81 ETHNOLOGIA ACTUALIS Vol. 16, No. 2/2016 MATÚŠ IVAN Odzemok: Cultural and Historical Development Odzemok: Cultural and Historical Development MATÚŠ IVAN Department of Ethnology and World Studies, University of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava
[email protected] ABSTRACT This article characterizes the male dance odzemok as one of the most representative dances in the broad spectrum of Slovak folk dances. A more detailed analysis and subsequent analysis of the literature confirms the absence of a comprehensive integrated material concerning odzemok in a wider context. This text further highlights the historical development of said male dance in the central geographic area, and analyzes the factors that led to the development of its present form. KEY WORDS: folk dance, folk music, male dance, odzemok, hajduch, valachian colonization Introduction Odzemok has an important place in the history of dance culture in Slovakia. It belongs along with young men's or lad's dances and verbunk to a group of men´s dances. The consequences of its origin, its development and forms are not clearly defined even now. DOI: 10.1515/eas-2017-0006 © University of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava. All rights reserved. 82 ETHNOLOGIA ACTUALIS Vol. 16, No. 2/2016 MATÚŠ IVAN Odzemok: Cultural and Historical Development If we want to study dance and be more familiar with it, we cannot focus only on its form and content but we must take into concern a wider context. Dance, as well as other folk forms, exists only at the moment of its concrete active realisation. Preserving the dance is correlative with the active expression of a different kind of dance, which helps us to spread it from generation to generation.