Freut euch des Lebens, Schleswig-Holstein, (formerly Denmark)

Country: Kuhland, Schleswig-Holstein, (formerly Denmark)
Type: set dance
Formation: 2 lines of 3 dancers per line, facing. Each M has 2 W [one on either side].

                    WR-M-WL
					 
                    WL-M-WR
					 
Steps: [are unspecified in the source below, the following are the steps used in the video below as well as the Dancilla description] hoptrin (step-hop), gangtrin (walk)
Sheet music: (1) Alojado Lieder Archiv, (2) www.volksmusik.cc, (3) nr 18 in Stahl, Wilhelm/ Niederdeutsche Volkstänze. Neue Folge. Braunschweig und Hamburg: Verlag von Georg Westermann, [1923]. p.17. [See also numerous additional sources on the WWW.]
Recordings: Golgowski Choir [YouTube]; Mazowsze [YouTube]; The Merry Widow, And Other Music Of Lehar And Strauss [Internet Archive; Das Musikkorps der 1. Gebirgsdivision Garmisch-Partenkirchen [YouTube]; Prock, Edith [YouTube]; Quinn, Freddy [YouTube]. [Numerous other recordings available on Internet Archive and YouTube]

Bars Part Dance progression:
1-8 (a) Advance & retire: All dance advance (1-2), curtsey/bow to opposite, and retire (3-4), [4 slow walking steps].
Repeat (a) (5-8).
9-16 (b) Elbow-hook turn: M hooks elbows with W on his R and turns [with step-hops] (9-10). Ditto with W on his L (11-12).
Repeat (b) (13-16).
    Repeat from (a) as desired.

See video attributed to Poland and Czechoslovakia on Dancilla. {Note difference in formation from the above description.]

Provenance: Wilhelm Stahl attributes the tune to the Swiss Hans Georg Nägeli, 1794, and notes that "it was a popular and wide-spread sing-along tune and still sung today" [at time of writing]. The theme was used by Johann Strauss Jr. in his Waltz op. 340. A variety of lyrics were composed, many burlesque, including the lyrics by Edith Prock, whose lyrics were sung by sung by actress Eva Dahlbeck in Ingmar Bergman's movie Sommarnattens leende (Smiles of a summer night).

Source: nr 18 in Stahl, Wilhelm/ Niederdeutsche Volkstänze. Neue Folge. Braunschweig und Hamburg: Verlag von Georg Westermann, [1923]. p.17.
See also:
-- dance description on Danvilla [in German]
Translation & description: L. Ruus, Oakville, 2023-01-12.


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