Ski Dance Weekend 2025

What is the Bonde Dance?

Kjellbjørn Karsrud wrote in an article about 15 years ago when he was a civic worker at the Valdres Museum titled Folkemusikken frå Valdres (The folk music from Valdres) that the Bonde dance uses an undivided beat, and is a Valdres form of gangar. As such, the most straight forward description of the Bonde might be a comparison to Telemark traditions that Ski Dance Weekend participants are familiar with. The Bonde is to Valdres traditions what the Gangar is to Telemark traditions.

Paraphrasing Kjellbjørn's article, while the Bonde appears to have gone out of favor in the early 1800's, there were individuals who continued to show the tradition at least up to the 1920's. He felt reasonably confident that elements of the dance included: single-hand hold (that is known from the springar tradition), two-hand holds (such as in the springdance in the south), 'laus' (single/alone) dance and an unspecified closed couple dancing that may have come from the end of the 'lifetime' of the danceform in Valdres.

The Bonde has gone through a couple waves of reconstruction in modern times; In the 1970s by Helge Gudheim and Elisabeth Kværne, and in more recent years by Stian Roland and Tone Voldhaug. Their variant of the dance is what is most widely used today and it is now a common dance at competitions and dance parties.

Following is a video of Ådne and Tora dancing the Bonde at Landskappleiken at Lom in 2023 with Sindre Tronrud on fiddle.

And another video, this one of Stian Roland and Tone Voldhaug, also at Landskappleiken at Lom in 2023 to the music of the munnharpe.