1932–1945 · Sweden
Dance halls lure the young into drink and loose living!
The dance-hall menace
Panic meter
The verdict
Dance halls were seen as a road to drink, sex and crime. A study at the time found the real problem was unemployment.
Reality meter
What was said?
In the 1930s and 40s, Swedish young people danced on open-air dance floors in every parish. Members of the Riksdag, clergymen and newspapers such as Svenska Dagbladet spoke of dansbaneeländet ("the dance-floor misery"): dancing was seen as a mating ritual that led to drunkenness, sex and crime, and that lured the young away from family life and work.
The debate peaked in 1941. The Church's social secretary Allan Svantesson called modern dancing Youth's Enemy No. 1 in a book published in 1942.
The verdict: what happened next?
A sociological study from 1941 of the dance floor in "Medelby" showed that it was well integrated into local life, and that young people's restlessness had more to do with unemployment than with dancing.
The debate led the state and local authorities to invest in youth centres and clubs and societies. The dance floors, meanwhile, became part of Swedish summer nostalgia.
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