What are some traditional dances of your country?

9 comments

1. Scottish country dancing is taught in schools, usually during PE on the lead up to Christmas (so we can dance at the Christmas party).

   They start with easy ones like the Canadian barn dance and you learn more as you go through. There’s dances for couples then for multiples of couples (6 and 8 people, can’t think of a 4 but there probably is).

   Famous ones include “The Gay Gordon’s”, “Strip the Willow”, “The Dashing White Sergent”.

   As adults you’d expect a ceilidh at a burns night, some new year parties, weddings, and charity fundraisers. Bands will often provide a “caller” which is someone who shouts which dance and explains how to do it for non Scottish or folk who need refreshing.

2. There’s [highland dancing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_highland_dance), which is reasonably common for young girls to learn.

   There’s also cèilidh/Scottish country dancing, which are taught in school as part of PE. Boys in particular generally grow up hating it but as you get older you realise it’s an essential life skill!

3. Danish folk-dancing is largely dead, outside of small dedicated associations; the traditional dances simply aren’t part of our culture any longer. Historically, folk-dancing has been on a journey—as it has everywhere—starting with medieval chain dances accompanied by ballads, telling various folktales, though later replaced by things like polkas, pols and waltzes. The tradition of chain dancing is still alive in the Faroe Islands though.

   One “folk dance” that many Danes will be familiar with is [_Les Lanciers_](https://youtu.be/2JN2CQaJorg?t=425)—commonly referred to as just “_lancier_”—as it is danced on Gymnasiums throughout the country, taught as a part of the _Bildung_ of our nation’s youth. While it is a 19th century invention, and wasn’t really popular in Denmark until ~150 years ago, widely danced even later, i.e. within the last 80 or so years, it is a cultural icon, that most people will recognise, and even finds reference in songs and other media. Nothing says national culture like the country’s inebriated youth showing off a dance they’ve been forced to learn as part of their education!

4. Ireland famously has Irish dancing. It’s a form of dance done solely with the feet, the hands are traditionally left at the side. Most famous rendition of it is [Riverdance](https://youtu.be/w0v_pu6miJ8).

5. Different types of dances like Polka or Walzer([you can take a look at this list a bit down](https://www.dancilla.com/wiki/index.php/Deutsche_Tanzliste)

   In Bavaria Schuhplattler may be,

   but I would say what is really a dance that is practiced outside folklore clubs and festivals is the discofox to German Schlager music.

   Basically at a lot of boomer events, weddings and Events in the Country side.
   Country people know lol in the last years a lot of People did the Discofox to atemlos durch die Nacht…

   https://youtu.be/IuQ5UtzAooA

   And everybody knows how to do the Macarena dance, the Entchen dance and how to do a polonaise lol

6. Flamenco is not the tradicional dance for Spain. It is the traditional dance for Andalusia.

   Madrid has [chotis](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag0MKe9UH74) as its traditional dance, Aragon has [Jotas](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPqfcEXAm-M) as traditional dance, [muñeiras](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8HUf750byQ) for Galicia, etc.

7. The most stereotypically French dance would be the [French Cancan](https://youtu.be/6J6eppvIIgI), but it’s pretty recent on the scale of History, there are plenty of others that would be considered more traditional. Brittany’s Celtic one comes to my mind first, ([example](https://youtu.be/XCpa8b5XSww)).

   There was actually a contest to elect France’s best folkloric dance recently ([here](https://youtu.be/6I_ESiFjCi0)), there’s a sort of recap listing them in the beginning.

8. I have a few dances that come to mind.

   You mentioned **csárdás** (yes that is how we spell it), which is danced in pairs and it usually has 2 tempos, which have many names from region to region. Generally it begins with “lassú csárdás”, or slow csárdás and ends with “friss csárdás”, which means fresh or quick csárdás.

   **Verbunk** is an army recruitment dance. Tradition was that when the recruiters came to the village they hired a band who started playing music and if you were interested in becoming a soldier you joined in.

   **Legényes** is the traditional men’s dance around Kolozsvár (Cluj) in Transylvania. It is considered the most manly of all dances. You dance in “points”, which are basically like “sentences” of a few musical measures. It’s very competitive, everyone is doing solos facing the band, while girls watch from the side.

   **Karikázó** is danced by women, specifically unmarried girls. They stand in a circle, sing and go round and round. There is no music, only singing. This one is usually done during celebrations while the band takes a break. It has 3 tempos, a slow one, quicker one and fast one. All of these tempos have songs that are different from village to village.

   This is just a small list of dances you might hear about, there are many, many niche ones I haven’t mentioned (ugrós, négyes, szászka, botoló, etc…).

9. Valle is our traditional dance, every region has their own style, however [this is the default one](https://youtu.be/yqVfrE22iV0) if you don’t know how to dance, it’s very simple to learn.

   Valle is very popular in weddings.