Folk dances - Topics

Why do Basque sword dances appear only on certain saint's days? Why are children's ring dances vanishing from school playgrounds? Which direction do Balkan circle dances travel and who decides? How do you join a circle dance you have never seen before? Drumming through the night at a harvest party How a harvest celebration ends and who gets the last dance Why is the maypole dance still performed in English villages? How does a village wedding dance line get organised without a choreographer? What happens when a diaspora keeps the folk dance but loses its music? Harvest songs and dances: who leads them and who joins in Why do Greek panigyri dances run for hours without a break? What is the point of staged folk dance competitions between villages? Why do some folk dances keep men and women in separate lines? Why do local authorities sometimes ban a folk dance outright? Why does the hora at weddings start slow and end at a sprint? What do you bring when a village invites outsiders to its dance night?