Elizabeth Svarstad, PhD
Elizabeth Svarstad holds a PhD in dance studies from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She is known for her work both academically and artistically with early dance history.
Svarstad defended her doctoral dissertation ‘“Accuracy in dance and steps and manners”. Dance as a social education in Norway 1750–1820’ in 2018.
Her PhD project was part of the multi-disciplinary project pArts – Performing Arts between Dilettantism and Professionalism. Music, Theatre and Dance in the Norwegian Public Sphere 1770–1850. A collaboration between the Music Department and the Department of Art and Media studies, the project was funded by The Research Council of Norway.
Photo: Nicolas Tourrenc
‘“Accuracy in dance and steps and manners”.
Dance as Social education in Norway 1750–1820.’
Summary
Dance was an important part of social life in Norway in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Good skills in social dancing, an elegant body posture and correct etiquette expressed good breeding and status. Wealthy families adopted the culture of European fashionable society, held extravagant parties and entertained themselves with dancing at dinners, balls and formal occasions. The need for distinction from lower social classes was expressed in learned habits and manners, and children and young members of the upper class were taught in dance and etiquette by a dancing master. This education was regarded as an essential part of the upbringing of young people and was therefore also an arena for learning correct behavior and etiquette, developing a good body posture and refined movements also outside of the dance, and learning how to bow, curtsy and speak genteelly. Dance may therefore be regarded as an element in a larger context, an educational arena where multiple aspects for regulating behavior can be taken into consideration, for example social etiquette and manners in any given situation.
Dance and correct manners were also taught at the military academy in Christiana (modern-day Oslo). Such lessons were regarded as part of a basic training to master military exercises and also as a way to transform an unsuitable, peasant-like nature into a proper way to move. The teaching of dance has consequently had a wider range than only the upper class, although the ideals of education were the same. Dance as part of the education of young people, as a way of socializing, as behavior regulation and as a physical expression of status has been the starting point for the dissertation’s examination of ballroom dance and its function as a social educational arena in Norway between 1750 and 1820.
Fifteen dance books preserved in Norwegian archives serve as the dissertation’s main sources.
They principally contain descriptions of country dances, but the sources also clearly indicate that the minuet enjoyed approximately the same status as elsewhere in Europe at the same time. The qualities of the minuet – classical purity, order, precision, control and elegance, all of which were seen as fundamental to education in Europe – were also an ideal for the Norwegian dance practice. The dance books almost exclusively contain country dances, but the combination of sources shows that the minuet and the country dances were important each in their own manner. The two dance forms complement each other, and teaching in the minuet lay the foundation for the country dances to be performed with good technique, control and elegance.
The physical, outer form of education that teaching in dance offers has been the focus for the dissertation’s investigations of the educational functions of dance. Training in dance and etiquette made it possible to shape the body. The dance books promoted the era’s ideals of correct behavior, while other sources show that actual practice did not always follow the ideal. The teaching in dance and etiquette also functioned to control and regulate behavior. Thus, dance education can be understood as a form of discipline in the sense that for example Norbert Elias and Michel Foucault have argued that bodily practices are. The intellectual education of the self was expressed through the physical practice of dance, etiquette and regulated behavior.
The sources were investigated by combining three methodological approaches: hermeneutics, tacit knowledge and practice-based research.
Such a combination, based on the work of theorists such as Knut Kjeldstadli, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Joann McNamara, Jaana Parviainen, Michael Polanyi and Bengt Molander, provides an opportunity to reflect on how a researcher who is skilled in dance may approach historical sources for dance and more consciously use her own experience and knowledge to investigate the dance practices of the past.
That a researcher who is also an accomplished dancer takes the liberty to enter the context of historical dance forms, not only at the writing table but also through physical performance, may shed new light on details of the period’s dance practice. One of the study’s ambitions has thus been to contribute to a wider understanding of interpretation processes and the dancer/researcher’s reflections around what interpretation activates.
The dissertation shows that sources for dance in Norway are more abundant than previously assumed, with dance books illustrating the period’s repertoire in Norway. When their content is seen in the light of international dance sources from the same time, it is obvious that the Norwegian practice was strongly tied to international trends. This shows that the upper class in Norway wanted Continental ways of socializing. An especially interesting find is Feuillet notation in one of the main sources – a manuscript containing examples of the notation of steps, exercises and turns that are special also in an international context.
Publications
Conference Presentations
2020
"Baroque dance: Embodied Music"
Future(s) of Dance Education(s): Opportunities and Challenges
The Department of Teacher Education, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway, in collaboration with Uniarts Helsinki´s CERADA, Stockholm University of the Arts – DOCH and SANS, Norway (Center for dance practice, previous Dance in School/Dans i skolen). Trondheim
CANCELLED due to Covid-19
2019
"Koreografi – Dansekunst som tekst" Joint panel with Margrethe Bue (The National Library in Oslo)
Kildeudgivelse og tekstkritik i forskellige traditioner
Nordisk Nettverks for Edisjonsfilologi
Schæffergården, København
2017
"The minuet in Norwegian sources from 1750–1820" Joint panel with Egil Bakka (NTNU) and Petri Hoppu (Oulu University of Applied Sciences).
13th International NOFOD Conference: Dance and Democracy
University of Gothenburg, Department of Cultural Sciences, Sweden
"At dressere børn"
Musikk og dans på 1700-tallet
Norsk folkemusikklags seminar
Kongsberg
“‘Den efter Konsten indrettede Dantse-Exercitii Nytte’”
Taubert Symposium: Gottfried Taubert's "Rechtschaffener Tantzmeister" Leipzig 1717. Kontexte – Lektüren – Praktiken
Musikinstrumentenmuseum der Universität Leipzig
2016
"‘Now Please Proceed to the Dancing Part’: The Minuet as Social Education in Norway around 1800”
Re-searcing Relevance. Questioning Canons of music, dance and theatre around 1800
Performing Arts, NTNU, Ringve museum, Trondheim
2015
“Dance in Norway 1750–1830. Meaning in dance through reconstruction from historical sources”
Doktorgradsstipendiatenes internkonferanse
Institutt for musikk, NTNU, Trondheim
“Interpreting Dance. Reading 18th Century Dance Sources”
Dance Research Forum
Department of Music, Dance studies, NTNU, Trondheim
“La danse en Norvège de 1750 à 1830: La reconstruction et la pratique comme modalités de recherche en danse ancienne”
Séminaire Doctoral. Interculturalité et transferts dans les espaces germanique, nordique, en France et en Italie (XVIIe-XVIIIe Siècles)
Université Sorbonne, Paris
“Reconstruction et pratique comme modalités de recherche en danse ancienne: Pas et figures de contre-danse dans les livres de danse norvégiens du 19ème siècle”
Atelier « La danse comme objet anthropologique »
Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), Paris
2014
“Dans i Trondhjem 1800–1814: Funn fra dansebøker i Gunnerusbiblioteket”
1800–1814 Nye arenaer for kunst og politikk
Forskningsdagene, Trondheim
“Rethinking the re-”
Joint panel with Astrid von Rosen (University of Gothenburg), Cecilia Roos (Stockholm University of the Arts) and Dòra Kiss (University of Geneva)
Writing Dancing/Dancing Writing
Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS) and The Congress on Research in Dance (CORD)
The University of Iowa, USA.
2013
“Acting & Dancing: Facilitators of Bourgeois Self-fashioning”
Invited panelist. Round table chaired by Ellen Gjervan, NTNU
Plays, Places and Participants - Light Opera, Dance and Theatre around 1800
Performing Arts, NTNU, Trondheim
“Hierarchies in the teaching of Dance History”
42nd ICTM World Conference
International Council for Traditional Music
Shanghai Conservatory of Music
“Vertical Patterns in Feuillet Notation”
Dance ACTions – Traditions and Transformations
International Joint Conference in Dance Research
The Nordic Forum for Dance Research (NOFOD) and The Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS)
NTNU, Trondheim
"Vertical Patterns in Feuillet Notation"
&
“Comment cerner l’implicite de la notation Feuillet ?”
Invited panelist. Round table chaired by Marina Nordera, Université Côte d'Azur, Nice
COLLOQUE INTERNATIONAL La danse française et son rayonnement (1600-1800) – Nouvelles sources, nouvelles perspectives
Association pour un Centre de Recherche sur les Arts du Spectacle aux xviie et xviie siècles
Centre de musique baroque de Versailles, Versailles/Paris
2012
“Danseskole”
Countrydance session
Lidenskap eller Levebrød
Performing Arts, NTNU, Trondheim
2009
"Vertical Patterns and the Minuet Step"
Dance across classes and centuries-popular and theatrical dance interacting
Department of Dance, University of California, Riverside, USA
2008
"Vertical Patterns and the Minuet Step"
Research seminar: The Minuet
Centre National de Danse, Paris
Comittees and conference
arrangements
2021
The 15th international NOFOD Conference: Moving, relating, commanding – Choreographies for bodies, identities and ecologies
The Danish National School of Performing Arts, Copenhagen 17-20 June
2019
Practice, Participation and Politics
Theatre Academy, Helsinki, Finland
2017
The 13th international NOFOD Conference: Dance and Democracy
University of Gothenburg, Sweden
2016
Re-searching relevance. Questioning Canon in music, dance and theatre around 1800
Performing Arts, NTNU, Ringve museum, Trondheim
2015
12th international NOFOD Conference: Expanding Notions; Dance/Practice/Research/Method
Department of Performing Arts, Iceland Academy of the Arts and Reykjavik Academy
Reykjavik, Iceland
2013
The 18th Century in Practice
The Norwegian Society for 18th century studies
Lysebu, Oslo
DanceACTions–Traditions and Formations
International Joint Conference in Dance Research
The Nordic Forum for Dance Research (NOFOD) and The Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS)
NTNU, Trondheim
Plays, Places and Participants – Light Opera, Dance and Theatre around 1800
Performing Arts, NTNU, Trondheim
2012
Lidenskap eller Levebrød
Performing Arts, NTNU, Trondheim