Well, let's face it - dance in general doesn't get a whole lotta attention as an academic subject, particularly folk dance.
My husband and I do a lot of English country dancing, and he is also a Morris dancer. Both are traditions that almost died out in the UK by World War I. It took people like Cecil Sharp to dig it up, study it and learn how to teach it to a new generation.
Flamenco was considered a peasant or gypsy dance for a long time until it caught on as art with Spain's upper classes. The Argentine tango was born in brothels. Tap started out with Irish immigrants and black laborers. None of these forms got much in the way of scholarly attention for quite awhile.
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What if the hokey pokey is really what it's all about?
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