Fot. Tobiasz Papuczys.
It is with deep regret that we inform you of the passing of professor Roderyk Lange, one of the world?s foremost choreologists, a consummate dance anthropologist, and a teacher of movement analysis and notation. Professor Lange died on 16 March 2017. He was a long-time collaborator of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, and the director of two dance research and teaching centres for the study of dance, movement analysis and notation, and dance anthropology: the Centre for Dance Studies in Jersey (UK) and the Institute of Choreology in Poznań ? one of the few centres in Poland that focused on dance theory.
An author of several hundred articles, several dozen books, and a number of edited collections on dance ? from works on Laban?s kinetography, through numerous essays and books on Polish dance folklore and dance anthropology ? professor Lange?s major publications include Folk dance in Poland and its transformations in time and space (Taniec ludowy w Polsce i jego przeobrażenia w czasie i przestrzeni, London, Polish University on Exile, 1978), and On the nature of dance and its manifestations in culture (O istocie tańca i jego przejawach w kulturze, Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne, Kraków 1988; re-issue: Wydawnictwo Instytutu Choreologii, Fundacja Rhytmos, Poznań 2009). A major field of Lange?s research was the Toruń and Kujawy folklore, as reflected in his books: Folk dance in the works of the Museum of Ethnography in Toruń ? working method and questionnaire (Taniec ludowy w pracach Muzeum Etnograficznego w Toruniu ? metoda pracy i kwestionariusz, Museum of Ethnography in Toruń, 1960) and The Folklore of Kujawy (Folklor Kujaw, Centralny Ośrodek Upowszechniania Metodyki Kultury, Warszawa 1979).
Professor Lange was awarded the Honorary Badge of the City of Poznań (1989), the Oskar Kolberg Award for his contributions to folk culture (1990), the Silver Medal of Arts and Letters of the Republic of France (2005), and the Gold Medal ?Gloria Artis? for Merits to Culture (2013).
Professor Lange?s passing is a tremendous loss to Polish human sciences. In the nearest future, we will invite our readers to learn more about him in a text commemorating this exquisite scholar.
More: www.muzykatradycyjna.pl/pl/leksykon/mistrzowie/articles/lange-roderyk
