The term folk dance describes dances that share some or all of the following attributes:
- They are dances performed at social functions by people with little or no professional training, often to traditional music or music based on traditional music.
- They are not designed for public performance or the stage, although traditional folkdances may be later arranged and set for stage performances.
- Their execution is dominated by an inherited tradition rather than by innovation (although like all folk traditions they do change over time)
- New dancers often learn informally by observing others and/or receiving help from others.
More controversially, some people define folk dancing as dancing for which there is no governing body or dancing for which there are no competitive or professional performances.
Read more about Folk Dance: Terminology, Europe, Middle East & South Asia, Southeast Asia, Latin America
Famous quotes containing the words folk and/or dance:
“the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open eye—
So priketh hem nature in hir corages—
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“The things a man has to have are hope and confidence in himself against odds, and sometimes he needs somebody, his pal or his mother or his wife or God, to give him that confidence. He’s got to have some inner standards worth fighting for or there won’t be any way to bring him into conflict. And he must be ready to choose death before dishonor without making too much song and dance about it. That’s all there is to it.”
—Clark Gable (1901–1960)