Volkspele

Volkspele is a South African folk dance tradition.

Directly translated, Volkspele means "folk-games" and can be translated to folk-dance. Folk-dance was the brain-child of South African Dr. SH Pellisier, who was visiting Sweden in 1915 with a friend to become more proficient in carpentry. After finishing their day's work they met with other young people in their respective countries' national dress to practise their folk-singing and -dancing. The South Africans were the only ones left out as they did not have any traditional dances.

Back in South Africa, Pellisier translated four Swedish dances and taught them to pupils at the Afrikaans High School in Boshof where he was Deputy Headmaster. During a Sunday School picnic on the farm Vuisfontein near Boshof on 22 February 1914 they performed the dances for the first time. The picnic games became known as volkspele.