Bulgarian Radio Mentions American Independence Day....

Although some Americans may give you a blank stare when you talk about Bulgaria (geography isn't really taught much in our schools nowadays) there has been a long and amicable relationship between the two countries.

Recentry, the Bulgarian National Radio posted this on its website which happened to coincide with the 4th of July holiday:

http://bnr.bg/sites/en/Lifestyle/BulgariaAndWorld/Pages/0207bulgaroamerikanskiotnosheniaPB.aspx

They mentioned Bulgarian folk dancing in Central Park. Back in 1988, I was living in New York City and was part of the group that danced in the park. We did dances from all over the world (including Bulgaria).

The Balkan dance classes that used to be held at Varick Street now meet at the Hungarian House on the Upper East Side.

http://www.nycfolkdance.org/

Here's a video clip of the Central Park dancers performing a dance from Serbia called Makazice(the narrator does not seem to know much about Balkan dancing. It's not a polka, although there is a couple dancing polka to it on the left).



Unfortunately, there was no Bulgarian video from Central Park to post here but here's a dance that was a favorite of ours. It's called Eleno Mome (Elenino Horo). It's a very popular dance in Bulgaria as well as in the United States. Here's a group from California dancing Eleno Mome.



And here is a Bulgarian group performing the same dance.



Cultural exchange is a good thing. I am sure the Bulgarians know a lot more about us than we do about them!


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