Ballroom choreography of the XX century in the Baltic countries

Abstract

The purpose of this article. The purpose of the article is to analyze the historical processes of the development of ballroom choreography in the Baltic countries in the XX century. The methodology. The following methods were applied in the work: historical and historical-genetic — in order to understand the genesis, the specifics of the processes of development of ballroom dance; source study — for the selection and processing of sources related to the art of ballroom dancing; comparative — to compare the historical periods of the evolution of ballroom culture; included observation — to view individual choreographic works and their preliminary comprehension. The scientific novelty. For the first time, an attempt was made to study topical issues of the development of ballroom choreography in the Baltic countries in the XX century. The results. The Baltic republics became the center of the development of Soviet ballroom choreography, because ballroom practice existed here even before World War II as part of local traditions. The first choreographic organizations arose here, in particular, the Estonian Dance Union (1930). In the post-war period, local and international ballroom dance tournaments were held at a high level in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. A generation of outstanding ballroom dancers has formed in Riga, Tallinn, Vilnius, Klaipeda and other cities. In the Baltic republics, the “Soviet program” of ballroom dancing did not become popular: due to the lack of strict party censorship that exists in other Soviet regions, local dancers developed as performers of the European and Latin American programs. Conducting seminars and master classes in different republics of the USSR, they served as conductors of high standards of world ballroom choreography in the Soviet Union. The collapse of the USSR led to significant socio-cultural transformations and the beginning of a movement towards European integration, the Baltic countries, like other former Soviet republics, began to actively join the world traditions and trends of ballroom choreography.