Country: Norway
Type: couple dance
Formation: couples in open circle, W on partner's R side, open waist-shoulder hold, facing in LOD. Free hand at waist,
back of hand pointing forward, fingers and thumb pointing back. M holds partner's R hand in his own R hand; W L hand on partner's
R shoulder.
Steps:
bytomfotsteg frå polkamasurka (change step),
totrinssteg frå varsovienne,
vals (waltz).
Sheet music:
(1) Semb, Klara/ Norske folkdansar III: slåttar til turdansane. Oslo: Noregs Boklag, 1970. pp.46-47.
(2) Semb, Klara/ Norske folkdansar: turdansar. Oslo: Noregs Boklag/Det Norske Samlaget, 1991. pp.301, 418-419.
(3) Folktunefinder.com varsovienne
[Same tune used in
Finland,
Norway,
Sweden and parts of
Denmark.]
Recordings:
Dansefoten Tradisjonsdans i Buskerud 3 - turdans track 08 [YouTube];
Folk Dance Orchestra, Victor Olof Scandinavian Dances 1939 [Internet Archive];
Gunnar Hahns Folkdansorkester Nordiska danser track 08;
Michael Herman's Folk Orchestra [Internet Archive];
National Folk Dance Players European national dances 'Varsovienne' [YouTube];
'varsovienne frå Østlandet' Norske turdansar 4 - turdansar frå Austlandet 1 track 15 [YouTube];
Svend Tolefsen's Trio [Internet Archive];
Trio Tinus track 15;
Aage Grundstad Ensemble Norske tur- og folkedanser 2 track 05 [YouTube]
| Bars | Part | Dance progression: |
| 1-2 | (a) | 'Promenade': Beginning with L foot, M swings partner over to his
L side (1). M dancing in place to accomodate W's crossing, while W turns CCW in front of partner. 1 change step.
Both finish with R foot diagonally forward to floor, a 'stogg' (2:1). Semb 1971 has all below steps beginning with outside (ML/WR) foot, and describes this as a 'varsovienne step'. |
| 3-4 | Repeat with opposite footwork [ie. R foot] to swing partner to M's R side, as above, W turning CW. | |
| 5-8 | Repeat (a). | |
| 9-12 | (b) | 'Masurka': Beginning with L foot, couples dance 2 totrinssteg forward in LOD (9-10), followed by 1 change step, as above [ie repeat of bars 1-2] (11-12). |
| 13-16 | Beginning with R foot, couples dance 2 totrinssteg forward in LOD (13-14), followed by 1 change step [ie repeat of bars 3-4] (15-16). | |
| 17-24 | (c) | Waltz: Couples take closed waist-shoulder hold and, beginning with outside (ML/WR) foot, dance [8] turning waltz steps [moving in LOD]. M dances 1st waltz step on the spot as he swings partner into closed waist-shoulder hold. The last waltz step is used to return to original open waist-shoulder hold [see 'Formation' above]. |
| [Repeat from (a) as desired]. |
See YouTube video with Folkedanslaget Springar`n, 2017
Provenance: Seemingly unrelated to the Baroque dance of the 1600-1700s, of the same name, described in Feuillet notation in
the 1704 Recueil de dances contenant un tres grand nombres,
des meilleurs entrées de ballet de Mr Pécour, ... [pp.10-19, 176-194].
The earliest published music appears to be in:
Dannström, Isidore/
Theorie Complete De La Mazurka with sheet music for La Varsovienne and La Suédoise. (Mazurkas favorites, no. 2) Paris: Heugel, 1844
The earliest description, a quadrille dance, appears to be in:
Laborde, Corralli, E. Coulon (dance), Jullien (music)/ (c. 1845).
The Celebrated Mazurka and the Cellarius Waltz accompanying sheet music for The Original Mazurka. London: Jullien, [ca 1845].
The varsovienne as a couple dance is discussed in: Eugène Coulon/
The Warsaw Varsoviana. London: Louis Antoine Jullien,(c. 1855).
According to Böhme, "'Varsovienne' or 'Warschauer Tanz' (dance from Warsaw), a variant of masurka, also played in slow
3/4-time, was very popular in Germany around 1850-1870."
Nordstedts uppslagsbok 1948 ed,. defines it as "a mazurka-like couple dance in 3/4 time, modern in
France during the Second French Empire [Napoleon III, 1852-1870] [and] in Sweden during the 1860s.
Appears as a 'new' couple dance in Russia in 1897.
In Norway, varsovienne was included in the 2nd edition of Norske folkdansar II (1922) and is one of the few dances to
which Semb did not attribute a geographic locale. The tune was first published in Norske folkdansar III (1917) under
the title 'Marsjoverenne', also without geographic attribution. It is speculated that the dance was introduced
either by Swedish folkdancers, or through dance schools; most regional variants documented in Norway have couples
facing partner, instead of side-by-side as in this version.
In the Nordic countries, it ccurs in
Denmark,
Finland,
Norway and
Sweden
as well as the Faroe Islands and Iceland.
Source: Semb, Klara/ Norske folkdansar: turdansar. Oslo: Noregs Boklag/Det Norske Samlaget, 1991. pp 301-303, 418-419.
See also:
-- Semb, Klara/ Norske folkdansar II: rettleiing om dansen. Oslo: Noregs Boklag, 1971. pp 211-212.
-- Böhme, Franz Magnus/ Geschichte des Tanzes in Deutschland. Beitrag zur deutschen Sitten-, Litteratur-
und Musikgeschichte : nach den Quellen zum Erstenmal bearbeitet und mit alten Tanzliedern und Musikproben. Teil 1.
Leipzig: Druck und Verlag von Breitkopf & Härtel, 1886. p.223. .
-- Sandbeck, A.G./ Regler for god tone og danseanvisning til nye moderne selskabsdanse samt gamle folkedanse.
Kristiania: Kristiania Aktieforlaget, 1903.
-- Taylor, Bruce 'Varsouvienne' in: Stockton Folk Dance Camp/
Syllabus of dance descriptions 1971. Stockton, CA: Stockton Folk Dance Camp, 1971. Errata p.4 and p. 72.
-- 'Varsovienne' in: Nordstedts uppslagsbok 1948 ed. p. 1908
-- Wikipedia Varsovienne.
Description: Laine Ruus, Oakville, 2022-08-02, rev. 2023-08-14.
Tillbaka till innehållsförteckningen/Back to table of contents