Answer:
There is not simple answer to this issue. Folk dancing among the original people who developed it seems to be deeply affected by modern musical and global developments, much of it outside the dance world, so the preservation is now being done by urban, Westernized people who have little or no tie to that original folk tradition. Their interest, no matter how strong, must compete with the global spread of new waves of interest. Further, many traditional cultures have been uprooted by war and the urge to move to urban areas where a more settled and reliable life can be practiced.
Much of the pattern I see in folk dancing among Western people is open to what an anthropologist would call “drift”, meaning that time and other issues bring change to the dances done and the way they are done.
