Judith Butler
This week 's dance begins with M and it's Mindrele from southern Romania. It is also known as Mandrele which translates to "the girls."In Romanian, the letter "i" sounds like "a" when there is a caret symbol ( ^) over the "i." Are you confused yet? There is a caret over the "i" in the dance notes.
Since International Women's Day was March 8, and March is Women's History Month, this was chosen as the dance of the week. The rhythm is 6/8.
Mindrele is an "equal opportunity dance." This group is from the United States; a women leads it and there are men in the line.
Another feminine dance, this time from northwestern Bulgaria, is Momino Horo, which translates to "girls' dance." This took place at a Christmas party in Canada back in 2010, and everyone is in a festive mood.What is really striking about this dance is its hybrid nature: the beginning is slow and graceful. Part two is totally different: all hell breaks loose with stamps and shouts.
Yves Moreau, who spent years in Bulgaria documenting folklore, arranged the choreography based on women's dances from the region of Lom. It's half Macedonian and half Vlach.
The bonus video is also connected with the letter "M." Since we want spring to come sooner rather than later, here is a tutorial on how to make a basic Martenitsa. Let's make Baba Marta happy!
If you enjoyed this you may also like:
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Martenitsa (but were afraid to ask)
Women's Dances From the Balkans
Since The Alien Diaries is an equal opportunity blog, you can read about and watch men leading women's dances:
Women's Dances from Macedonia (led by men)
There are also men's dances led by women:
Some Equal Opportunity Folk Dances
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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