Written for the Ministry for Foreign Affairs by Ms. Sari Heikkilä, M. A., Teacher of folk dancing, November 1992.
Updated in January 1998 by Mr. Kari Bergholm,
President of CIOFF
In the eyes of foreigners Finnish folk dances may look quite peculiar, and they certainly differ considerably from the dances of other European nations, including neighbouring countries. Still, Finnish folk dances are mostly variations of old court and ballroom dances once fashionable all over Europe; only in this remote corner of the continent they have been better preserved than elsewhere.
Most of the Finnish folk dances we know were collected at the turn of the century and consequently represent the dance heritage of the 19th century. Fortunately folk traditions do not easily discard the past, and many older elements and indeed whole dances have been kept alive to this day.
The oldest known dance tradition in Finland goes back to medieval times, when “caroles” grew popular in France and were soon danced among all classes of society throughout Europe, even in far-away Finland. Caroles were simple chain dances in which a linked line of dancers moved forwards, walking, running or skipping to their own singing. The figures were simple and depended on the leader of the chain, who led the dancers along a labyrinthine path over the floor, curving round, twisting and turning back, sometimes going under arched arms. Other formations were also used: circles, squares and lines were already popular; but the figures were simple in all of them, e.g. moving round the circle or going forwards and backwards in the line and changing places. The dancers were not divided into couples, but in some of the ring dances one couple might separate from the others in order to perform in the middle for a while. The dance and the song were not connected with each other, but any song could be used for any figure. The leader usually started a narrative ballad and the dancers joined in with him. There was as yet no instrumental accompaniment. Chain dances survived in Finland for a long time, especially at weddings, where they were used as ritual dances up to the present century.
The oldest Finnish dances performed to instrumental music (violin, clarinet, kantele) were the minuet and the polska, which both experienced the height of their popularity in the 18th century. The minuet originated in the 17th century at the French court, where the dancing masters modelled it after an old French folk dance from Poitou. As this implies, there has always been much mutual fertilization between the court and folk levels. In spite of its difficult steps the minuet was slowly popularized and spread all over Europe. In Finland it stayed in fashion throughout the 18th century in the western parts of the country. The minuet was a solemn dance performed without the smallest hint of a smile, but traditionally it ended with a lively polska, which provided a vivid contrast. At weddings the minuet had an important position as one of the main ceremonial dances. Consequently it did not fall into complete oblivion, but survived even to the present day, especially among the Swedish-speaking population along the coast.
The “polska” originated in Poland and came to Finland by way of Sweden in the 17th century. It soon grew immensely popular and according to old records even surpassed the minuet in popularity during the 18th century. One has to keep in mind, however, that “polska” was a general name for many different dance variations and was indeed often used as a synonym for “dance”. Though lots of polska melodies have been collected in Finland, information about how the polska was actually danced is very scarce. It seems to have been too simple and ordinary to need any description. Most sources merely note that the polska is danced “as usual” or “as everyone knows”. The polska could be in double or triple time and was danced in couples, circles or chains. The couple polska was probably the oldest form and had two distinct parts. As a rule it started with some simple figure, and in the second part the dancers turned round, using steps which varied from one polska to another. In the couple polska the dancers did not move around the room but stayed in the same place the whole dance through. At the beginning of the 19th century the polska was gradually forgotten except as a ceremonial dance at weddings. It also survived in some figures of the new “contra dances”.
At the end of the 17th century the French adopted English country dances, calling them “contra dances”. New dances were quickly created after the original models and soon spread to other countries. The steps were much simpler than in the minuet, and contra dances immediately gained great popularity among ordinary people.
The oldest form was typical of the English country dance: it was performed in a line formation with the couples progressing down the set all the time. In France such dances were called “contre danses anglaises”. The Finns adopted the last part of this name to their own language; thus there are quite a few Finnish folk dances called “ankleesi” or “ankeliini”. Later on contra dances changed and were danced in a square, which gave them the name “quadrille”. The name soon became independent of the formation, however, and even earlier contra dances were then called quadrilles. Ordinarily they were long dances composed of many different figures, but typically one part of the dance was repeated at the end of every new figure. Quadrilles grew extremely popular in Finland, so much so that the square is the commonest formation among the Finnish folk dances which have been collected. As quadrilles fell into disuse only just before the turn of the century, it is understandable that the greatest part of our known dance heritage belongs to this category. All in all, well over a hundred quadrilles have been collected in Finland.
Besides the many-figured quadrilles, quite a large number of short square dances with only two or three different figures have been found. These were originally longer quadrilles but became shorter over the years. Such dances were typical of central Finland.
One special form of contra dance are dances with three performers known in many countries as “tempêtes”. In these dances the person in the middle, usually a gentleman, dances in turn with his partners. At the beginning of the 18th century sailors brought to Finland – like to many other countries – British reels and gigues. Of these dances many popular variations were developed and preserved in Finland.
“Purpuri” (potpourri) is the name given to long ceremonial dances which probably originated in a series of small dances. When the programme at balls became standardized, i.e. the dances were always performed in the same order, these were in the end taken for one dance. In Finland purpuris were also gradually popularized and changed considerably from their origins. They contained elements of many different types of dance, usually starting and ending with a march. In between there were ankleesis, quadrilles, mazurkas, waltzes, etc. These dances were known all over Finland except for the northern and easternmost parts. Purpuris were in fashion from the early 19th century on and survived up to the beginning of this century as ceremonial wedding dances which could last for hours.
By the end of the 19th century set dances were gradually forgotten and replaced by newer couple dances. In fact couple dances had been popular ever since the Middle Ages, and according to old records couple polskas were much favoured in Scandinavia in the 17th century. However, the 19th century was the golden era of couple dances. The oldest of these was the waltz, which spread into common use in Finland in the 1840s, while losing some of its elegance when it reached the folk level, as other dances had done before it.
The Bohemian “polka” came to Finland twenty years later and immediately grew extremely popular, it replaced older steps in many earlier set dances, and hordes of small new polka variations were born. As most of the collecting of Finnish folk dances coincided with this period, a quarter of Finnish folk dances contain polka steps.
Like many other things, dances come and go according to fashion over the centuries. They have always changed and still change with the times. As is the case with the dance heritage of other countries, Finnish folk dances are made up of many parallel and successive elements, which have been combined and transformed by the people. When dances moved from one country to another, each nation adopted them alongside its own traditions, combining, altering and developing these cultural influences in its own fashion. Such continuous alternation is the characteristic of all living folklore and was natural at a time when there was no written heritage, and all folk traditions were passed on orally from generation to generation. However, changes were always made according to strict unwritten rules. It is owing to these that we can differentiate Finnish folklore from Swedish or Russian.
Some characteristics of Finnish folk dances
In the study of Finnish folklore three distinctly different regions emerge: the Swedish-speaking coast, the Orthodox areas of Karelia in the east, and the rest of Finland. The first two of these have preserved many older dance forms because of their peripheral location. Besides, in these regions religion has always rather favoured dancing, whereas especially in the northern and central parts of the country some religious movements considered dancing a sin and succeeded in rooting out such a “bad habit”, thus removing almost every trace of old dances in these areas. The dances collected among the Swedish-speaking Finns have to a certain degree been influenced by Swedish dances. Stylistically, however, they belong to the Finnish dance tradition.
Karelian dances allow the dancers more liberty to improvise within the figures of the dance than those of western Finland, where the rules are quite strict. The dances of eastern Karelia show some Russian influence, e.g. in the form of men’s solos, which do not appear elsewhere in Finland.
Though there are some differences between these dances, there are quite a number of common features, and the folklore from all these areas clearly derives from the same national heritage. The most important common characteristic of Finnish folk dances is that they have always been social dances, never competitive or show dances as are found in many other countries. Consequently they do not contain any acrobatics, showy jumps or lifts. Furthermore, descriptive dances such as animal or work dances are very rare and seem to have been newly adopted from other countries. Being a peace-loving nation, the Finns have no war or sword dances, so popular elsewhere in Europe. Neither are there dances only for men or women, but everyone can take part. Besides, in Finland men and women have always been equal in dances, in contrast to most Slavic and Balkan countries. Naturally their roles are different, but both are just as important.
Other typical features are the numerous repetitions – first gentlemen then ladies, first clockwise then anti-clockwise, etc. – and the simple rhythm: about 90% of the dances are in double time. One other characteristic of Finnish folk dances is their great variety in tempo, mood, steps and figures. There is a surprising difference between the brisk and lively polka and the solemn, melancholic minuet. The main explanation for this variety is that dances deriving from different ages and cultural backgrounds have been preserved in Finland. There is another explanation, too: in Finland it was not considered seemly to show one’s sentiments openly except in dance, so the Finns seized the opportunity to express their feelings spontaneously on these few occasion.
Modern organized folk dancing
The 1970s brought a real boom in Finnish folk dancing. This could best be seen in the growing numbers of new enthusiasts joining different folk dancing clubs. This renewed interest was evidently due to the revival of national values and to the search for roots noticeable all over Europe and elsewhere as well. The ’80s saw a decline in the number of folk dancers, but there are still some 30,000 Finns who go folk dancing regularly.
This interest in folk dancing is, however, nothing new. It was in fact awakened during the second half of the 19th century when international fashionable dances began to influence people’s dancing habits faster than before, even in remote Finland. While the people themselves lost interest in the old dances, a new interest awoke among students and intellectuals, who started collecting old dances, airs and costumes, and thus rescued them from oblivion. This activity became organized in 1901, when a group of enthusiasts, mostly teachers and students at the University of Helsinki, founded the Finnish Folklore Association in order to preserve the Finnish folk dance tradition. In 1906 the Swedish-speaking members founded their own cultural organization called Brage, which in 1929 gave rise to the Swedish Folklore Association in Finland. During the first decades of their existence these two organizations performed a gigantic task in collecting and publishing the folk dances which still constitute the basis of our folk dance heritage. Their activity was, however, rather limited: their members were few and all lived in or around Helsinki. It was not until the 1920s and ’30s that folk dancing spread to the whole of Finland, thanks to youth clubs. These clubs originated in the 1880s but were first rather dubious about folk dancing. Only in the 1920s did they incorporate folk dancing in their programme, from then on, however, it became a popular activity among members of the Finnish Youth Association, whose clubs have spread all over Finnish-speaking Finland, especially in the countryside.
In consequence of this historical development, there are a great number of organizations in Finland concerned with folk dancing. Their motives for dancing, however, are different. The two main folk dancing organizations, the Finnish Folklore Association (FFA) and the Swedish Folklore Association in Finland (SFA), both strive to preserve and present the Finnish folk dance heritage in its full variety and as authentically as possible, while trying to revive these dances and let everyone share in the joy of dancing them. To be able to do all this, organizations need qualified and experienced teachers, and the Finnish Folklore Association has worked particularly hard in order to train such people, planning and organizing two-year courses in cooperation with the ethnological department of the University of Tampere and the Institute of Physical Education in Varala. In addition to dancing, these two organizations have lately included other folk traditions among their activities, such as songs, games, customs and crafts. These days the FFA and SFA are no longer so Helsinki-centred. The FFA has over 5,000 folk dancers all over Finland and in addition some 30 Finnish folk dancing clubs abroad. The SFA has some 2,000 members in all the Swedish-speaking areas. In 1982 the FFA founded a new organization for its members under 16, the Finnish Youth Folklore Association (FYFA), which boasts 3,000 young folk dancers.
At the moment, the Finnish Youth Association (FYA) counts the highest number of folk dancing enthusiasts among its members, about 20,000, half of them being children and teenagers, as is the case in the SFA. The aim of the FYA is civic education, and its youth clubs try to bring up “good people and upright citizens” through many different activities such as sports, drama and crafts. Folk dancing is only one part of a many-sided programme. Besides these four, various other organizations such as gymnastic clubs and temperance societies have included folk dancing in their programmes because they consider it good exercise or a healthy and instructive hobby. A special feature of the 90’s has been a number of folk dance groups which have more or less abandoned the traditional folk dances and concentrated their efforts in creating and performing new stage dances based on folkloric motives.
Such a complex organizational field cannot exist without its own difficulties. To improve the situation, the main organizations featuring folk dancing in their programmes founded a joint committee in the late 1960s in order to coordinate the activities of its members. As a further development, 1991 witnessed the foundation of Folklore Suomi Finland, a committee which aims at coordinating the international relations of all the Finnish folk dancing organizations, endeavouring thus to avoid overlapping. This committee acts as a representative of the organizations on international folk dancing committees, especially in the CIOFF (Conseil International des Organisations de Festivals de Folklore et d’Arts Traditionelles).
Information on folk dances can be obtained at the
Finnish Folklore Association
Döbelninkatu 5 B 21, 00260 Helsinki, Finland.
Tel: 358-9-441 803
Fax: 358-9-441 803