| Contents: |
Introduction: Dancing as Life : how dance was thought to brig life -- Part One. Dancing the Year : The Ritual Cycle of Fertility -- Swan Maidens, Mermaids, and Tree Spirits : introduction, through folktales, to some dancing doddesses (vily, rusalki, willies, etc.) of eastern European folklore -- -- Marking Time -- To Bring the Spring -- Dancing Up a Storm -- Crazy Week; Rusalia Week -- Flowers with Powers -- Midsummer Rusalii -- Friday, St. Friday -- The Twelve Days of Christmas -- Part Two. Bride for Fertility : The Frog Princes -- The Cosmic Arrow -- Bride Testing -- Trial by Dance -- The Magic Sleeve Dance -- Second Skins -- The Hut on Chicken Legs -- Koshchey the Deathless -- Part Three. Dancing Back through Time -- Medieval Traces -- Roman Show Biz -- Dancing with the Greeks -- Back to the Bronze Age -- Dancing at the Dawn of Agriculture -- Part Four. Gotta Dance! -- Keeping Together in Time -- Dancing the Time Warp -- Epilogue: Dancing Divinity -- Appendix: Bracelets from Kiev with Ritual Motifs. |