Dancing

1984: Danish Paintings (Design - L Garsparsk; Engraver - A Kühlmann)

The Danish artist Christoffer Whilhelm Eckersberg spent three years in Rome so he would have had plenty of time to enjoy and sketch the 8 day Roman carnival and the party goers he portrays in his painting.

2016: Pixies (Designer - Gustav Mårtensson)

Take your partners, time to sashay across the floor. These are the pixies of Peter Møller, a 19th Century illustrator whose pixies are always playing music, singing and dancing, despite the fact that due to a childhood accident he was deaf.  The pixies appeared on porcelain dinner sets and Christmas cards, the latter are highly collectable today.

1981: Europa - Folklore and Feasts

The North German dancers are painted by Elisabeth van Janota-Bzouski (1912-2012) and with a long name like that no wonder she was known internationally as La Janota.  One of the great German stamp illustrators her 'Day of the Postal Stamp' was chosen as the world's best stamp in 1981 which can be seen here

1969: Regional Costumes

Almost the same costumes appeared on Polish stamps but not surprisingly as these are dancers from Lower Silesia (Wroclaw) a region whose borders have changed over the centuries.

1962: 25th Anniversary of Soviet People's Dance Ensemble

Lets take to the stage with the Soviet People's dancers

1962: Russian Ballet

or just enjoy the ballet 'The Red Poppy' with a score written by Reinhold Glière and first performed in 1927, here we see The Sailors Dance (the action takes place at a Chinese port). 

Sunday Stamps II prompt of the Letter D - for dance and Denmark - See It On A Postcard 


 

Keep on Dancing

1964: Native Dancers

The Kingdom of Dahomey (c1600-1894) was located near the former slave coast of Africa so it is not surprising that this dance, the Nago, is one that is also performed in Haiti today.  The French took over the area at the end of the 19th Century and independence came to the republic in 1960 and it would eventually change its name to Benin.  The French connection remained for these stamps were designed and engraved by the prolific Pierre Bequet (1932-2012) who designed over 700 stamps which included the ex French colonies, French Antarctica and France itself including the 1971 'Marianne' definitive whose portrait he based on his wife Gisele. 

The Sombo and their dance  live in the mountainous area of Dahomey but are also present in other countries.

1957: Native Costumes

Africa is continent full of music and dance so here is an Angolan Bocoio. This is from a very attractive set of stamps and was designed by Albano Neves e Sousa (1921-1995) who also produced other stamps for the country and whose short biography enigmatically says for "reasons beyond his control he had to leave Angola and settled in Brazil". Angola like Benin has had a turbulent modern history.

From one continent to another we dance towards 

1998: Youth Arts Australia

Australia and those starting out on a career in the arts.

1942: National Work and Joy Movement

Now we have happy folk dancers from Bulgaria but sometimes a darker story may be intuited through stamps for the Bulgarian government was pro-Nazi and I wonder if that work and joy movement may be linked to the Nazi Strength through Joy (Kraft durch Freude).

1959: Bulgarian Youth Festival

No  work and joy nonsense here, only the fun of  high kicking dancers.

An entry to Sunday Stamps II and is D for Dance and Dahomey - skip over to See It On A Postcard for more words starting with the letter D.  

Lets Dance

In a country as vast as China there are many traditions and they issued a series of stamps on "Chinese Folk Dances" in the '60s.  Here are the ones I have

Kawas "Knife"

The names are the ethnic origins of the dance.  China has nearly 60 designated ethnic minorities.

L-R:-   Han "Flower Drum Dance; Mongolian "Ordos"; Chuang "Catching Shrimp"

The Han Chinese are the the majority of the population so it probably that reason that the Flower Drum Dance is well known outside the country. We are all familiar with the Lion and Dragon dances performed at new year but these also have regional variations,

Tibetan "Fiddle"

Folk music and dance survive through the centuries and do so even through periods of oppression as in Tibet.  Emigrants and exiles take their culture with them.

L-R:- Yus "Wedding Ceremony"; Pais "Encircling Mountain Forest"; Yaos "Long Drum"

Some dances are only performed at special occasions or festivals.  I think this is a lovely series, the traditional costume and the simplicity of the design captures the essence of the dances.

Korean "Fan"

And finally just because it it such a beautiful dance here is the Korean 'Fan'

An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamp theme of - Folk Culture