The migration and globalization of Schuhplattler dance: a sociological analysis

This paper analyses diasporic versions of Schuhplattler (slap dance), a German-Austrian folk dance, as a community activity among German and Austrian émigrés. It offers two case studies: one focusing on the anti-Nazi emigrant youth organization ‘Young Austria’ in the late 1930s, the other on the practice and politics of Schuhplattler dancing by German émigrés to the USA in the late 2000s. Discussions address how the dance has been deployed to serve starkly differing cultural objectives and political ideologies. The paper draws on concepts from nationalism, globalization and multiculturalism to contextualize the dance’s role as a source of national and regional identity.