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Halling (dance)
Encyclopedia
Folk dance
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....
(bygdedans
Bygdedans
Bygdedans or village dance is the term most commonly used for a variety of regional, traditional dances of Norway. Bygdedans are the oldest and most distinctive among Norwegian folk dances....
) traditionally performed in rural Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, although versions of the halling can also be found in parts of Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. It is the most ancient documented dance of North Europe, and its roots go back to 2500 years old cave paintings.
The dance is traditionally performed by young men at weddings and parties. The halling is a quick (95-106 bpm) dance in 6/8 or 2/4 that includes acrobatic, athletic competition between the dancers. Hallingdans can best be described as rhythmic acrobatic dance and consists of a number of steps which requires both strength and softness elation.
The dance is associated with the valleys and traditional districts of Valdres
Valdres
Valdres is a traditional district in central, southern Norway, situated between Gudbrandsdal and Hallingdal.Administratively, Valdres belongs to Oppland. It consists of the municipalities Nord-Aurdal, Sør-Aurdal, Øystre Slidre, Vestre Slidre, Vang and Etnedal. The main town in the region is...
and Hallingdal
Hallingdal
Hallingdal is a valley and traditional district in Buskerud county in Norway. It consists of the municipalities of Flå, Nes, Gol, Hemsedal, Ål and Hol.-History:Ancient routes went to Vestlandet through Valdres and Hallingdal and down Røldal to Odda...
, where it is often referred to as the laus (loose dance). The term refers to it being danced solo, not in couples (although coupled halling dancing is traditional in the western parts of the country). According to some scholars, the word may refer to the fact that the dance was "half" the performance, as the other half was the springar (after the fashion of a Renaissance dance suite).
The meter of the dance is 2/4 or 6/8 of a quite fast (95-106 bpm), sharp quality which calls for an experienced musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
. The musician has to give the dancers enough impetus to perform the various challenging moves that are involved in the dance such as the nakkespretten (neck jump), kruking (hooked dancing), hodestift (going over the head) and especially the kast (throw). The most known move from hallingdans worldwide is probaily the headspin
Headspin
A headspin is an athletic move in which a person balances on their head while rotating along the vertical axis of their body, usually without any other form of support. The move is commonly employed in the Afro-Brazilian martial art Capoeira and in breakdancing...
. Dancers like Olav Thorshaug performed hallingdans 200 times in The United States of America around 1910-1920 including headspin in his dance. Later the break dance has made this move known to the whole world.
One of the dance moves is called hallingkast. In this move, a girl has traditionally held a hat high using a stick or something similar, and the dancer is supposed to kick down the hat. Kast is seen as the test of strength, which involves kicking a hat that is held about 230 to 280 cm above the floor. Some girls have been able dancers themselves, and known to be as agile as any man. The agility of the female dancers may have been even greater, considering they danced in their skirts.
Noted Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg
Edvard Grieg
Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.-Biography:Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in...
composed several pieces of music for the halling dance in his Lyric Pieces
Lyric Pieces
Lyric Pieces is a collection of 66 short pieces for solo piano written by Edvard Grieg. They were published in 10 volumes, from 1867 to 1901...
The dance was used in the Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
winning contribution to the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition...
performed by the Frikar Dance Company
Frikar Dance Company
FRIKAR dance company is a Norwegian dance company for contemporary and traditional dance specialized on the connection between dance and nature.-Biography:...
together with singer and fiddle player Alexander Rybak
Alexander Rybak
Alexander Igoryevich Rybak or in Belarusian Alyaksandr Igaravich Rybak , born 13 May 1986 in Byelorussian SSR is a Norwegian singer-composer, violinist, pianist, writer, and actor...
. Frikar Dance Company has toured 29 countries with halling dance the last years. The companys founder and choreographer Hallgrim Hansegård is known as the reinventor of halling, exploring the tradition in meeting with new artistic expressions and arenas as for example in the computer game "Age of Conan".
Halling used as martial art
There is some sources, mainly from Gudbrandsdalen, who document that certain moves from the dance (especially the throwing), were used in man-to-man combat. Sources tell of a man from the area who used his agility to kick down two opponents in a skirmish. Thus, his ability to reach the hat came in handy. Some halling moves may me similar to moves found in combat sports like TaekwondoTaekwondo
Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and the national sport of South Korea. In Korean, tae means "to strike or break with foot"; kwon means "to strike or break with fist"; and do means "way", "method", or "path"...
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