Waltzing through Europe: Attitudes towards Couple Dances in the Long Nineteenth Century ed. by Egil Bakka et al

Reviewed by: Waltzing through Europe: Attitudes towards Couple Dances in the Long Nineteenth Century ed. by Egil Bakka et al Cheryl A. Wilson (bio) Egil Bakka, Theresa Jill Buckland, Helena Saarikoski, and Anne von Biba Wharton, eds., Waltzing through Europe: Attitudes towards Couple Dances in the Long Nineteenth Century (Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2020), pp. ix + 480, £26.95 paperback. This collection of fifteen essays emerged from the work of the International Council on Traditional Music sub-study group Round Dances—19th Century [End Page 380] Derived Couple Dances. Within the broad context of nineteenth- century Europe, the essays here specifically address round dances, such as the waltz or polka, in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Germany, Croatia, Estonia, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. The three opening essays, all written by volume editor Egil Bakka, provide a foundation for the following chapters: “The Round Dance Paradigm” offers an introduction to the study of these dances and provides some shared terminology, “The State of Research” presents a survey of the field, and “Survey of the Chapters in the Book” provides an overview of the volume. Together these three chapters offer useful historical and theoretical context to those readers new to the study of dance history or to this particular genre of dance. The remaining twelve essays take a case study approach, offering a deep dive into a particular dance, geographical location, and historical moment. This approach allows the volume to cover a great deal of material, and most of the essays are very detailed and comprehensive in their treatment of the subject matter. The essays each stand on their own in terms of subject and scope; rather than a comprehensive historical survey, the volume reads as a series of interesting, distinct research projects. Several themes are evident across the essays, however, particularly with regard to the reception of the dances and the way in which they tie to national identity. Indeed, each author makes a point of demonstrating “how national movements could embrace dances as national symbols or reject them as harmful foreign influence” (55). Bakka’s essay “The Waltz at Some Central European Courts” provides a fascinating comparative study of where and when it was appropriate to perform the waltz in the presence of royalty, with some of the central European courts (Prussia, Austria-Hungary) expressing a level of conservatism that was not mirrored in England, France, or Russia. Daniela Stavĕlová’s essay, “The Polka as Czech National Symbol,” includes a helpful overview of folk culture and theorization of the role of dance as a cultural text through which she reads the mid-nineteenth-century Czech polka. The Czech Republic is also the subject of Dorota Gremlicová’s essay, “Decency, Health, and Grace Endangered by Quick Dancing? The New Style in Bohemia in 1830.” The impact of dance on the dancer’s physical and mental health, particularly for women, is a common thread throughout nineteenth-century dance history. In analyzing a debate that took place in the pages of the periodical Bohemia, Gremlicová illustrates the subtleties of such arguments, which addressed the specific manner and style of dance rather than offering blanket arguments in favor of or against the practice. Mats Nilsson addresses similar anxieties about dance in “Dance and ‘Folk Devils,’” which theorizes some of the negative cultural responses toward dance using Stanley Cohen’s concepts of “moral panic” and “folk devils” (375). [End Page 381] In the substantial essay “Reception of Nineteenth-Century Couple Dances in Hungary,” Lázló Felföldi provides an annotated catalogue of primary source material followed by an analysis of how distinct Hungarian versions of round dances emerged during the century. Rebeka Kunej brings readers to Slovenia with a very precise technical analysis of waltz dance forms in “The Waltz among Slovenians.” The emergence of the Croatian or Slavonic Kolo-dance, an expression of nationalist pride during the Croatian national revival, is the subject of “Dancing and Politics in Croatia: The Salonsko Kolo as a Patriotic Response to the Waltz,” by Ivana Katarinčić and Iva Niemčić. Jörgan Torp’s “Waltzing Through Europe: Johann Strauss (the Elder) in Hamburg and Altona in 1836,” the only essay in the volume to focus...

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