What's in a Name Part Two: Croatian Confusion :)

The cook looked at the old man, and her gibenica burned.
Sukačica, Croatian folk song

Todays' dances can easily be confused because the names are similar. The first one is the very popular Sukačko Kolo from Croatia, based on a humorous song, Sukačica.  It's about a cook who burned a gibenica (cheese pastry). Despite the disaster in the kitchen, everyone has a great time dancing. You can find the lyrics here, in Croatian, German and in English.

The video itself is also cool, because of the male-female costume reversal.  It was mentioned in the comments on YouTube that the dancers wore Serbian costumes. A cultural faux pas, maybe, but certainly not a punishable offense :)



By the way, if you come to my house for dinner, you'll know that the food is ready when the smoke detector goes off:



Dance #2 is spelled a bit differently and has a different meaning.  With the diacritical marks it's Šokačko Kolo, a dance of the Šokač people who live in Serbia, Croatia, and Hungary.  Ethnically, they consider themselves Croats and dance to music played by tamburitza orchestras.

You can see why it's easy to confuse the name with the better known Sukačko Kolo. I couldn't find any videos of this dance from the States or Canada although I did find notes from the Folk Dance Federation of California.  It was taught at a workshop back in 2009.  For some reason it didn't become part of the repertoire.

High heels are not the best footwear to be worn when dancing, but since this video was taken at a wedding, that is to be expected. I recommend kicking off the shoes, all they do is get in the way.

The dancers uses a front basket hold.




There is more tamburitza music in version #2 of Šokačko Kolo. The video was taken during a party (Šokačka Večer) in 2014. You'll see dancers in traditional folk costumes along with the band.

Croatian dances are usually circular, and move in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction (or both). The word kolo means either "circle" or wheel in Croatian (as well as Serbian).



If you enjoyed this you may also like

What's in a Name Part One: Dobrujanska Pandela and Pandelas
(more confusion re: names)

These posts are must-reads if you like tamburitza music:

Dancing Through the Alphabet Letter K (several folk dances from Croatia)

The River of Many Names Part 6: The Danube in Croatian Folk Songs


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