Elsie Ivancich Dunin

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Active
Dance Ethnology
Croatian, Macedonian, and Romani (Gypsy) in Macedonia

Elsie Ivancich Dunin 1962 - photo by Dick Oakes

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Photo by Dick Oakes

Elsie Ivancich Dunin was born in the United States of Ilona Pazman (Croatian) and Frank Ivancich (Hungarian) parents, as was her brother, Anthony Ivancich. As she was growing up, she was immersed in Croatian culture, spoke Croatian at home, and was socialized among the Croatian and Yugoslavian community in Chicago. Her parents taught her kolos and dances of their native region and enrolled her in tap and ballet classes (with the addition of acrobatics). By the age of 14, she had improved as a dancer, as well as an acrobat and contortionist. She began competing and performing in shows while attending Fremont High School and won the Quest Dance Competion in southern California. She appeared on Television Star Hunt and would often perform her spectacular dance and acrobatic routines at USO and Benefit shows.

In 1951, Elsie and her family traveled to Europe during her junior year in High School, back to her ancestral homeland of Croatia, where she was greeted with banners that deemed her to be a "Hollywood Performer." She acquired a dance part in "A Star is Born" starring Judy Garland, as one of the Indian girls. She also served as Student Body Secretary, Vice President, and President during her high school years. At UCLA, Elsie majored in Theater Arts with Dance as a minor and then was the first graduate student in the newly formed Department of Dance to complete a master's thesis (1966) with a dance ethnology focus. During her freshman year, she performed with Carol Burnett on a variety show as well as on various local productions.

In 1956, when attending a dance performance by the Tanec Folk and Music Ensemble, a group from Macedonia, Yugoslavia, she received her introduction to organized folk dancing.

Elsie was active with the Folk Dance Federation of California (South), from the mid-1950s until the 1980s, including a role as chairperson of the Archives Committee. Intermittingly during years 1968–1979, Elsie directed Betyárok, a performing group dedicated to Hungarian Dance, and while on faculty at UCLA, lead a student group performing dances from Yugoslavia.

Elsie returned to Yugoslavia in 1957 to study dances and folklore material and, while in Macedonia, she was invited to be a performing member with Tanec.

In 1957, Elsie met her future husband, Stanley Dunin, who at the time was a math scholar. Dunin was born of Polish nobility and had emigrated to the United States after WWII. He would later become a renowned American mathematician and NASA aeropace engineer. The pair were married in Los Angeles, California, on June 14, 1958, and had two daughters, Elonka and Teresa. The elder daughter, Elonka Dunin, became a very notable game developer, author, and cryptographer.

Back in the US and for two years, 1959 to 1961, Elsie presented a half-hour radio program, bi-weekly, on folk dance music for radio station KPFK-FM in Los Angeles. As of the late 1950s, she was frequently invited to teach workshops and institutes on dance at several colleges, universities, and recreational folk dance organizations on the West Coast.

Elsie completed her Master of Arts thesis, Department of Dance, UCLA, in 1966. The title: "Silent dances of Dinaric Mountain area: analysis of purpose, form, and style of selected dances." In the 1960s, doctoral studies in the field of dance did not exist. This title was the earliest "dance ethnology" thesis in the Department of Dance that was established in the College of Fine Arts at UCLA in 1962.

After 1967 she made frequent trips to "former" Yugoslavia, primarily to document and to conduct research on Romani (Gypsy) dances in Macedonia. A decade later, a sabbatical year was spent in the Dubrovnik area of Croatia (1976-1977) in order to prepare a comparative study of dance continuities and change among California's South Slavs with their emigrant source areas. She worked with actress Genevieve Bujold as her dance coach for her dancing part in the 1976 film "Alex and the Gypsy," in which Bujold co-starred with Jack Lemmon.

From 1992 to 1993, Elsie was co-chair of the UCLA Department of Dance. She retired from UCLA in 1994. Retirement for Elsie, however, does not mean inactivity! She is currently active as a dance research associate with the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research in Zagreb, Croatia. As a dance ethnologist (in Europe, the term is ethnochoreologist), Elsie has focused on dance research projects in southeastern Europe; some current field research is reported in Cross-Cultural Dance Resources (CCDR) website (see "Notes From the Field").

She was the organizer of an international symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology, held in Korčula 2000. Themes were "Sword dances in ritual complex" and "Revival of dance culture" (proceedings were published in 2001 – see below). Elsie was also the organizer of an international meeting "Moreška: past and present" held in Korčula on 2001 (symposium proceedings were published 2002). Another symposium project was for Cross-Cultural Dance Resources (CCDR) in Flagstaff, Arizona 2003, "Applying dance ethnology and dance research in the 21st century."

She has continued to present dance research papers at international and national conferences, published articles and monographs on dance events of the Macedonian Roms (Gypsies), South Slavic diasporas in California and Chile, and in Croatia studies of weddings with lindjo dancing in the Dubrovnik area and sword dancing on the island of Korčula. She has co-authored a book on Macedonian dances with Stanimir Vičinski (text in Macedonian and English, with Labanotation scores), published in Macedonia in 1995, compiled and edited a resource book 2006, about Korčula's sword dance Moreška, and edited several volumes for the ICTM (International Council for Traditional Music) Study Group on Ethnochoreology.

Among Professor Dunin's more than seventy publications are:

Elsie taught dances and prepared dance descriptions for Folk Dance Federation workshops and conferences (1958-1972): Alexandrovska, At the Inn, Balon, Berovka, Biserka, Bitola Moj Roden Kraj, Bufčansko, Caballito Blanco, Čačak, Četveronjak, Cigančica, Corrido, Crnagorka, Čuješ Mala, Ćuperlika, Divna Divna, Djurdjevica, Doudlebská Polka, Duj-duj, Ersko Kolo, Glamoć, Gružanka, Igrale se Delije, Imperial Beseda, Jabučica, Jansko Kolo, Kačerac, Kalvelis, Koja Koja, Kolo iz Ripanj, Kolo Najstarije, Kopačka, Koso Moja, Kutre Šivat, Lesnoto Oro, Ličko Kolo, Lindjo, Marko Skače, Metva, Mista Kolo, Moravsko Kolo, Niševljanka, Oslo Waltz, Osman Aga, Poskok, Potam Povam, Potrčano, Ranče, Ratevka, Red Boots (Piros Csizma), Rokoko Kolo, Sadilo Mome, Sarajevka, Savila se Bela Loza, Scandinavian Polka, Seljančica, Šetnja, Siamsa Bierte, Širočko Kolo, Sitna Bole, Slavonsko Kolo, Šroteš, Stara Makedonka, Staro Sito, Starobosansko Kolo from Glamoć, Svadbena Polka, Statbeni Rejc, Ta Poskočna, Tandrčak, Ti Momo, Tropnalo Oro Golemo, Trusa, U Šest (Moravac), Vo Sadu, Zaječarka, Žakle Šivajo, Žakli, Žensko Krsteno, Žikino Kolo, and Zillertaller Ländler.

Revised: June 13, 2011