Res Humanitariae

The present article presents analysis of the dances Heiduka and Szala rutele of the inhabitants of the Lithuania Minor described by Matas Pretorijus in the 17th century. The article discusses the parallels between the dances hereinabove with the later variants of these dances described in the territory of the Lithuania Minor – in Klaipėda region and a certain part of Königsberg area (current Kaliningrad Oblast) – and in Samogitia in the 17–20th centuries. The interrelationship and change of the purpose, forms and figures of dances are analyzed.