller studies have been published about her long after her death. There is hardly any other pioneer of Nordic folk dance with biographies or a similar status or fame. Her radicalism, her practical agency, and adherence to modernism are also unique. A phrase from Bourdieu’s fits to characterize her impact: «The dominant players impose by their very existence, as a universal norm, the principles that they engage in their own practice» (Bourdieu, 2004: 62). 69 Tracing Dance Fields In Denmark, the folklorists and ethnomusicologists Hakon GrünerNielsen and Hjalmar Thuren were to some degree advising and influencing the folk dance movement, writing books and articles on the subject of traditional dance. It gave the work a serious point of departure, which the amateurs of the movement hardly managed to transform into any hard cultural capital currency. There were a number of individuals who worked intensively with collecting, notating, publishing, and teaching, but there is hardly one or two that stands out. The Swedishspeaking part of Finland was similar to Denmark in having an academic support from the professor in musicology Otto Anderson, who was an important figure here. He did, however, not engage with dance other than through his work with music and with his input as a member of Brage, the Helsinki club that collected and published folk dances of the Swedish parts of Finland. Another member of the club, Yngvar Heikel, an amateur, carried out the most competent job in Norden with his collecting and publishing the folk dances from this region in the early period (Heikel, 1938), but it did not give him much fame or cultural capital. On the Finnish-speaking side, Anni Collan a pioneer and teacher of women’s gymnastics and sports and folk dance, was perhaps the most well-known personality of folk dance in Finland in the early period. In Sweden, the students’ folk dance club Philochoros did achieve Nordic fame for a decade around 1900 due to its highly applauded shows of Swedish folk dance, which toured in all the Nordic countries. Petri Hoppu discusses how the dance repertoire of this group influenced the Nordic folk dance canons in his chapter. Many of the early Philochoros students were recruited from the bourgeoisie and upper classes, and the upper-class students’ involvement with folk dancing marked a difference to several other countries. The cultural capital created by their successful shows probably kept the connection between folk dance and the upper classes stronger in Sweden than in other countries. There was, however, hardly any one individual standing out as a clearly leading figure, although Gustaf Karlson was instrumental for compiling the authoritative manual, the «Green book» (Svenska folkdanser, 1923). Hulda Garborg, in summary, could, due to her artistic and intellectual status, coin a stronger cultural capital from the «folk dance» creation of the Norwegian song dance than any other pioneer in Norden. The academic solidity in Denmark and Finland connected the material clearly to a rural origin, but did hardly manage to make it as strong a 70 Anne Fiskvik and Egil Bakka cultural capital. The invented origin of much of the Swedish material and its connections towards Opera ballet and high society may have contributed to make folk dancing more of a cultural capital than in Finland and Denmark. More research would be needed to support these proposals. Gyda Christensen Gyda Christensen. c.1920. Photographer unknown. (Store norske leksikon/Anon) 71 Tracing Dance Fields The Starting Point for the Gyda Christensen Ballet Ensemble at the Nationaltheatret Gyda Christensen18 made her debut at the Christiania Theater in 1894 as a singer and was transferred to the newly built Nationaltheatret when it opened in 1899. In 1910 she became the main ballet and dance instructor and this represented more stability for the ballet. Earlier ballet teachers, for instance, Augusta Johannesén and, after her, Thora Hals Olsen had been hired when needed (Hansteen, 1989: 50). Since Christensen had a full position at the theatre, she could work with more continuity and higher ambitions than her predecessors. The ballet school could strengthen the dance activities at the Nationaltheatret, and since Gyda Christensen’s daughter Lillebil showed talent for ballet, it also gave her valuable dance training. It is likely that Christensen’s ambitions for her daughter played a large role in her work with the ballet company. The students at the school gradually became good enough to be used in various operas and operettas. In the period up to 1919, Christensen managed to build a dance company that at its best achieved semi-professional standards with Lillebil as the star (Wiers-Jenssen, 1924: 47–48). In the years between 1910 and 1919, Christensen used her position as a highly regarded actress and director to establish ballet connections all over Europe. Her private financial situation enabled her to travel a great deal: She went to St. Petersburg to take ballet lessons at the Maryinsky Theatre and to learn the Russian style in 1914. In 1914–15, she was taught by members of the Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in Monte Carlo. Christensen was very impressed by the work of Fokine and his ideas about a more «true» and natural ballet, and those ideas were also integrated into the performances at the Nationaltheatret. Certainly, Christensen worked in a «Fokinian realm» when choreographing for Max Reinhardt in Berlin between 1916 and 1919. A Larger Context: Dance in the Theatre World The writing on dance history in the Nordic countries from the period around 1900 was, according to the Swedish dance researcher Lena Gyda Christensen was born Andersen, and later also known as Krohn, Christensen, or Monrad-Krohn through her different marriages. 18 72 Anne Fiskvik and Egil Bakka Hammergren, dominated by accounts about the Royal Ballets in Stockholm and Copenhagen until the beginning of the 21st century. This preference for research into classical ballet has only recently been challenged by Hammergren (2002) and Vedel (2008). Both describe extensive and colourful, but less prestigious, dance activities on the stages in their respective countries, for instance, «barefoot dancing», and performances given by international touring stars. In Norway, there were also many types of stage dance in the vaudeville and Tivoli theatres, but the lack of a royal ballet meant that «non balletic performances» had less to be measured against. Finland, where an opera ballet was not established until 1921, experienced the same situation. For those who tried to make a living as dancers, the jobs could be found in genres like revues, vaudeville, and musical theatre. Often, the dancers would perform in various theatre, opera, or operetta productions. Historically, dance had been a part of most attempts to institutionalize theatre activity in Norway from the very beginning. The dancer and actor Martin Nürenbach was the first one to obtain royal permission to perform publicly in Kristiania, offering theatre and dance from November 1771 to February 1772. He represented the typical travelling actor of the 18th century, who was often versatile and could dance and sing and act. This versatility can also be found in another important figure, namely Johan Peter Strömberg. He was granted permission and opened his theatre after much delay in 1827. In 1827, Strömberg wrote to the Swedish king, boasting that his theatre had 16 actors, male and female, all of Norwegian origin, and a corps de ballet consisting of 22 poor children from the capital city. He asked permission to engage 2 professional Danish actors. Unfortunately, Strömberg faced problems because he was Swedish. According to Anker, there was animosity against Swedes and against Swedish language on Norwegian stages from 1814 onwards.19 Finally, Strömberg was forced to give up his theatre. It was continued under the name Christiania Theater and functioned as the main city theatre from 1837 to 1899. Strömberg was forced to give up his acting due to his Swedish language (Anker, 1958: 44). Around 1900, several new theatre venues started, some had mainly serious repertoires while others aimed mainly at popular entertainment. In 1814, Norway – due to the peace settlement after the Napoleonic wars – was taken from Denmark and given to Sweden. 19 73 Tracing Dance Fields Among important theatre ventures that included dance, it is worth mentioning an opera ensemble that was established for some years in 1883.20 In 1887, the director Bernhard Holger Jacobsen created a Tivoli Theater and park. This included a theatre venue called the Circus Varieté, which became very popular. After 1900, a few other important theatres were established, most of them by Johan and Alma Fahlstrøm: The Fahlstrøms Theater/Eldorado Theater, Centralteateret, and the shortlived Folketeatret. These were functioning until around 1920.21 Especially the Fahlstrøms Theater (1903–1911) seemed to have been positive towards showing dance. They staged operas and operettas and also hired guest artists. They hosted guest performances from the Royal Danish Ballet with Ellen Price (de Plane) and four other dancers (announced as «De fire», the four) in June 1910.22 From 1918, the Opera Comique, Mayol Theateret, and the Casino Theater were opened and again operas, operettas, and comique plays made up the major part of their repertoires. Both the Mayol and the Casino welcomed dance performances, and many of the leading dancers staged dance performances there between 1918 and 1930, for instance, Gyda Christensen’s daughter Lillebil, who at this point had become married to Tancred Ibsen, and Per Aabel with his partner Ruth Brünings-Sandvik (undated programmes from the Casino from 1922 and 1924). Dance at the Nationaltheateret and Other Venues When the government established the plans for the Nationaltheatret in the 1880s, one of the major goals stated was to «educate and enlighten people of all classes» (Frisvold, 1980: 20). Often, neither operettas nor even opera were considered intellectual enough for this purpose, and In 1883, an opera ensemble was established there by Swedish text writer Matilda Lundström and the Norwegian opera singer Olefine Moe. Twenty productions were performed during the next 3 years when the bad financial situation put a stop to the operas. 21 All of these were initiated by Alma og Johan Fahlstrøm, the Fahlstrøms Theater opened in 1903 and was in business for eight seasons until the theatre activity ended in 1911 and the building became Eldorado cinema. The Fahlstrøms – Alma og Johan Fahlstrøm – were important initiators of several theatres in Kristiania between 1897 and 1911. 22 Announcement, advertisements, and critiques were made in the main papers of Kristiania, see, for instance, Dagbladet, 5 June 1910 and 6 June 1910. 20 74 Anne Fiskvik and Egil Bakka the dance should be seen in light of this hostile attitude that shines through in public discourse towards everything that was not serious, spoken theatre.23 At the same time, all kinds of musical theatre, vaudeville, revues, opera, and operettas were popular with the audiences and often brought in good money. The debates about the public’s tastes and demands for high moral followed almost all productions that were staged at the Nationaltheateret between 1899 and 1920. In its last period, between 1877 and 1899, the Christiania Theater had an orchestra consisting of about 30 musicians. This made it possible to stage operas and operettas that included dance as an addition to serious dramatic theatre. The orchestra under the leadership of its conductor, the composer Johan Halvorsen (1864–1935), was even expanded when the activity moved to the Nationaltheatret in 1899. The orchestra played to the regular theatre performances and gave some concerts. The programme from the first season (1899–1900) shows that the orchestra gave three different symphony concerts. Also, as a part of theatre practice at this time, there was a lot of music used in the regular plays and also between the plays. During the first 20 years, the Nationaltheatret gave 25 operas and 8 operettas. Furthermore, between 1910 and 1919, one Pantomime and various ballet performances were given. These are small numbers compared to the «serious» repertoire that were staged and played approximately 250 days of the year. The operas, operettas, and ballets were staged in the beginning of the summer season and around Christmas time, mostly to draw audiences to the theatre. Gyda Christensen played an important role in the staging of these from 1910 and onwards and was responsible for almost all of the ballet productions between 1910 and 1919. Even though Norway was on the outskirts of Europe, many of Kristiania’s theatres wanted to follow the latest trends, not least due to Christensen’s contacts and efforts. Her travels were news material in the printed media. For example, in Dagbladet, 28 Feburary, 1910, there is an announcement (under the heading 23 Offenbach’s operettas could, for instance, be regarded as depraved by some. When Bjørn Bjørnson was director at the Christiania Theatre between 1890 and 1908, he was critiqued heavily when he staged Den Skjønne Helene. In the newspaper, Morgenbladet a «man from the country side» addressing the Parliament (Stortinget), pointed out that one of the main aims of the Nationaltheatret should be to work against the lack of morals in society (Frisvold, 1980: 21). 75 Tracing Dance Fields Art and Culture) stating that «Mrs. Gyda Christensen and the conductor Halvorsen have gone to Dresden for a short trip to see a production of professor Dohnanyi’s new – and already famous pantomime. The Nationaltheateret has bought the rights to stage this play» (translation AF). Once Christensen’s new ballet ensemble was considered trained enough to go on stage, they gave regular performances, mostly around Christmas time. Some of these include Liselil og Perle (premiere 17 December, 1912) and Dukken, a short version of Coppelia staged by Ivan Tarassof (premiere 22 December, 1914). These are only examples to show the international orientation of the ensemble and Christensens admiration for Fokine’s innovations. An interesting question is whether there was a difference in the attention given to «serious» dance performances compared to more popular ones. The different newspapers in the capital (Aftenposten, VG, Dagbladet, Tidens Tegn, Ørebladet) covered and wrote reviews to various degrees of the more serious dance performances. For instance, they all wrote about Gyda Christensen’s ChopinSoirees, a series of solo performances, which premiered in May 1909. She danced barefoot to piano accompaniment, and this was considered very «serious» and high art. The dancers in circus and varieté performances sometimes also got reviews, for instance, in the newspaper Tidens Tegn, which writes about the versatile and very interesting dancer miss Johnson (Tidens Tegn, 14 July 1910). An investigation into the period May–June 1910 shows that the newspapers covered events such as the pantomime Pirette, the ballerina Ellen Price de Plane’s The Four and Thora Hals Olsen’s solo performances. Guest performances by foreign and famous dancers are frequently covered in the papers. For instance, in May 1910, Ellen Price de Plane is mentioned almost daily in Tidens Tegn between 14 and 30 of May. But in pantomines, operas, and operettas, the acting and singing were given more attention than the dancing in these performances. In Tidens Tegn, the pantomine Pirette was reviewed on 13 of May by Einar Skavland but the dancing is barely commented upon, apart from Skavlans stating that Gyda Christensen was responsible for the movements and dancing. Skavland thus focused his attention on the singing and the music. Apart from the material found in newspapers between 1910 and 1919, which give information about different genres of dancing, the only literature from the period are two biographies about Norwegian dance artists – Gyda and Lillebil published in 1919 (Sinding, 1919, Mjøen, 76 Anne Fiskvik and Egil Bakka 1919). These deal with the ballet and the free-dance genre and present «high art» dance artists such as Christensen and Lillebil as international stars. Forms of Capital in the Theatre World In the Norwegian theatre world, as elsewhere, the spoken theatre of the classical writers held a higher status and was imbued with more cultural capital than, for example, music theatre and ballet. An illustration of the theatrical hierarchy is seen in the argument provided by music critic, teacher, and organist Otto Winter-Hjelm (1837–1931) for the need for an opera in the capital city. He claimed that opera would take away the interest for spoken theatre and concerts. These forms, which WinterHjelm refers to as the «pure dramatic art» and the «pure music», are more important than music theatre, i.e., opera. Therefore, the only important question, as he sees it, is whether opera performances are economically successful. If so, native singers and musicians at the opera could be paid the same as actors. Winter-Hjelm is less forthcoming towards ballet claiming that «What has so often been pointed to as an economical scare, the ballet, is in most cases utterly unnecessary» (Urd, 11 August, 1900, translation EB). Such attitudes made it more difficult to establish professional ensembles within serious theatre institutions prior to Gyda Christensen’s ballet ensemble. Theatres depended on large economic capital, buildings, staff, etc., and economy was a challenge for companies, directors, and supporting authorities. The question of giving room for specialized dancing such as ballet was therefore a question of strict priority. At the time the networks of artists, pedagogues, and audiences in the theatre dance world were mostly small and «tightly knit». The few teachers who established private classes and schools were eager to keep their students and so one can assume that there was not a lot of generosity between them. There must have been competition between them for the few roles and jobs that could be found. For instance, it is not clear whether Gyda Christensen’s «taking control over» the staging of ballets was welcomed by her peers Augusta Johannesén and Tora Hals Olsen. Johannesén and Olsen had been in charge of dance entertainment at the Nationaltheateret prior to 1910. It is very likely that Christensen could and had to build on what they had established, but she did not share any of the honour of this. Various articles and discussions in the 77 Tracing Dance Fields newspapers between 1910 and 1919 mainly point out Christensen as the main entrepreneur. Since dancing professionally was not the occupation that would give the performers a very high status, one may assume that it took quite an effort and a great deal of cultural and social capital to establish a ballet company. When her ballet company closed down after nine years, it took some 30 years before anything similar could be established. Perhaps the time had not really come for ballet in Norway in 1910 or even in 1920. It seems to have been mainly due to Christensen’s economical capital, talents, and will that she succeeded in developing her company. Cultural capital in the theatre dance world was based on the individual’s financial situation in addition to individual efforts and accomplishments. Between 1900 and 1930, the dance scene in Kristiania gradually developed towards more professional standards. Some of the dancers who trained at the ballet school at the Nationaltheateret became professional dancers of international standard, as for instance, Lillebil Ibsen and Augusta Kolderup. Others opened ballet schools and started the training of a coming generation of ballet dancers. One such example is Per Aabel, who writes in his autobiography that he was greatly inspired by Gyda’s ensemble and by Lillebil Ibsen. He started to study ballet with Augusta Johannesén, and later with Enrico Ceccheti in London. Aabel came back to Kristiania and opened a ballet school together with his dancing partner Ruth Brünings-Sandvik in the early 1920s (Aabel, 1950: 22–51). Quite a few of the critics, for instance, Reidar Mjøen in Dagbladet, and the above-mentioned Einar Skavland in Tidens Tegn, had competence to measure the domestic classical ballet against international ideals and standards. Sometimes, the expected standards were met, as can be seen by the enthusiastic reviews of performances by Lillebil (Aftenposten, 21 December, 1915). Other times they were not so favourable, as in the following review of Per Aabel and Ruth Brünings Sandvik from 1924: Dance matinees are frequently shown at the Casino theatre. This Saturday it was Per Åbel and Ruth Brühnings Sandvik who entertained their female and male friends. For others it was almost embarrassing. The applause was so steady that it became tactless. When these two young people have learned more and developed both themselves and their technique they can come back again. There is still a long way to go. (Undated, 1924, lacking information about which newspaper it is taken from. The review is part of a folder with information about Peer Aabel at Nationalbiblioteket. Translation AF) 78 Anne Fiskvik and Egil Bakka Additionally, it must not be forgotten that between 1910 and 1920, the «fridans», deriving from the German «Freier Tanz», was introduced to Norway, mainly by Inga Jacobi. But since the «fridans» did not position itself with any significance in the theatre world in the period discussed in this article, it is not included in the further discussions. Gyda Christensen’s Particular Capital Gyda Martha Kristine Andersen (1872–1964) was born in Christiania and raised there as the only child in a family of the upper middle class. Her family could afford to let her take music and singing lesson and let her pursue her talent for singing. When she was 21 years old, she made her debut as concert singer, and her singing seems to have been an entrance ticket to her acting career and an important part of her cultural capital. One could assume that the social capital she acquired by her first marriage in 1893 to Georg Monrad Krohn – an engineer who also did amateur acting and who came from a very well-known Norwegian theatre family – may have helped her decisively to get her first job. This first role was a singing part as Germaine in the operetta Corneville by R. Planquette. Her first husband’s parents and his aunt had all been actors in Bergen and four of her sisters-in-law and brothersin-law were already engaged at the theatre. Her social capital was further increased when she, after divorcing her first husband, married Halfdan Christensen (1873–1950) in 1905. Halfdan Christensen was a well-known actor who became the theatre director of Nationalteateret in 1911. As already mentioned, Gyda Christensen worked at the Christiania Theater from 1894 until it was closed in 1899. Nationaltheatret was opened the same year and Christensen was one of the actresses who were transferred to the new theatre. From 1899 to 1920, she worked there as actress, dancer, and director. In his history of Nationaltheatret, Nils Johan Ringdal (2000) describes her as the youngest of those coming from the Christiania Theater and notes that at the age of 27 she was already established as a beauty and star in the newspapers and the eyes of the audience. At the Christiania Theater, she had been the typical «ingénue» actor – usually portraying endearingly innocent and wholesome girls or young women. Ringdal emphasizes that Gyda was multitalented and that her talent for singing and especially for dancing 79 Tracing Dance Fields made sure that she did not lack work (Ringdal, 2000: 32). Between 1899 and 1909, Gyda Christensen was cast in three to eight different productions every year. She continuously increased her capital by broadening her competences from singing and dancing roles to include even spoken serious roles, as for instance, Ragna in Henrik Ibsen’s De unges Forbund (premiere 23 April, 1903) and Astrid in Sigurd Jorsalfar (premiere 18 August, 1904), and Antigone in Sophokles’ King Oediupus (premiere 11 September, 1907). Many of the roles she was given were, however, in the comedies, such as her first role in 1899 as Stine Isenkræmmers in Ludvig Holberg’s Barselstuen (premiere 01 September, 1899) and Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare (premiere 15 January, 1903). The year 1910 was a crucial year in Christensen’s career. One can trace a shift in her working status in the printed programmes, where she starts to be listed not only as actress/dancer but also as a director and choreographer of various productions. She also became responsible for the training of dancers and channelled a lot of energy into the development of the ballet ensemble in addition to dancing herself. Christensen further strengthened her position through a series of solo recitals in 1909/1910. These recitals, also mentioned above, were called Chopin-soirees and given with Karl Nissen as pianist. They performed at the Nationaltheatret and Brødrene Hals Koncertsal in Kristiania and then on tour to various cities in Norway, for instance, Bergen. According to Lillebil Ibsen, Christensen experienced great success with sold-out performances. She also describes her mother’s dancing to be in a free style: She [Gyda Christensen] was a sensation, breaking all traditions, creating her own form. Had she belonged to a larger country her dancing most likely would have drawn as much attention as Isadora Duncan did with her barefoot dance [...] Now it was only Norwegian people who experienced her dancing. That many had had a great experience I got proof of when I went on tour with my own Chopin-evenings. Then, several times, people came up to me with tears in their eyes and talked about my mother’s dance-evenings as the most beautiful thing they ever saw. (Ibsen, 1961: 19–20, translation AF) 80 Anne Fiskvik and Egil Bakka These are the words of a very devoted daughter, but Christensen must have had «something» that attracted audiences and this helped to enhance her cultural capital and her social status. As mentioned earlier, almost all the big newspapers in Kristiania covered her Chopin-soirees and they were even taken into the Nationaltheateret itself in May 1910. In an article in Dagbladet in May 1910, Christensen’s solo performances are referred to as trend setting and a great inspiration for the young and upcoming dancers. In the following years, Christensen devoted a lot of energy into the development of the ballet company. Moreover, her studies abroad increased her cultural capital by expanding her network and developing important connections and gave her new competences as a dancer, and perhaps even more as a teacher and choreographer. As already stated also, Christensen’s daughter Lillebil can be regarded as part of her personal «capital»: Christensen pushed and encouraged her daughter, who was able to achieve a high technical level, through studies with among others Emilie Walbom, Hans Beck, and Michel Fokine (Vedel 2008: 129; Ibsen 1961: 19–21). Fokine taught her his Dying Swan, which she is reported to have danced better than Anna Pavlova and Vera Fokina. Lillebil was also hired by Max Reinhardt and worked as a dancer in Berlin between 1916 and 1919. In addition, Lillebil performed on various stages in Europe, at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, at various stages in London and at the Royal Opera in Stockholm. Her dramatic and sensitive dance style made Lillebil Ibsen famous far outside Norway. Hans Wiers-Jensen characterized Christensen as «an energetic fighter for creating a genuinely artistic organized Norwegian ballet» (WiersJensen, 1949: 16, translation AF). Christensen’s development as a singer and an actor and her marriages can be seen as a way of building capital, which, in addition to her own economic capital, enabled her to build the semi-professional ballet company at the Nationaltheatret. Lillebil became an additional asset to Christensen and her project as she developed into an internationally known ballerina. 81 Tracing Dance Fields Hjalmar Svae The starting point for Premierløytnant Svae’s Dansekonservatorium and Dansen Hjalmar Svae24 had finished a military education, and taken dance lessons with a number of dance teachers when he in 1913 established a Dance conservatoire in the capital city. This was hardly a dramatic breakthrough for ballroom dancing in Norway. There had been dance teachers working in the country, at least since the late 18th century (Hansteen, 1989: 13–16; Bakka, 1991: 46). Svae’s most important contribution is that he, as a Norwegian dance teacher, initiated the periodical Dansen, which made him the leading figure in building a discourse on his field of specialization. No discursive publications were produced by other agents of the genre in parallel with or following up Dansen. Therefore, other published source material is scarce, and it consists mainly of a few manuals from others (Svae, 194725; Ring, 1947). It also seems that Dansen (1925–1928) is the first one of its kind in the Nordic countries, explicitly combining several dance genres. The Danish organization of dance teachers, Danse Ringen, had a periodical for members from 1922, Hjalmar Svae and wife Helga Svae, Danse-Avisen, and in 1924–25 the probably in the 1920s. Photorenegade dance teachers’ association grapher unknown. Terpsichore published Danse-Journalen. (Per Svae) In Sweden nothing of that kind has been found in the period discussed. We would like to thank Hjalmar Svae’s family, Per, Jan Fredrik, and Eva Svae for access to material and photos. 25 This is a publication from Major Svae’s son (Hjalmar Svae Jr.) and daughter in law. 24 82 Anne Fiskvik and Egil Bakka A larger context: The dancing masters and ballroom dancing The activity of the dance teachers in the early 20th century is hardly dealt with by researchers in Norway and Sweden at all, and the available sources are their classified ads, articles in newspapers, or journalists giving them coverage. In Denmark, Henning Urup has conducted research on dance teachers and dance schools and has written extensively about their activities and dance repertoires (Urup, 2007; Kristensen and Ibsen, 1994). In the Norwegian census for 1900, there are 20 persons giving «dance teacher» as occupation. From these, five were not born in Norway, but only one ad domicile outside the country at the time. One can assume that there have been dance teachers working part-time; some of the 20 do give several professions. Others may therefore not be mentioning their part-time dance teaching, so there would be reason to believe that there were more people teaching dance. Altogether, 7 teachers are registered in various places in counties near to Oslo, 10 are registered in Oslo, and 4 in other town or cities as follows: 1 in Stavanger, 1 in Bergen, 1 in Namsos, and 1 in Lillesand. These are not large numbers, and dance teachers seem to have worked mainly in urban environments. It confirms impressions from interviews with numerous social dancers at Norwegian countryside that dance teachers did not have much influence in rural Norway in the first part of the 20th century.26 Hjalmar Svae’s own accounts also give some insights into the conditions of dance teachers in his time. In a newspaper interview on the occasion of his 50 years anniversary, he tells how he had asked for a leave of absence from his military service in order to study dance in Copenhagen. He explains that he felt it was not regarded to be quite comme il faut for an officer to take up teaching of dance, but that he was not the first one, since Knut Ørn Meinich, also First lieutenant,27 had been teaching dance earlier (before 1913). Svae is stressing how he mainly got his knowledge from Copenhagen teachers, but that he also visited 26 Large interview material from some 4000–5000 social dancers from countryside environment archived at the Norwegian Centre for Traditional Music and Dance. 27 According to the 1900 census, Kurt Ørn Meinrich is «Premierløjtnant i Artilleriet», born 1876 in Søndre Land living in Kristiania. 83 Tracing Dance Fields Berlin and Paris before he set up his dance conservatoire in Kristiania (Morgenbladet 01 September, 1953). In order to get a better understanding of the dance teachers’ environment in the early 20th century, it is necessary to draw upon whatever sources there are, which means from Denmark in particular. Henning Urup states that three Danish institutions educated dance teachers around 1917: The Royal Danish Ballet, the School of Gymnastics of the Army, and the Poul Petersen’s Institute. Therefore, dance teachers would have different backgrounds (Urup, 2007: 257). Several of the ballet dancers of the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen had their private dancing schools at the turn from the 19th to the 20th century teaching the children of the bourgeoisie ballroom dances. Examples are Hans Beck, Georg Berthelsen, Chr. Christensen, and Valdemar Price (Urup, 2007: 249). Emilie Walbom is yet another example. Svae also says that he studied with «ballettmester» Georg Berthelsen during his leave, perhaps around 1910 (Morgenbladet 01 September, 1953). Early on he had learnt from Horda-Hauge from Sandefjord (probably «Johan K. Horda-Hauge Danselærer, Musiklærer. Hus- og jordeier» born in Sandar 1835),28 who «held» dancing school in Svae’s home town Moss when he was 8–10 years old. This confirms the pattern showed in the census of 1900, that the strongholds of dance teachers were in particular towns and cities, and particularly in the regions around Oslo. One may assume that as a boy from the upper middle class, his parents would certainly have sent him to a dance school. It would be interesting to see how many of the teachers had competences in both ballroom dance and theatre dance and how they used them. As already mentioned, the distinction between genres of theatre dance was not emphasized. There may well also have been little distinction between ballroom dance and ballet in Norway. Svae is reported to have run a successful ballet school in addition to his school for ballroom dancing, even if he is not known to have been otherwise engaged with the field of theatre.29 Based on the Danish material, According to the census for 1900, Horda Hauge was a dance teacher, a music teacher, and the owner of house and land. Sandefjord is small town not far away from Moss, and Horda Hauge was born in or close to this town. 29 Personal communication from Eva Svae to Egil Bakka 08.02.2010. 28 84 Anne Fiskvik and Egil Bakka one might guess that the advent of Afro-American social dances would split ballroom and theatre dance profoundly. According to Henning Urup, there had for long time been a deep split between dance teachers with an education from the ballet and those who had a private education when the association of dance teachers Danseringen was established in Denmark in 1917. It may also seem that dance schools were a place where even folk dancing was given a small role in the early 20th century. The Norwegian dance manual (Sandbeck, 1903) has several «folk dances» included, and in Copenhagen, Emilie Walbom also to some degree engaged with folk dance (Vedel, 2008: 32). Forms of Capital among Dance Teachers The attempt to assess the positions of dance teachers is also based on Bourdieu’s ideas of different kinds of capital, of which the first one is economic capital. As pointed out by Karen Vedel, her research from Denmark suggests that there is a distinction between the teachers who have a school in their own name and on one address and those who do not have their own school but teach in several locations (i.e., schools, associations, and other venues rented by the hour). Also the address is of utmost importance in terms of capital (Vedel, 2008: 73). That kind of property may therefore be an important economical and even social capital for some dance teachers. There is written next to nothing about the localities dance teachers used in Norway. While there may have been buildings or halls owned by the teachers,30 it seems that many of them rented rooms for their activity on shorter or longer terms. Social capital Hjalmar Svae refers often to his studies with well-established teachers abroad in famous fashion cities such as Copenhagen, London, Paris, and Berlin and also reports from competitions in these cities (Dansen). The possibility to flavour ones reputation with international flair and contacts to leading people of the larger field could be seen as a social capital. One of the dance teachers’ most important cultural capital is that they hold a key to distinction (Bourdieu). When the parents send their kids to the dance school, an important motivation is to give The Svae family used at times several halls for their dance school (personal communication from Eva Svae to Egil Bakka, 08 February, 2010). 30 85 Tracing Dance Fields them competence in the social life of the upper or middle classes. Part of this is to know the right dances, but showing their belonging to the educated classes in terms of deportment and movement is probably just as important. Dance teachers’ stress on etiquette and deportment is very clear in many dance manuals (i.e., Sandbeck, 1903) and this is perhaps a more important cultural capital than the dances as such. Additionally, they often present themselves as being the representatives of the fashion, bringing fashionable new dances from the big world. In this, however, they may seem to negotiate between the morals and taste of the establishment and the perceivedly dangerous and immoral but exciting new fashions. This is perhaps their most difficult negotiation in terms of the kind of cultural capital they represent. Hjalmar Svae’s Particular Capital Hjalmar Svae (1884–1961) was the son of a well-established timber merchant in the town of Moss, south of Oslo. Timber merchants were wealthy and important traders in Norwegian economy and central for export (Hansteen, 1989: 12). Hjalmar Svae travelled a lot abroad to competitions and conferences of modern ballroom dance. He also had a military career, using his title of First Lieutenant31 as gallant marker to his profession of dance teacher. He stayed on in military service as well, and advanced to become a Major. During World War II, he contributed honourably to the military resistance and seems to have enjoyed high respect in good society. Svae was running the dance school as a family enterprise; they had 2 halls available for their school in central parts of the capital already in period between the two world wars. Additionally, they were running assembly rooms in a separate building.32 Svae’s negotiation between the dance heritage of the late 19th century dance teacher and the fashionable jazz dances, which he was clearly fascinated by, is an interesting, perhaps typical trait of Norwegian dance teachers of the time. It probably contributed decisively to the success of his school, which was continued by his wife and his children. He did not have a sufficient position to be honoured by a biography, which is also typical for his profession. 31 32 The title «Premierløytnant» has this slightly romantic ring to it. «Ciro selskapslokaler» (Svae, no year). 86 Anne Fiskvik and Egil Bakka The Agents’ Interactions and Struggles The teaching of social dance was an activity that created competition between all the three groups of agents identified. In Denmark, there was a struggle between dance teachers with ballet education and those educated more specifically in social dance. There is reason to believe that a similar struggle can be found in Norway. The folk dance instructors may have taken pupils from the dance teachers, particularly if dance teachers tried to tour in the countryside, and many of the folk dancers felt an animosity towards the dance teachers spreading urban and bourgeoisie values, and even worse, bringing the hated jazz dances into the country. In a newspaper interview in 1925, Rasmus Hvidsten, a folk dance teacher in Bergen, says: The men in this country who have cultivated the art of Terpsichore are mostly lieutenants 33[] and similar, who teach Norwegians foreign dances which match the language lieutenants use for flirting with girls and criticizing recruits 34 [...], that is from onestep to jazz. But there are also people who are pleased to teach young people dance culture. Culture is what is rooted even in the field of dance. But this national culture is not known or popular in the upper classes of the cities. (Gula Tidend, 28.11.1925, translation EB) Hvidsten’s concern is about what is valid and valuable national culture in Norway. Battle lines are drawn between rural and urban, but first of all between established culture and the modern Afro-American dance and music. His hints to language and dance as means for upper-class officers to humiliate rural recruits, and as means to seduce their girls, could be read as an invitation to revolt. The discourse has strong undertones of race and class. 33 There are hardly other lieutenants in Norway promoting jazz dance at this time than Hjalmar Svae, and Hvidsten may well have read the first issue of Dansen. 34 Hvidsten is probably referring to countryside lads speaking dialect and being criticized by the commanding officers speaking bourgeoisie language. The revolt against Danish inspired bourgeoisie language and the promotion of the New Norwegian language based upon rural dialect was particularly strong in the folk dance movement in this period. 87 Tracing Dance Fields It is hard to say how important a role the competition for pupils and for the earning of a living on dance played in the ongoing struggle between teachers in different genres of dance. Maybe it is not so much economic capital which is at stake in this struggle. Maybe the different groups of teachers do not appeal to and recruit from the same social groups or locations. The struggle is, however, definitively about cultural capital and the different groups aim at promoting different kinds of cultural capital. The magazine Dansen brings forward quite opposite positions on the jazz dance from the very beginning, but opinions are not directly confronted, they are presented side by side, and polemics between the writers are avoided or at least not included in the magazine. Writing about the national dances of Norway,35 Hulda Garborg includes comments on all kinds of dancing and cannot resist the temptation to make her position on the jazz dances clear: «At Opplandet a tasteful Figaro, a good Fandango and an amusing Feier36 were ordinary dances until the American Negro dances came and spread like pestilence throughout the country. Nowadays young people grow up with music of vulgar kinds and a dance that has little correspondence to Norwegian disposition and traditions of culture» (Garborg 1925: 17, translation EB). In this context it is interesting to notice her strong admiration for the American Indians and her engagement with Indian Buddhism.37 Gyda Christensen in her article «Scenic Dance at this Moment» presents a short but well-informed picture of trends and agents in the world of theatrical dance. Her take on jazz dance is strangely double minded, acknowledging somehow its qualities in rhythm and movement, still subscribing to the conventional views on race of her period. National dances were at this time mostly used as a term for old couple dances like Springar, Gangar, Pols, and Halling genres, which were loosing ground at this point, and revitalization ideas were established. 36 Figaro, Fandango, and Feier are contra dances established in the bourgeoisie in the early 19th century in Norway. 37 In 1913, Hulda Garborg travelled to Fergus Falls in Minnesota to unveil a monument to Ivar Aasen. She used this opportunity to meet the Sioux Indians and report enthusiastically back home about them. She also wrote a large dramatic poem in honour of an Indian peacemaker Hiawatha (Garborg, 1919 a) and a drama from Indian Buddhism (Garborg, 1911). 35 88 Anne Fiskvik and Egil Bakka The present danger is that all the old, which, in its kind, was perfect – perhaps overripe – will be thrown away, and that the coming, new is explorative, without a stable form and not mature enough to fill in for the old. Then one is bored by the old, cannot understand or be moved by the new, that is still monotonous and fragile, and the consequence can be that the dance has an artistic breakdown, and that the Buck dance and the Negro dance triumphs. But this grotesque expression for the most vulgar pleasure and the most primitive-sophisticated exuberance has the most cultivated rhythm – an almost perversely self-indulgent rhythm, ones mouth waters and one gets addicted to the most exquisite syncopations. It is the touching dance phenomenon of the present; it brings young people together, and brings capacity crowds. Negro step always had a grip on its audience, but it is not only Step any more. It is Honolulu’s Hula-Hula with the most stunning variations – the triumph of the burlesque dance humour. It also becomes ecstasy when it is inspired – the ecstasy of black magic. It contaminates and infects culture with its coloured blood, not with exotic blood, but with primitive, barbaric and revealing blood. (Christensen, 1925: 11, translation EB) Even if Hjalmar Svae uses the conventional terminology of the time, he is going in a totally different direction when he writes about jazz dance: «The numerous protagonists of the «belle-danse» are against it, scolding it for being a hideous, grotesque and eccentric Negro dance. The other camp; the supporters of a more cubistic trend, say little, but dance, swinging their heals, flinging their shank and make their knees tremble as in a spasm. The quicker the music plays, the better» (Svae, 1926: 22, translation EB). This is a typical observation for Svae: The belle-danse for Svae probably means the noble theatre dance. The position, which Svae ascribes to this belle-dance, could be taken to stand for all dance genres that consider themselves as valuable and morally sound. The old established ballroom dancing, the serious theatre dance or the folk dance. The representatives for these genres are scolding the popular dancing, be it the forms found on the stage, in a social dance setting of the bourgeoisie or in the rural dance halls. The adherents of the popular dance say little, they just keep dancing and do not participate much in any polemic or discourse. Svae is probably one of the few who defends the popular dance. He is of course only defending the popular dance in his own field, but there are a few defenders of popular dance of other fields as well, for instance, within Noregs Ungdomslag (Freihow, 1921). 89 Tracing Dance Fields It is interesting to see how Svae goes about his defence in the following three examples: • • • «By a stroke of good luck we had the opportunity to film a troupe of Negroes from Charleston city. They had settled down in Jardin d’Acclimatation, at some distance from Paris, and every afternoon they gave performances of original Negro dance. All young jumping jacks can learn a lot here, it was a true fabrication of steps. The culminating point was their performance of genuine American cakewalk which thrilled the people pouring in by thousands every day to see the Negro village and which received deafening acclamation.» (Svae 1927a: 9, translation EB) «Charleston is danced in the genuine negro way by authentic negroes in «la revue negrie» at Theatre des Champs-Elysees having an enormous success.» (Svae, 1925: 3, translation EB) «The musical scores underneath are the hit tunes of the present. We have been able to hear them played by orchestras in Paris: C.P. Ferrers orchestra which played at the dance congress, J. Stevens orchestra at Baraducs dance school, Pesentis orchestra in Coliseum (sic!) the Negro orchestra in Charleston city, Canaros orchestra at Ambassedeurs, Tricity’s orchestra in London. The scores can be bought in Norsk musikforlag and Musikcentralen.» (Svae, 1927b:32, translation EB) These examples are typical for Svae’s strategy. He presents the new and detested dancing in a matter-of-fact way as successful internationally, referring to concrete cases of success in prestigious cities and environments. He is presenting himself as a cosmopolitan with a considerable social capital of networks abroad. He uses words like genuine and authentic about the Negroes and their dance and presents and describes how audiences appreciate their dances without ever making any defence or value judgements about the dancing as such. In this way, he does not in any way engage in polemics with his very critical colleagues from other genres. He adheres to the strategy he ascribed to the supporters of the popular or as he phrases it «cubistic trend»; he says little and keeps on dancing. It is also worth noting his strategy of connecting the jazz dance to Cubism, which situates it as serious Avant Garde art. 90 Anne Fiskvik and Egil Bakka Positions in a Field of Dance Bourdieu’s article «Field of power, literary field and habitus» (2007) is quoted here as a backdrop for the discussion on positions in the Norwegian/Nordic field of dance 1900–1930: Thus the three positions around which the literary field is organized between 1830 and 1850, namely, to use the indigenous labels, ‘social art’, ‘art for art’s sake’ and ‘bourgeois art’, must be understood first as so many particular forms of the generic relationship which unites writers, dominated-dominant, to the dominant-dominant. The partisans of social art, […] condemn the ‘egotistical’ art of the partisans of art for art’s sake and demand that literature fulfil a social or political function. Their lower position within the literary field, at the intersection of the literary field with the political field, doubtless maintains a circular causal relationship with respect to their solidarity with the dominated, a relationship that certainly is based in part on hostility towards the dominant within the intellectual field. [..] The partisans of ‘bourgeois art’, who write in the main for the theatre, are closely and directly tied to the dominant class by their lifestyle and their system of values. (Bourdieu, 2007: 92) In the early 20th century, ballet was the only dance genre generally granted the right to the label of Art in the Nordic countries, and it is questionable to which degree it was actually accepted as art in Norway at this time. Organized social dancing, as found in the folk dance movement, in dance schools or competitive ballroom dance was mostly seen as cultural or educational activity. These activities were, however, based on certain aims, or at least on explicated reflections about or justifications for their societal value. This is true for the folk dance movement in particular. Popular dancing – whether it was traditional dancing in rural societies or popular urban dancing – seem to be less dependent on or influenced by reflections upon its raison d’être. If there are discourses on this kind of dancing, they often express moral panic, discarding the activity as harmful (Frykman, 1988). As the adherents rarely defended their activity or reflected upon its value, there were hardly any explicit aims. These differences might be seen as contributing to different positions 91 Tracing Dance Fields in the field of dance, positions with different closeness to the field of power.38 The class adherence of leading figures of the different kinds of dancing has been explored to see if there are clear patterns of class connected to these positions. It is, however, hardly possible to define «leading figures» for the unreflected popular dancing. There was a very broad, consistent, and long-lasting agreement in the mainstream of the Nordic folk dance movement to cultivate folk dance as social dancing and to keep away from the strategies of theatrical dancing (Bakka and Biskop, 2007: 306). This approach can be interpreted to have a similarity to ideas of art for arts’ sake: To keep up folk dancing in its basic, traditional function for the sake of its intrinsic value was perhaps an idealistic aim of most of its proponents. Whereas the wish to keep folk dance as a social dance was more or less unanimous, the resistance against certain changes in repertoires and forms in the new situations was surprisingly weak even in communities that had strong living traditional music and dance. The new song dance was, for example, accepted in Valdres, where the old dances Springar and Halling were very much alive (Ranheim, 1994: 89). There were certainly some critical voices. Folklorists such as GrünerNielsen (1917) and Klein (1927 and 1928) did explicitly question the practical work within the Danish and Swedish folk dance movement. In Norway, it was a marginal position to question the new national repertoire that was taught instead of regional dances. It was a position mainly connected to fiddlers and traditional dancers, and it grew really strong only in the 1970s.39 On the other hand, there was, at least in Norway, a quite widespread use of folk dance as a tool for popular enlightenment, temperance, and socialising of rural youth in modernist ways. The emancipation of the dominated classes, meaning mainly parts of the rural population, was a central aim for the Liberal Youth Movement, which had folk dance as a central strategy. These ideas of seeing folk dance as a tool for achieving other more important aims seem in many respects parallel to the concept According to Bourdieu and Johnson (1993: 14) the field of power is «the set of dominant power relations in society». 39 Different positions related to this in later periods of the Norwegian folk dance movement have been explored by Egil Bakka pointing to the difference between the heir and the user positions (Bakka, 1994). 38 92 Anne Fiskvik and Egil Bakka «of social art». Ballroom dancing was tied to the dominant class, their lifestyle, and their system of values and marketed as educational tools to learn their mores, a possible parallel to «bourgeois» art. One may think that part of the theatre dance could be seen as «art for arts» sake, but there is hardly any evidence to support this. The position in folk music and folk dance circles that is arguing for the regional dances might also have affinities to such a position. Then finally there is a fourth position that does not have a parallel in Bourdieu’s analysis of the literary field: The simple, unreflected but strong wish among the lower classes to enjoy dancing and partying without any kind of justification, just for the fun of it. Can a Growth of One or More Dance Fields Be Traced in Norway 1900–1930? It seems quite clear that the folk dance movement recruited a strong majority of their leading people from rural Norway. A selection of 20 leading persons has been made, and their social backgrounds have been identified. Most of them were sons and daughters of farmers, typically from districts where the farms were not big, but still often owned by the farmers themselves. Some of these farmers additionally served as teachers or parish clerks. Only a couple of them were raised in modest urban environment. There is also reason to point out that lowest classes of the rural population, workers without land, are hardly represented, at most by one or two persons. The same kind of selection of theatre dance people and dance teachers has been made, and even if there were some problems of identifying the background of all persons selected, the pattern seems clear. The leading people in theatrical dance mostly came from urban middle-class environment, and the same is true for dance teachers and leading people in ballroom dancing that have been identified. Agents from all of the three genres discussed are relating to the public discourse over what is valid and valuable culture in the new Norway. There are also examples of other interactions, less visible and more difficult to document from the side of dance teachers and theatre dance than from folk dance. As an example, Hulda Garborg’s interaction with theatres all the way through the period can be mentioned. She helped to stage Faroes dance in the play Svend Dyrings hus at Fahlstrøms theater in 1903 (Garborg, 1962: 93 Tracing Dance Fields 13), and her venture to establish a professional theatre in the capital city in 1913 was very successful (Det norske teatret, 1938). Even if their interactions may be seen as sufficient for considering them evidence of a national dance field, the question needs further discussion. It is more clear, however, that all the three genres portrayed here negotiate and struggle within what might consider fields of their own, whether they are subfields of a general dance field or independent fields. The folk dancers are struggling over how to organize themselves and, connected to this, about who is to publish manuals and periodicals. Much of this struggle is mainly fought between a few central players in the field, but it also mirrors questions of loyalty and adherence. Hulda Garborg was the unchallenged queen of folk dance from 1902 till 1920. She was the only publisher of folk dance material, a history of dance and books with dance songs (Garborg, 1903a, b, 1922, 1923).40 In 1921, Klara Semb, who was already the leading folk dance instructor, having been active since 1905, published a full set of books needed for folk dancing: song book, dance manuals, and tunes of instrumental music. She also took on to edit a folk dance column in a weekly magazine. In this way she directly challenged Hulda Garborg’s leading position, and soon became the totally dominating player, being personally in charge of the authoritative publications. She was probably central in keeping folk dance within Noregs Ungdomslag and in forging the ideology that folk dancing was also important means to enlightening and educating and for the promotion of the New Norwegian language. There were attempts to move folk dance on to «neutral grounds» by organizing it outside of Noregs Ungdomslag in the middle 1920s. Such an organization, Den norske folkeviseringen,41 was active for some 10 years and had high membership around Oslo, but then disappeared suddenly, for reasons that have not been spelled out in any of the club histories from the period. Atten norske folkedansar was published by Klara Semb in 1916 but with a preface by Hulda Garborg and with Garborg as one of the dancers on the frontpage. 41 Norsk Folkeviseskrift, 1923. 40 94 Anne Fiskvik and Egil Bakka Summary We propose, even if it needs further discussions, that a dance field emerged in Norway during the first decades of the 20th century. The revival folk dancer and the dancer of classical ballet were established, or in Bourdieu’s terms, invented, as a Norwegian phenomenon. Even if the attempt (in Dansen) to establish the dance expert who covered all genres was not very successful, it did leave some traces. It has been shown that there was interaction and competition across a broad range of dance activities, which support our proposal. We propose that a doxa42 of the field could be the acceptance that dances was less important than other expressions or aims in its context. Henrik Ibsen’s plays would be considered more important than ballet, distinguished deportment more important than ballroom dances, national enlightenment and «Nynorsk» language more important than folk dance, traditional music more important than traditional dances, and the social setting and the chance to meet persons of the opposite sex more important than the dances used at dance parties. Even if dance agents would see intrinsic values in their dances, many of them accepted the use of dance as a tool to reach other aims. Therefore, we also propose that the position the agents occupied in the field of dance depended more upon questions about how dance could or should serve other causes. These questions were deemed more important and were influencing positions more than questions about the intrinsic values and qualities of dance. It seems that many dance agents had more important struggles to fight in other fields, and that their positions in the field of dance mostly depended upon how they were placed in other fields, and upon their habitus.43 The tracing of central dance agents of the theatre world and among the dance teachers during 1900–1930 showed that they mostly came from the middle-class urban families. Central folk dancers came from the lower middle-class rural environment, mainly farmers’ fami- 42 According to Bourdieu, «a society’s taken-for-granted, non-questioned truths» http://www.anthrobase.com/Dic/eng/pers/bourdieu_pierre.htm. 43 According to Bourdieu the term doxa «denotes a set of dispositions that are inscribed in the body, shaping its most fundamental habits and skills» http://www.anthrobase.com/ Dic/eng/pers/bourdieu_pierre.htm. 95 Tracing Dance Fields lies. There is a striking consistency in the dates collected on this. The dancing crowds, however, could be found at all social levels. Where class division was strong, dancing crowds mostly had different dance locations. Urban and rural proletarians would frequent «Folkets Hus» (the people’s house) of the Labour Movement, whereas the upper classes of industrial communities may have their «Klubb» (Club) or «Festivitet». An egalitarian rural society may only have the «Ungdomshus» (Youth house) of the Liberal Youth Movement, while the farmers of rural communities with class division may have «Bøndernes hus» when the lower classes had «Folkets hus». Therefore, free social dancing cannot be pinned to any particular group in society. Such events were, in our experience, mostly the only kind of dancing in which members of the city proletariat and the working classes of rural societies engaged in.44 The Norwegian field of dance has been explored through three central dance agents. Bourdieu proposes that «A small number of agents and institutions concentrate sufficient capital to take the lead in appropriating the profits generated by the field – to exercise power over the capital held by other agents […]» (Bourdieu, 2004: 62). Therefore, the following can be proposed: that Gyda Christensen through her ballet ensemble did appropriate profits from the dance teachers, dancers, and choreographers of the time; that Hulda Garborg appropriated the profit of budding ideas and attempts by establishing a kind of dancing answering the needs of the Liberal Youth Movement; that Hjalmar Svae appropriated the profits from his fellow dancing masters through a professional publication and later on through initiating and leading their organization. The discussion furthermore suggests that all these three agents and their individual initiatives contributed decisively to concentrate and increase profits for the three genres. It also suggests that the Liberal Youth Movement negotiated their need to make profit from the dancing crowds in their community houses with the pressure from religious circles against allowing popular dancing. Hulda Garborg, due to her broad and radical literary engagement and her status as an intellectual, held a position in the educated establishment. Her originally higher middle-class Inger Damsholt’s chapter in this volume gives us an analysis of a sector of what we have called the dancing crowds in a much later period. This broad and, in terms of participation, very important dance phenomenon has seen least research compared to its size and frequency. 44 96 Anne Fiskvik and Egil Bakka family seems to have given her access to the values and mores of the class they left. Her mother’s poor circumstances put her into the position of the city proletariat. This was not a typical background for leading people of the Liberal Youth Movement and the «Norskdom» movement. One could say that she placed herself contrary to where the higher middleclass agents of her home region in Central Eastern Norway45 and the city proletariat would most often go into the questions of language and nationality. This may be the one reason for her achievements and status in the Liberal Youth Movement and the «Nynorsk» circles. The small amateur theatre and dance group Det Norske Spellaget toured Norway in 1911–1912 under the leadership of Hulda Garborg. The aim was to raise money for a theatre using «Nynorsk» language in the capital city. They succeeded, and today Det Norske Teatret is a leading Norwegian theatre. Photographer unknown. (Klara Semb Collection, Rff, Trondheim) Garborg was also the bridge from folk dance and «Nynorsk» into the theatre world. Gyda Christensen started out going against the will of her parents and to some degree the expectations of a girl from upper middleclass background. After this, she could systematically build her capital, cleverly, but still in accordance with a conventional career for women in the theatre. Her most important assets were perhaps that she got a 45 This region is one of the few strongholds for a rural higher middle class in Norway. 97 Tracing Dance Fields position in a prestigious theatre where she could develop dance. From a discipline of modest status in the local theatre world, she developed dance so that it, not least through her and her daughter’s international successes, became recognized. Her abilities to build social capital seem very important, she married influential agents from the theatre world, travelled, and build relations to internationally acknowledged dance artist. She also capitalized by having and using many different talents. This again strengthened her cultural capital and was possible because she had substantial economic means. Hjalmar Svae’s background from a wealthy middle-class family and his military status were a solid foundation for his work as a dance teacher. Svae’s dance school, which developed and had several branches and many teachers and performers, was in our impression the most prestigious and well-known dance school in Norway at the middle of the century. His visibility through Dansen and his presidency of the Dance teachers association in 1935 in many ways gave him a lead. Bourdieu’s discussion of the French literary field between 1830 and 1850 has been a recurring point of reference. He proposes that the field is organized around three positions. Inspired by this, we propose that the Norwegian dance field 1900–1930 is organized around the following positions: 1) dance as part of international, urban package; 2) dance as part of a national, rural package; and 3) dance in its own right. There was a polarization mainly between position 1 and 2. The poles were the wishes to establish the new nation 1) on a basis of urban language and an urban culture inspired by international development or 2) on a basis of rural language and what was often seen as nationally derived culture. Theatre and ballroom dance were as solidly based in the urban as folk dance was in the rural. Some interesting attempts to take folk dance out of the rural package and some to take theatre dance out of the urban package have been discussed. Most of the dancing crowds can be seen as occupying the position of dance in its own right, paying little attention to their repertoire’s imputed origins. An aspect not proposed as one of the organizing positions is the question of religion and morality. It is hard to tell whether such questions did in fact influence our three central agents decisively, it probably influenced the possibilities of the dancing crowds more. It is, however, a separate topic, which would take more work to explore than one could put into this chapter. A preliminary exploration of the situation in the other Nordic countries suggests the obvious similarity that all countries 98 Anne Fiskvik and Egil Bakka have a certain polarization between the urban and the rural. On the other side, this polarization seems to be very differently constructed, at least in relation to folk dance. In Norway, the folk dancers are to a large extent farmers’ boys and girls of origin, whereas the secretary of the Swedish folk dance organization, Ernst Granhammar comments in retrospect how enjoyable it is for the [Swedish] folk dancers to play farmers’ boys and girls once in a while (Hembygden, 1941: 83). In a personal communication, Petri Hoppu points to an interesting difference in Finnish organizations proposing that in Finland, the difference could be found between the different organizations at the beginning of the 20th century. The members of the national Finnish folklore organization SKY46 were often urban people, mostly from Helsinki, whereas folk dancers in youth associations came from the countryside. These preliminary findings point towards a future analysis of a Nordic dance field, which can hopefully include more dance genres and look at subfield structures within and across the countries. While revival folk dancers established their clubs throughout the Nordic countries, Nordic interaction also arose. Philochoros, the students folk dance club from Uppsala, toured Norden in the decade around 1900, inspiring canonization in ways discussed by Petri Hoppu in this volume. He regards «the emergence of national folk dance fields to a large extent as a process of canonization». He proposes that canonization can be seen as appropriation of cultural product, which according to Bourdieu «presupposes dispositions and competences which are not distributed universally». Based on our study, we propose that the process would depend on the social background and the habitus of leading agents and that distinct differences between countries in this respect might be used to explain differences in the way national folk dance movements emerged and were constructed. Whether such differences can be found in other genres remains a more open question. Works Cited Anker, Øyvind. 1958. Johan Peter Strømberg: mannen bak det første offentlige teater i Norge. Oslo: Gundersen. 46 Suomalaisen Kansantanssin Ystävät ry (Finnish Folklore Association). 99 Tracing Dance Fields Bakka, Egil. 1994. «Heir, user, or researcher: Basic attitudes within the Norwegian revival movement.» In Proceedings of the 17th symposium of the Study Group on Ethnochoreology: Dance and its socio-political aspects; Dance and costume. Nafplion: Peloponisiako Laografiko Idrima: 117–126. Bakka, Egil. 1991. «Innleiing. Turdansen i folkedansarbeidet.» In Klara Semb, Norske folkedansar. Turdansar. 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Danse Ringen. 1922–1971. 102 Index arm's length principle 108 Association Norden 17, 109 authenticity 21, 28, 42, 43, 45, 47–49, 182, 188 autonomous fields of art 59, 106, 112, 113, Bajazzo 158–160, 163–165, 169 ballet 45, 46, 60, 61, 72, 73–78, 81, 84, 85, 91, 119, 168, 178, 188, 189, 192, 201 Beck, Hans 81, 84 Berthelsen, Georg 84 Bhabha, Homi K. 176, 181, 182, 186, 187 Bourdieu, Pierre 21, 22, 28, 48, 57, 59, 60, 66, 69, 85, 91, 95, 96, 98, 112, 113, 115, 135, 152, 197 Bournonville, August 45, 46, 170, 178, 188, 201 Bump, the 162, 163 canon, canonization 21, 27–32, 37, 41, 42, 46–49, 99, 176, 187–194, 198 capital, cultural 21, 23, 28, 48, 63, 65–67, 69–71, 77–79, 81, 86, 88, 98, 132, 147, 152, 167–170 capital, economic 22, 66, 77, 81, 85, 88 capital, social 22, 66–68, 78, 79, 85, 86, 90, 98, 167, 170 Christensen, Gyda 60, 61, 71–81, 88, 96, 97 class 21, 22, 44, 58, 65, 70, 86–88, 91–93, 95–97, 141, 180, 181, 194, 200 Collan, Anni 33, 70 cultural cohort 141 cultural formation 141 cultural heritage 68, 175, 179, 181, 182, 185, 187, 193, 202 cultural policies 18, 22, 23, 106, 108, 175, 177–179, 181, 183, 185–187, 191, 194 culture (R. Williams) 140 Culture Action Plan, the 123, 175, 183–186 211 Index Daddy's Dance Hall 154, 158, 159, 164, 165, 168 dance field, autonomy of 118, 120, 121, 124-126 dance field, internal logic of 106, 107, 113, 125, 126 dance formation 30, 32, 34, 37, 39, 40, 46 dance music 141, 142, 144, 146 dance structure 31, 37–40, 46, 47, 53 Danielsen, Glen Christian 169 De Certeau, Michel 106, 109, 125, 126 democracy 23, 108, 124, 175, 176, 181, 183, 186, 191–194, 199 disco dancing, free style 157, 162, 163, 170 disco dancing, partner 162–164 disco line dancing 164, 166 discotheque 23, 151–171, 199 Duelund, Peter 19, 108 Enlightenment, the 45, 47, 48, 95 ethnicity 192, 194 Fahlstrøm, Johan and Alma 74 field theory 21–23, 28, 48, 57–59, 91, 92, 96, 112–115, 135, 152 fieldwork 23, 64, 132, 135–137 Flindt, Flemming 188 flow (M. Csikszentmihalyi) 143, 146 flow, cultural 151–158, 164, 166, 170 Fokine, Michel 72, 76, 81 folklore 31, 44, 45, 99, 138, 176–180, 193 Garborg, Hulda 30, 39, 60–66, 68–70, 88, 94, 96, 97 globalization 152, 194 Go-Go dancing 156, 162 212 Grüner-Nielsen, Hakon 70, 92 habitus 91, 95, 99, 141, 146 Heikel, Yngvar 34, 70 House of Dance, the 105, 106, 120, 121 Hustle, the 162, 163, 165, 166 Hvidsten, Rasmus 87 Ibsen, Lillebil 78, 80, 81, 107 identity, national 18, 21, 65, 67, 176, 183, 192, 198 identity, Nordic 12, 108 inclusion and exclusion 23, 28, 32, 45, 109, 175, 176, 181, 192, 198 infrastructure 23, 115–118, 120, 121, 125, 194 Jante Law 166 Karlson, Gustav 42, 48, 70 Keðja 124, 125 Kuopio Dance Festival 110–113, 115 La Discothèque 153 Laine, Doris 110–112, 199 Lander, Harald 188, 189 language 14, 15, 18, 64–67, 73, 87, 88, 94, 95, 97, 98, 139, 203 medium specificity 115 modernity 28, 152, 193 multicultural society 176, 183–185 national dances 29, 45, 46, 67, 88 National Romanticism 28, 45, 47, 67 NFF, Nordic Association for Folk Dance Research 12 NOFOD, Nordic Forum for Dance Research 12, 24, 115 Nordic Council of Ministers, the 19, 20, 108 Nordic Cultural Commission, the 18, 107 Nordic Cultural Model, the 18, 108 Nordic Theatre and Dance Committee, the 105, 106, 123 Nordic Theatre Committee, the 108, 109, 110 Nordscen, Nordic Centre for the Performing Arts 124 participatory dancing 131–147, 180, 182, 185 Philochoros 29, 30, 37, 39, 46, 49, 70, 99, 158 Polska 37–40, 42, 46, 52, 131–147, 198, 199 popular (J. Storey) 139, 140 popular education 27–49 post-modern dance 177, 178 Poul Petersen’s Institute 84 presentational dancing 23, 138, 142 Project Nordic Dance Committee 111, 113, 114, 116, 118, 119, 122, 123, 199 Pulkkinen, Asko 33, 37, 42, 43, 53 Saturday Night Fever 158, 161–164, 166–168, 170 Scandinavia 14, 16, 165 Selinder, Anders 42, 46, 49 Semb, Klara 32, 33, 43, 94 Svenska Folkdansringen 68 Svae, Hjalmar 60, 61, 82–90, 96, 98 theatrical dance 22, 29, 30, 45, 47, 58, 88, 89, 93, 170, 185 Thuren, Hjalmar 62, 63, 70 traditional dance (H. Glassie) 140, (T. Torino) 141 Tramps 158–160, 163–165, 167, 168 transnational cultural flows 23, 142 Travolta, John 158, 161, 162, 170 Twist, the 155–157 Urup, Henning 83–85 Valentin, Susanne 177–179, 182 vernacular 27, 48, 132, 138, 139 Viva Mexico 178–180, 182 Vaasa Committee 108 Walbom, Emilie 81, 84, 85, 107 Whisky à Go-Go 153, 154, 156 Winter-Hjelm, Otto 77 racism 175, 182, 184 Reinhardt, Max 72, 81 213 Contents Contents Acknowledgments ..................................................................... 9 Dance and the Formation of Norden ............................ 11 Karen Vedel On Norden ........................................................................................ Building Cultural Affinity across the Region .................................. Emergences and Struggles ................................................................ Dance in Nordic Spaces/Nordic Spaces in Dance ........................... Between the Nation, the Region and the World ............................. Works Cited ....................................................................................... 14 17 21 22 23 24 National Dances and Popular Education – The Formation of Folk Dance Canons in Norden .......... 27 Petri Hoppu Constructing Canons ........................................................................ Published Canons .............................................................................. Ideological Background..................................................................... National Dances on the Stage........................................................... Organization Culture ........................................................................ Fields of Folk Dance.......................................................................... 28 31 43 45 46 48 5 Contents Works Cited ....................................................................................... Appendix ............................................................................................ 49 52 Tracing Dance Fields............................................................... 57 Anne Fiskvik and Egil Bakka Three Agents, Three Events .............................................................. The Emergence of a Norwegian Dance Field?................................. The Larger Context for the Three Agents........................................ Hulda Garborg................................................................................... Gyda Christensen............................................................................... Hjalmar Svae...................................................................................... The Agents’ Interactions and Struggles ........................................... Positions in a Field of Dance ............................................................ Can a Growth of One or More Dance Fields Be Traced in Norway 1900–1930?......................................................................................... Summary ............................................................................................ Works Cited ....................................................................................... Strategically Nordic. Articulating the Internal Logic of the Field.................................................................................... 58 59 61 62 71 82 87 91 93 95 99 105 Karen Vedel Dance Art in the Nordic Cultural Cooperation .............................. Claiming a Space for Dance.............................................................. Project Nordic Dance Committee .................................................... National Dance Infrastructures ........................................................ From Project Nordic Dance Committee to Nordscen and beyond Strategically Nordic ........................................................................... Works Cited ....................................................................................... 107 109 113 116 122 125 127 Participatory Dancing – the Polska Case ..................... 131 Mats Nilsson Polska Dancing in Sweden in the 21st Century .............................. Into the Field ..................................................................................... Some Concepts Applied to Polska Dancing .................................... Dance and Music ............................................................................... 6 132 135 138 143 Contents Conclusions – Polska in Nordic Spaces ........................................... 147 Works Cited ....................................................................................... 148 Nordic Night Fever .................................................................. 151 Inger Damsholt Transnational Flows of Disco ........................................................... Making and Unmaking Norden through Disco Dance .................. Conclusion ......................................................................................... Works Cited ....................................................................................... 153 158 169 171 Dance and Democracy in Norden ................................... 175 Lena Hammergren The Tyranny of One-sidedness – Sweden........................................ Fighting against Racism – Norway................................................... Interpretation through «One Glossary» – Denmark ...................... Inclusion – Exclusion: A Comparative Perspective ......................... Works Cited ....................................................................................... 176 182 187 192 195 Reflexive Notes: A Conclusion ........................................... 197 Egil Bakka, Inger Damsholt, Anne Fiskvik, Lena Hammergren, Petri Hoppu, Mats Nilsson, Karen Vedel Emergences and Struggles................................................................. The Historical Span........................................................................... A Collaborative Process..................................................................... Works Cited ....................................................................................... 197 200 202 204 Contributors ................................................................................ 207 Index ................................................................................................ 211 7