In 2007, two Swedish musicians developed a concert program and issued a CD called "Bach på svenska (Bach in Swedish)". Lisa Rydberg (violin) and Gunnar Idenstam (small reed organ) asked the questions:
What might have happened if Johan Sebastian Bach had come to Sweden and met Swedish musicians? How might Bach's music and traditional Swedish music been influenced by each other?
I love those kind of questions! Especially when possible answers produce beautiful and intriguing results — as theirs did.
And here is one of the answers. This is a couple dancing the asymmetrical Swedish dance, polska, done in a style similar to the baroque music of Bach's time.
The tune being played is "Polska i C-dur efter Pers Olle". Pers Olle was a fiddler who I believe was from Östbjörka, Rättvik in Dalarna province. This tune is not included on the CD, although it was on the concert program.
I think the dancing is just lovely, almost mesmerizing. If anyone knows the name of the two dancers and the "dialect" of polska they are dancing, please let me know!
UPDATE: The dancers are Anton Schneider and Petra Eriksson. It is the same Anton as on the video in the blog entry "A polska halling". They are dancing slängpolska.
I also recommend the video of a couple dancing as Rydberg and Idenstam play Bach's "Menuet in G-dur" as a Swedish waltz.
The television program was was filmed at Confidencen Slottsteater in Stockholm in June 2009.
