Dance, Diversity and Difference

Book excerpt: The countries surrounding the Baltic Sea - Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Sweden - have experienced immense social and political change, from the territorial maneuverings of Sweden, Russia, and Denmark, the reunification of Germany, to more recent moves towards independence of Eastern Bloc countries as the Soviet Union crumbled. Tensions surrounding the Baltic Sea have not dissipated but rather new challenges and contentions have emerged, resulting in a multicultural and multilingual region. Dance in the region has been tightly interwoven with political trends and events, yet the dance history of the region to date has focused almost entirely on state sponsored folk and classical dance. By contrast Dance, Diversity and Difference presents contemporary stories of dance, revealing the diverse voices of dance practitioners and demonstrating the ways in which dance has connections with families, societies, governments, the economy and can offer fresh insights into cultural and political change.