engleski

Folklore, stage and politics in the Croatian context

The tradition of folklore festivals in Croatia has roots in celebrations of peasant culture from the end of 1920s and the latter half of the 1930s. At that time, the cultural, educational and charitable association Seljačka sloga (Peasant Harmony) – with its populist ideology and ideas of brothers Stjepan and Antun Radić, and other leaders of the Croatian Peasant Party (Hrvatska seljačka stranka) – attempted to inspire self-confidence in peasants, enlighten them, and introduce them to the national political life. Back then, peasant culture festival expert juries already consisted of intellectuals – ethnographers, folklorists, musicologists and musicians. Giving advices and recommendations, they created cultural policy and tried to shape the national identity by promoting old and domestic culture from, of course, their urban point of view (Zebec 2007). Also, participating in the preparation of festivals has always meant having an influence on the new life of tradition, whether the experts prompted performers to offer a particular repertoire (usually the earliest one) or that they injected new life into the content selected for the festival. Moreover, it was repeated in other performances by the same performers, while being given the status of certified value in the local community (Vitez 2000:42). Dance revival case studies were already discussed within the circle of the Study Group on Ethnochoreology of the International Council for Traditional Music during the Symposium in Cluj (2006), at the panel From Field to Text coordinated by Andriy Nahachewsky and Stephanie Smith, published in the proceedings in 2012. Back then, I had already concluded that from our perspective folk dance production on stage in Croatia has never been considered as the revival movement. Because this tradition has never been disappeared thanks to the early existing festivals of peasant culture where the bearers themselves performed their own living traditions on stage. A political perspective focused on local, regional, and ethnic/national identity in dance expression was always important, especially when social and ideological circumstances changed.

Croatia ; folklore ; stage ; politics

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