Dance Performance by Lucnica, Slovak National Folklore Ballet : What is the Meaning of Staged Folkloric Performances?

This is a highly original look at Australian multiculturalism through the exploration of the significance of a Slovak traditional music and dance performance in Melbourne employing three methodologies; Goffman's analysis of interactional behavior, Conversation Analysis, and statistical survey techniques which unified the Foucauldian theoretical framework of the data giving the findings added cogency.

This book explores the significance of a Slovak traditional music and dance Lucnica performance in Melbourne by Lucnica: Slovak National Folklore ballet.

While the troupe represents a genre of traditional music performance that is revered by many Slovaks, it is also criticized in the community and scholarly narratives as being 'artificial'.

This book shows that Lucnica's performances are deeply significant, however, and that they constitute a legitimate form of music folklore practice for performers and Slovak audiences, embodying the Slovak landscape and history, despite artistic modifications.

However, by taking an interactional viewpoint this book shows that on foreign soil, complex meaning were thrown into relief. While Lucnica's stated mission is to spread Slovak traditional music culture abroad, it was found that in multicultural Melbourne, Lucnica's performance generated a variety of discursive strands.

The same performance confirmed and celebrated Slovak ethnicity for Slovak Australians, and at the same time, contributed to the discourse of British hegemony and marginalization of the same.

A second, but equally important focus of the book, is that it addresses the dialectic between theory and data.

Ethnographic notes were analyzed according to Goffman's model for non-verbal interaction, an ethnographic interview was analyzed according to the methods of Conversation Analysis, and an audience survey was conducted.