Bygdedans (or village dance) is the regional, traditional dance of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. Bygdedans are the oldest and most distinctive among Norwegian folk dances.''Bygdedans'' (University of Oslo)
The music accompanying bygdedans is normally seen as the oldest living musical traditions in the country. These traditions have mainly survived in the more isolated farming communities of the country. In the urban areas and along the coastline where the interaction with other cultural expressions was more intense, these dances have been left behind in favour of new popular dances such as the '' gammeldans'' which became popular with the arrival of new instruments like the

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

. The basic form of the bygdedans is the ' (walking dance in 2/4 or 3/8) and the ' (running dance in even rhythm or 3/4) distinguished from each other mainly by tempo and intensity of the music and the dance. Both dances were characterised by a sequence of three parts: the figuring part; the free dancing part (') and the closed hold part ('). Through time much regional variation has developed and most dances today have a clear 3/4 pulse, which character varies considerably regionally. For instance in

Telemark Telemark () is a Counties of Norway, county and a current electoral district in Norway. Telemark borders the counties of Vestfold, Buskerud, Vestland, Rogaland and Agder. In 2020, Telemark merged with the county of Vestfold to form the county o ...

the pulse is best characterised as longer – long – short, whereas in

Valdres Valdres () is a traditional district in central, southern Norway, situated between the districts of Gudbrandsdalen and Hallingdal. The region of Valdres consists of the six municipalities of Nord-Aurdal, Sør-Aurdal, Øystre Slidre, Vestre S ...

it is short – longer – long. The ' today is only a living tradition in

and

Setesdal Setesdal (; older name: Sætersdal) is a valley and a traditional district in Agder County in southern Norway. It consists of the municipalities of Bykle, Valle, Bygland, Iveland, and Evje og Hornnes. The Otra river flows through the val ...

. In the western part of Norway the ' and its traditional tunes have been taken over by ' or ', a dance with a more modern waltzing style. The more athletic '' Halling'' or ''Lausdans'' can also be seen as an heir of ' but is mostly danced by men. The areas of bygdedans correlate mainly with the regions where the

hardanger fiddle A hardanger fiddle () is a traditional stringed instrument considered the national instrument of Norway. In modern designs, this type of fiddle is very similar to the violin, though with eight or nine strings (rather than four as on a standard v ...

is used as the main folk music instrument. In the parts of Norway where the violin is more common, the traditional dances like '' pols'' and ', have taken up more modern traits associated with the '' gammaldans''.

References

Other sources

Larson, Leroy W. ''Scandinavian-American Folk Dance Music of the Norwegians in Minnesota'' (Ph.D. diss., University of Minnesota. 1975) {{Norwegian folk music Culture of Norway Norwegian folk dances Dance in Norway

See also

References

Other sources