Niki Lauda
Today's post was inspired by a lady named Monika from Vienna, Austria. On YouTube, she goes by the name Monivienna, and she has a little bit of everything on her channel: folk dances and workshops, Lipizzaner horses, music events and even her cat (he's so cute!). I hope you enjoy these videos as much as I have!
One of the pleasures of living in a large city is all the dance events. During the summer, some of them take place outside, and many years ago one of my favorite venues during the spring, summer and early fall was in Central Park in New York.
The Central Park Folk Dancers have been meeting for many years near the King Jagiello Statue and Turtle Pond. The entrance to the park is near the Metropolitan Museum of Art on 5th Avenue and West 81st Street.
There is also an outdoor dance venue in Vienna. Dances take place at the Donauinsel (Danube Island, by the lighthouse) on Tuesday evenings between 7:00-9:30 p.m.
The Reichsbrücke can be seen in the background of video #1. It dates from 1980; the previous bridge had collapsed early on a Sunday morning in August 1976 due to a structural defect. I was living in Germany when the bridge fell; it was a major story on the news.
Nearly a year later I visited Vienna and saw what remained of the old bridge; construction had not yet started on the new one. At the time of the accident there were four vehicles and five people on the bridge; one life was lost. This would have been a bigger catastrophe if it happened during rush hour on a weekday.
The dance shown here is a slow and easy one from the Pirin region, choreographed by Yves Moreau to the song Idam ne Idam. The lyrics describe a shopkeeper who's in love with a woman named Felidza. It's a very lovely song, perfect for a balmy summer evening.
Video #2 is from a dance seminar with Mitko and Antonia. Trunska, the dance seen here, is very high energy. It looks like a fancy variation of the pravo.
Video #3 is from another workshop, Schwitz mit Fritz. You will definitely sweat and have lots of fun at one of these. Last year a Schwitz mit Fritz video was featured on The Alien Diaries of the Albanian dance Valle Pogonishte. The link can be found at the bottom of this page.
Here Fritz leads a lively and energetic Daichovo Horo, a dance from northwestern Bulgaria. This is almost three minutes of heavy-duty aerobic exercise. I wonder how many people have trouble keeping up with him?
Video# 4 is from a party with the ensemble Kitka, who are dressed up in those beautiful elaborate embroidered costumes. From what I see here I'd love to go to one of these parties; they really know how to have a great time. I think people in the States sometimes take themselves and folk dancing too seriously. At the local dances they know me as the comic relief. Comedy is my forte.
This group does Pravo Horo, one of those "getting to know your neighbor dances." Quite a few conversations are going on here....
If you enjoyed this you may also like:
Two Variations on the Albanian Folk Dance Valle Pogoniste Fritz calls the steps for Pogoniste while the dancers sing along.
Bulgarian Folk Dance in the United States
Bulgarian Folk Dance Around the World
Dancing Along the Danube: Folklore Videos from the Tour International Danubien Features music and dance from folklore evenings in Serbia and Bulgaria.
If you have an interest in bridges you may enjoy this post celebrating the opening of a new bridge last year between Vidin, Bulgaria, and Calafat, Romania (with plenty of music).
Crossing the River, Part Four
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
No comments:
Post a Comment