Estonian Folk Dance: Terms and Concepts in Theory and Practice

The article provides an overview of the changes that have occurred in the concept of ‘folk dance’ in Estonia from the end of the 19th century until today. The diachronic analysis of both theoretical and practical discourses is based on Estonian-language paper and web publications where the word rahvatants (folk dance) has been used as a term or where the concept is defined; an inquiry among the members of a folk dance group, and my personal ethnographic fieldwork in the folk dance world of Estonia. My borderline position between the roles of a dance researcher and a dancer and folk dance teacher in practice makes it possible to switch between different discourses and find their intersections. Shifts that occur in terms and concepts used in both scientific and public classifications, as well as in specialised discourses situated between them, reflect varied trends in the Estonian dance tradition during the 20th century and explain the development of the present situation.