Clogs and baggy trousers, wide checked skirts and white caps - is not this our picture when we think of Dutch folk dances? But this costume belongs only to one dance and one part of the country; even there the women are coming to prefer 'a pleated black skirt which gives a slim and even elegant outline'. And who would suspect the sober Dutch of such a dance as the Cramignon, a chain dance that winds 'in and out of the houses and inns of the village' behind a brass band? Dr. Elise van der Ven-ten Bensel devoted her life to the study and preservation of Dutch folk dances. Together with her husband, another noted folklorist, she filmed the traditional customs of the country and organised folk-dance schools. In this book, after a lively and amusing essay on Dutch folk life, the author describes four typical dances, with their step-notation and music, and four charming colour plates show the traditional costumes for each dance.