Elsie Dunin
Professor Emerita (Dance Ethnology)
Department of World Arts and Cultures
University of California
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1608

Critical review of book

Krčki tanci

[Tanac dances on the island of Krk]

by Tvrtko Zebec 

           In Croatia I predict that this book will become a classic case study of dances and dancing as a human movement experience within their ethno-cultural and religious historical contexts.  It is a superb study that reveals the importance of a lesser-known expressive behavior on a northern Adriatic island that is typically lauded for its touristic tributes rather than for its dance and music expressions, which are truly unique in Croatia. 

            This evaluation focuses on the English-language section to review whether or not the writing and organization is comprehensive enough for a non-Croatian reader to gain a sense of the study's depth that is evident in the Croatian text.  There are 80 pages of the English-language section, while the book has a total of 397 pages including the bibliography with over 200 listings, two indexes (Croatian and English), two maps,  41 black-white and 24 color illustrations, spanning a 100-year time period. 

The Croatian part of the book is organized into 15 chapters, most with several sub-headings.  Although the English-language section translates some chapters with their sub-headings almost in their entirety, others about language dialect are only summarized.  The introductory preview of dancing on Krk island is followed by a discussion of the methodology.  The author emphasizes that this study focuses upon the dancers and musicians, rather than focusing upon the dance as an independent product, and in this chapter the author cites the methodologies current in dance ethnology studies outside of Croatia.  He gives the reader an orientation to the dance contexts before presenting the unique history of the island in relation to these events.  He continues to weave the historical background information into the understanding of the current events that he observed and documented.  Particularly relevant is the discussion and background of the island's Glagolithic religious organization and the involvement of priests in dance events, either as principal participants or as knowledgeable supporters; he explains the persistence of the priests and their involvement in spite of the bans on dancing that were imposed from the outside.  I do not think this symbiotic relationship has continued anywhere else in Croatia.  Zebec further describes the social hierarchy in the dancing order, and the significance of the sopele musicians to the dancers.  He then goes on to discuss the population, the early migrations that appear to differentiate today's style differences of events, and importantly the separation of the town from village events.  He goes on to more specialized information during a year's cycle:  the winter koleda and carnival, wedding events, noting the performances as rituals, and contemporary events such as the Krk Festival and its importance to the present lifestyle and identity of self and community through the performance of the Tanac for audiences and tourists.  Finally the dancing itself is described in detail but in readable word text.  Here there is structural analysis of the dances comparatively related to their social and geographic contexts.

Overall, the organization of the book goes from a general discussion, weaves the history, cultural background, unique religious contribution, to the events, and finally the dances themselves.  The whole of the study could not have been done by only interviews, but by sensitive, unobtrusive observations and participation into the events, and uncovering patterns of history that overlap with the current occurrences of the dancing. 

            This book will not only be a valuable resource for the island of Krk, but is a model for dance ethnology studies in other dance culture areas of Croatia.  Non-dance persons in Croatia and elsewhere will be exposed to another level of understanding of dancing in a communitymoving beyond the shallow idea of "folklor" performance.  The study views the dancing complex as a cultural whole, rather than listing and describing dance products themselves.  The book offers an overview of the importance of dancing with its sopele music accompaniment within lives of a people, continuing into the 21st century. 

Since the study uses late 20th and early 21st century visual technology for documentation, I recommend to the author and to the publisher to think about including a CD that accompanies the book with selected illustrations of the dancing in its various contexts, as well as photographs (past and present).  In addition, I suggest a consideration of short dance movement examples to be posted on the World Wide Web, referencing this book that has fuller information about the dancing in their contexts.  This model links the web to a print copy offering an in-depth understanding of the dancing, rather than simply showing the "dance product" with shallow explanations of the dancing. 

If I were still actively teaching at UCLA, I would recommend the English version of this work as necessary reading to graduate students in dance ethnology studies.  Dr. Zebec has managed to integrate the knowledge of dances and their dancing with a sensitive, knowledgeable, and yet objective view of a distinctive ethnographic geographic area, Krk Island.  Although pioneering ethnochoreology studies within Croatia's borders have offered valuable data (such as Ivan Ivancan's study of Kumpanija on the island of Korcula, 1967), to date no other in depth and profound studies have been published.  The strength of Zebec's work is based on first-hand observations and participation of dancing events over a year's cycle of both island calendar events and personal family events.  He notes particular influence of the accompanying musicians to these events, and notes the unique influence of the Glagolithic religious organization on the island.  He conducted interviews and integrated the latest theoretical thinking and methodologies of dance movement studies.  Zebec shows with this work that he has become the leading dance ethnologist in Croatia, and hopefully he will be encouraged to direct such studies in other areas of Croatia. 

            In conclusion, this monograph Krčki tanci [Tanac dances on the island of Krk], by author Tvrtko Zebec is an excellent study not only for the island of Krk, but also as a model of documentation of dancing events in relation to their contemporary social contexts.