Herrskapsdans i Övre Norrland

Gunnel Biskop, ethnologic researcher, writes in ”Danser i bondsonen Pehr Stenbergs självbiografi i slutet av 1700-talet” about a boy born in Stöcke outside of Umeå. He studied in Åbo to become a priest and learned to dance the actual bourgeois repertoir; polonaise, minuet and other. Well back in Västerbotten he continued to dance, even in the cassock.

In Memorys of Norrbotten, Luleå a handwritten book is kept. It was saved from a garbage container in 1984 when a building in Luleå was teared. The book was written in 1793 by Lars Engelmark who studied in Uppsala to become a priest, while working in Norrbotten. The book is full of notes to above mentioned dances, together with descriptions of the dances.

During 2016 and 2017 the Folk dance ring of Övre Norrland have worked with interpretations of these descriptions and now they can be danced.

And of course we want to show some of them, as we believe they were danced in the beginning of 1800 by the gentrys in our cultural region during the empire era. Think Jane Austen!

We hope you will join us afterwards in a few dances together!