14. Nostalgia as a Perspective on Past Dance Culture in Finland

My ongoing study concerns a late development of the dances that form the subject matter of this book. Sometime in the mid- to late nineteenth century, local groups of young Finnish men in rural villages started to organise dances for their own amusement, so that they could invite girls of their age to have fun with them. In contrast to older popular dance culture, they danced couple dances, and they danced for their own amusement and as a leisure activity, not only as a ritual on designated o..