VII
As elaborate as the Finnish folk music is in racial color and line, the Finns have few interesting and original folk-dances. Dr. Ilmari Krohn has hundreds of Finnish folk-dance tunes, but they reveal musical rather than choreographic vigor. A large number of graceful Finnish folk-dances are imitations of the Swedish or Norwegian style. In their own dances the figures and steps are heavy, languorous and compact as the rocky semi-arctic nature. Like the Finnish sculpture, the Finnish folk-dance has a tendency to the mysterious, grotesque and unusual line. Some of their folk-dances are as daring and unusual as the Finnish architectural forms. You find in the Finnish architecture that straight lines are broken up in the most extraordinary manner, projecting gables, turrets and windows are used to avoid the monotony of gray, expansive and flat walls. It falls into no category of known styles. Like fantastically grown rocks, it compels your attention. There is something disproportionate yet fascinating in the Finnish style and folk-dance.
The most racial of the Finnish folk-dances are not the pleasing village Melkatusta and other types of this kind, but the ‘Devil’s Dance,’ Paimensoitaja (‘Shepherd Tune’), Hempua, Hailii and Kaakuria. Like the Finnish Rune, Finnish dancing shows an unusual tendency to the magical, the mystic and the fantastic in emotions and ideas. It is less the graceful and quick, fiery style that appeals to a Finn than heavy, rugged and compact beauty. The ‘Devil’s Dance’ is weird, ceremonial and mystical. It is performed by a single woman inside of a ring of spectators, who are chanting to her a rhythmic and alliterative hymn of mythologic meaning. The hands are crossed on the breast and take no part of any kind in the display, while there are slight mimic changes to convey the more subtle meaning of the performance. Like the other northern races, the Finns make their dancing a function of the body and the legs. The Finns dance to the music of a harp—kantele—horn—sarwi—and to the singing voices. It is never the dancer who sings, but the spectators or special singers.
More picturesque and graceful than the Finnish are the Swedish, Norwegian and Danish folk-dances. Grieg, Svendsen, Gade, Hartmann and the modern Scandinavian composers have made successful use of the old folk-themes for their individual orchestral compositions. Though simple in step, the Scandinavian folk-dances are complicated in figure, lively and gay in manner, and rich in pantomime. They seem to have a strong predilection to square figures and sharp lines. The Swedish dancers are fond of arabesques, minuet grace and dainty poses. The Norwegian dance is more rugged and imaginary, the Danish and Swedish more refined and delicate. While the Norwegian is a naturally gifted singer, the Swede is a born dancer. There is a strong feeling in Sweden for reviving their old Skralat, Vafva Vadna, and other old national dances. The latter is a weaver dance and imitates the action of the loom. The girl, representing the movements of the shuttle, flashes back and forth through the lines of other performers, who are imitating the stretched threads. It is a clever piece of folk-art showing the vivid and quick temperament of the race. There are quite a few such symbolic country dances in Sweden, of which the harvest dances take the first place. The Daldans and Vingakersdans are pantomimic dances of humorous character, both themes dealing with the social-sexual relations in a rather satirical way. In the latter two women are endeavoring to gain the affection of a man. The favored one seats herself a moment on the man’s knee and finishes the number by waltzing with him, while the other bites her nails with vexation. In Sweden, as in France, the sexual elements play a conspicuous rôle in the folk-dance and render it sweetly graceful, seductive and sensuous by turns.
The Danes, being a race of industry and agriculture from the earliest times on, have followed the lead of Norway in ethnographic matters, but of Paris and Vienna in artistic manners. While they have developed the national art of the ballet to a high degree, their folk-dances have impressed me more by their cosmopolitan and imitative nature than by any original and racial traits they may have. There are certain plastic traits, certain soft nuances in the Danish mimicry, that speak of something racial, yet they melt in so much with the universal art that it is hard to analyze the national elements. Whether the ‘Corkscrew’ is a Norwegian, Danish or Swedish folk-dance, we have been unable to learn, but it is a charming piece of folk-art. In this the couples form in two lines. The top couple join hands, go down the middle and up again, and turn each other by the right arm once; then the gentleman turns the next lady, the lady the next gentleman, then each other again to the end, when the other couples kneel and clap their hands; and the first couple, joining hands, dance up one line and down the other, the lady inside. Then follows the corkscrew: all join hands outstretched with their vis-à-vis, the leading couple thread their way in and out of the other couples, the ladies backing, taking the lead, and then the gentlemen. All hands are raised when they reach the bottom, and, passing under the archway thus formed, they give place to the next couple.
The Dutch had previously many characteristic and racial folk-dances, as their great painters have handed down to us in their numerous works, but they have mostly died out. A Dutch folk-dance, with the performers dressed in long brocaded gowns and close-fitting caps of the same material, the face framed with small roses edging the cap, makes a most quaint and charming impression. The best known of the Dutch folk-dances is the Egg Dance, which was given with eggs beneath the feet. Another very effective dance, though slightly coarse in conception, is their Sailor’s Dance. The latter is danced by a couple in wooden-shoes, man and woman with their backs to each other and faces turned away. The dance has some eight figures and only at the end of each figure the dancers turn swiftly around to get a glimpse of each other, and turn back in the original position. If well executed this is an exceedingly humorous dance.