The Alien Diaries: A One of A Kind Club for Folk Dancers

Saturday, February 4, 2012

A One of A Kind Club for Folk Dancers

“Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music.” Angela Monet

The Bulgarian National Radio website recently had an article mentioning the popularity of folk dance in Bulgaria which has gotten to the point there is now a 24 hour folk dance club in the capital, Sofia. Its name? клуб на хорото (Club of Horo). Promoted as a disco for folk dancers, it is the only club of its kind in the world.

http://bnr.bg/sites/en/Lifestyle/Life/Pages/1801folkdancesinthespotlight.aspx

You can read more about the club on their website:

http://club.horo.bg/enabout.php

Chanove is an organization and club which promotes and teaches folk dancing in Bulgaria. The club gives classes all over the country. Members of Chanove were instrumental in creating the клуб на хорото, in order to have a place for people meet, mingle and practice Bulgarian folk dancing, any time, day or night.

If you're a dance junkie and live in Bulgaria's capital, you have plenty of opportunity to get your fix. Since I live in the States, this is the kind of place that I can only dream about.

This is the link to Chanove's web site, which is entirely in Bulgarian. If you're Cyrillically challenged, like I am, use "Google Translate" to translate it. (Something is sometimes lost in translation, but you'll get the general idea of what they're about.)

http://chanove.com/

What is really cool is there is a mention of foreigners who have an interest in Bulgarian folklore. Here is an excerpt from the web page, in translation:

"It turns out that where any person in the world, Bulgarian folk dances are universal magic for good health and spirits."

If you're addicted to Bulgarian folk music, Radio Chanove, the club's radio station, will satisfy your soul. You can get it anywhere, anytime, as long as you have an internet connection. Can't wait to listen to all this good stuff? Click here:

http://www.streamingthe.net/Radio-Chanove/p/24282

Chanove has been featured on the Bulgarian TV dance reality show Nadigrame. Watch them in action on YouTube. This is the very popular Pravo Trakiisko Horo.

An excellent site for information on Bulgarian folklore and dance is the website horo.bg. They sell instructional DVDs (the DVDs review the dances step by step, and are in several languages, including English.) They also have over 100 YouTube videos of folklore shows and specific folk dances for your pleasure. Check them out here:

http://horo.bg/index.php?lang=en

Here is one of their videos. The dance is Opas, from the Dobrudja folklore region.

If you enjoyed this you may also like Bulgarian Folk Dance Around the World:

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2012/01/bulgarian-folk-dance-around-world.html

An International Look at Reality TV Shows contains a behind the scenes look from the first season of Nadigrame:

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/07/international-look-at-reality-tv-shows.html

If you like proverbs, here are some that have been a little lost in translation:

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010/09/sometimes-lost-in-translation-bulgarian.html