Can the Theory and Practice of Language Planning Help the Maintenance of Dance and Music Traditions?

Traditional music and dances are disappearing throughout the world. This paper explores the possibility of adopting methodology that has been developed for protecting endangered languages and using it for the maintenance of traditional music and dances. Background Languages, music and dances share many traits: they are all used for self-expression and can convey messages of different sorts. Most importantly, they often have a symbolic and identity value and reflect socioeconomic and political changes in society. With regard to small languages – minority or regional languages – and traditional music and dances, the similarity between them is even more striking, as they belong to the same cultural ecosystem and they are affected in the same way by socio-economic pressures coming from outside the community. Moreover, changes taking place in one are likely to extend to the others as well. The socioeconomic and political changes that have taken place in the last two and a half centuries have greatly affected local languages, music and dances. The ideology o