A dance picture of the everyday
old farm life performed as traditional Danish folk dance.
Dancing these
dances
you get a touch of the farm life in Denmark 100 years ago like
working with farm wind mills, and you get it the merry way.
The landmark of the farms: a windmill
on the roof.
A typical farm in the first half of the 20th century has a windmill on
the roof, especially in the more windy western and northern part of
Denmark.
A windmill was a big technical step forward in mechanizing the
agriculture and in modernizing the rural social structure.
My mother was born on this farm.
Farmer
Folk Dances of this website:
Folk
dances
reflecting farm life 100 years ago, e.g. with examples of allegorizing
in dance
the beginning mechanisation using hand driven threshing machines and
farm-windmills.
The
dances are
dedicated to and picture the farm life of my ancestors in the northern
part of Denmark:
The complicated operation of the windmill on the
farm of my grand father was the job also for my father as young. And
the first
use of the very simple threshing machine was learned by my mother's
great
grandfather.
The
grain was
harvested by hand: the man using a sharpened scythe and the woman
behind him using
a rake to sheaf. When dry the sheaves are transported home on a
creaking horse
wagon, with the creaks so clearly included in the dance music.
Rows
of potatoes
are planted and harvested, the cow is milked, and before stepping
inside the
feet are stamped to shake off the dirt.
This
and more are
all reflected in a number of dances for some merry dance events.
Why these new folk dances?
In 1999 I made a big website (in English) with 20 Danish folk dances
with music notes, with midi music, dance descriptions with animation
figures. (It was placed on: www.folkdance.suite.dk which stopped
operating January 2009, so now it is placed on:
http://lavigne.dk/oldfolkdance/
).
This website has given many comments from around the world. An
interesting question is the possible allegoric picture of the dances.
This information is usually lost.
Then I made these allegoric dances here in the traditional folk dance
style with music that I feel could to a big extend as well have been
made by my great great grandfather, the fiddler of his local region.
Further I made some "sailor dances" implementing more modern basic
steps into the Danish folk dance structure such as cha-cha-cha and
latin dance and standard dance (see: http://lavigne.dk/modernfolkdance/
or see: www.mejlhede.dk).
