The Bulgarian Connection to Latin America...via Dance

Last week when I went to the Kabile event at Mount Holyoke, a young Bulgarian student asked me if I belonged to a dance club. She remarked that Americans knew the Bulgarian dances better than they did!

I described our group, which meets in the town of Amherst. There are five colleges in this area. Students from all over the world attend school here.

I explained to the young woman that our group meets on Friday nights and that we do dances from all over the world, with an emphasis on the Balkans.

She mentioned that she and her boyfriend go to a Salsa class on Friday nights. Was there another Balkan group nearby that met on a different night?

I told her that the only other group, which met on Sundays, was over an hour away.

On the Universe of YouTube, I have noticed that Bulgarians love Latin music. There must be something in it that speaks to them, just like the Bulgarian music speaks to me, a descendant of Puerto Ricans.

Here is a Bulgarian couple dancing salsa to rachenitsa music. Now this is an interesting combination :)



These two young Bulgarians are excellent dancers. They really have a feel for Latin rhythms. (I think this dance is a cumbia from Colombia).



It's time for a cultural exchange between Bulgaria and Latin America. We have a lot to learn from each other :)

For more on the Bulgarian and Latin American connection read:
http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010/05/puerto-rico-and-bulgariaa-cross.html

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.