Nordic Roots Dance Kari Tauring - 2014 "Dance is a feature of every significant occasion and event crucial to tribal existence as part of ritual. The first thing to emphasize is that early dance exists as a ritual element. It does not stand alone as a separate activity or profession." Joan Cass, Dancing Through History, 1993 In 1989, I began to study runes, the ancient Germanic/Nordic alphabet system. I noticed that many rune symbols in the 24 Elder Futhark (100 ACE) letters can be made with one body alone or one body and a staff and some require two persons to create. I played with the combination of these things within the context of Martial Arts. In the Younger futhark (later Iron Age), these runes were either eliminated or changed to allow one body to create 16 as a full alphabet. In 2008 I was introduced to Hafskjold Stav (Norwegian Family Tradition), a Martial Arts based on these 16 Younger Futhark shapes, sounds and meanings. In 2006 I began to study Scandinavian dance whose concepts of stav, svikt, tyngde and kraft underpinned my work with rune in Martial Arts. In 2011/2012 I undertook a study with the aid of a Legacy and Heritage grant to find out how runes are created with the body/bodies in Norwegian folk dances along with Telemark tradition bearer, Carol Sersland. Through this collaboration I realized that some runes require a "birds eye view" of a group of dances to see how they express themselves. In my personal quest to find the most ancient dances within my Norwegian heritage, I made a visit to the RFF Center (Rådet for folkemusikk og folkedans) at the University in Trondheim (2011) meeting with head of the dance department Egil Bakka and Siri Mæland, and professional dancer and choreographer, Mads Bøhle. I viewed some of the oldest film footage of the Bear Ritual Dance and Sognespringar. I had a lesson from Siri Mæland which Mads filmed for later use and I added to my Scandinavian dance library. We discussed the possibilities of what might have been original to Norway as the most ancient forms of dance. I introduced them to the staff carrying tradition and some of my research in Bronze Age dance. Ancient Dance Environments Wooden floors and hard heeled shoes - In "modern" folk dance performance, the dance floor itself plays a significant role, how the floor springs under foot. Foot ware, dress, and dance space all inform the possible expression of dance, along with the music. Viking age foot ware, dress and dance spaces would have informed a very different type of dance movement potential. Turning dances such as in pols and springar would have been impossible given the constraints of the floor and the cumbersome dress. This pre-fiddle era would have counted on vocalized music, willow flute, bone flute, mouth harp, and possibly string harp and bag pipe. Sacred Movement - There is evidence of pantomime play and procession with masks from the Viking era and possibly earlier, and such "dances" are preserved in mummers plays and ritual enactments. The type of music making available in this era lends itself to stately processions or group circle dances such as those preserved in the Faroe Islands. Komme Alle (Tauring 2003) is a contemporary example of a sacred chant with movement/dance. Participants create runes with their bodies as they chant them, bringing the participants together in a closed circle to create a chain of the rune Mannaz which means community. Ritual dance - Mads Bøhle offered me an article by dance scholar and performer Martin Myhr about the oldest known ritual dance in Norway. "Bjønndansen- Ein Rituell Dans I Trysil" (The Bear Dance, a ritual dance in Trysil) was part of a larger bear hunting ceremony. The song is in pols rhythm, the dance figures resemble Hallingdans moves, and the performance concludes with ritual drink and a sharing of the bear meat in the community. The theme of the dance is to show power and athleticism. Dancers receive power from the bear carcass in the center of the circle and honor the bear through their displays. This tune and dance form has been found elsewhere in Norway relating to Reindeer hunt. Ivar Mogestad who is in charge of the video/film resources at the RFF center showed me several old films, one of this ritual dance and a raven dance from the Sami area. Bronze Age dance (Circa 2000 - 750 BCE) - I discussed string skirts (they had not heard of this, though there are examples in the museums) and women’s athletic and ceremonial dance as depicted in figurines and on petroglyphs. Mads Bøhle talked about his work tying Hallingdans to Bronze Age Petroglyphs. The dance figures painted on the stones are typical of Hallingdans figures. The addition of a women's sacred dance aspect was exciting to him as outreach to women within the Hallingdans community, giving this "traditionally" male dance an ancient root for women. Couples dance - The idea of the couples social dance is very modern. Stringent gender roles were developed within paired dances that are now being questioned in modern times. Swedish and Norwegian teachers generally now use the terms "leader and follower" ("impulse and balance" via David Kaminsky in 2006) rather than "boy and girl." Both couple parts are taught to all genders. This is having an interesting affect on pols/polska which has generally been a highly sexualized dance. Couples dances for professional performance and competition has, in Mæland's opinion, diminished the intention of these dances in a folk setting. Moves have lost their "laus og ledig" (loose and free) style and have become crisp, formulaic and in her words "un-inventive." Stringent rules for dance in competition do not allow dancers to make choices on impulse or invent new figures. Norwegian Songdans has its origins in Norway's National Romantic Period (circa 1860 - 1910). Klara Semb and Hulda Garborg combed the countryside looking for folk songs and dances which could be called quintessentially Norwegian. They reconstructed, or as Arna Rennan put it "cleaned up," the country dances to represent Norwegian culture to the intellectual elite. They choreographed group dances to the folk songs and began presenting them in a theatrical setting. Songdans is considered by scholars to be an intentionally created "tradition" and is often excluded from the definition of traditional folk dance in Norway. They were, however, seriously interested in the question, "What came before?" The occupation of Norway by the Danes (referred to as the "400 year night" by Norwegians) is a sort of Dark Ages in Norwegian identity. As the country was gaining independence, Semb, Garborg, and their contemporaries were actively defining what it meant to be authentically Norwegian. The two women visited the Faroe Islands where community circle dances were, and are still, being done in community halls and social settings. It has been speculated that these dances and the ballads sung for their performance date to at least the Middle Ages if not the Viking Era. Some of these ballads became part of the new tradition of Songdans. Faeroese Stordance (Big Dance) is part of the living tradition of Nordic dance (as opposed to Songdance). The RFF Center's extensive collection of films shows three basic variants of Stordans. Vanl I gur – Worked in Four Count - this is the most common or “ordinary” of the dances with two steps right, one step left (ie. Kråkvisa) Gamla keta – chain dances or dancing games in a ring with two figures, Kristian Blak, 1996 (ie. Jeg gikk meg over sjø og land). This is songleik in Norwegian. Sandoyar Dance – walking then couples turn (ie. Hans og Hånån) Svikt, Tyngde and Kraft - Weight, Wave and Power - These three terms summarize Nordic movement whether it be dancing, skiing, or walking. Mæland stressed that tyngde is the most important part of community dances. It is the "binding" term, how we wave together as a group. According to Mæland, learning the waves in the body and hands is the key and what happens with the feet is less important. This is attested to in the circle dances of Brittany. Jane Peck (dance historian and professional dancer in Minnesota) described that the hand and arm movements will cause the feet to move correctly. Singing together for these dances creates further "binding" as we share stories (history) and language, sound vibration and breath. This leads to a new level of organic tyngde that creates a heightened sense of unity and wholeness that the entire community can feel. The result is kraft (spiritual power). Ancient/Modern Concepts: Stav, Giving and Receiving, Binding Runes I offer these three terms as primary elements of Ancient Circle Dances. First is the concept of spine as stav, or staff. This staff represents the world tree. The three roots of the world tree create a "three- legged stool" in the body with one root coming from the left foot, one from the right, and one down the spine and out the perineum. These roots allow the stav to remain "plumb" to the earth and are essential for keeping one's balance. Svikt can only be achieved if the spine is stav. The rune of stav is Isa, the straight line, ice, as an icicle hangs from the eaves so we hang from the heavens into the earth. Svikt is the absorption of the body's weight into the Earth (or floor board). It is the giving of energy to the earth and the receiving of the tyngde or wave of earth energy that creates kraft (power) within the dance.