Balkan Dances That Are Often Confused, Part 14: Elenino Horo and Enino Horo

I always feel like people in general are much weirder and insane than anybody really wants to admit. How dare somebody watch anything and go, 'That's not real!' Go on the subway. For five minutes.
Max Greenfield

Today's name game is about two dances that sound similar: Elenino Horo, also known as Eleno Mome and Enino Horo.

Video #1 shows dancers on a subway (U-Bahn) station in Vienna, Austria. How they managed the volume and acoustics in a subway tunnel is a mystery to me, since I see no loudspeakers.  The dancers also timed this in between trains, just in case one of them fell off the platform...

Subways and subway stations are venues for artists and musicians, but you don't often see people dancing on subway platforms.  The bystanders act like this is totally normal. Anything goes in large cities.



There are other tunes used for this dance, also known as Eleno Mome and you can find lyrics on the site Songbook for Nearsighted People.

Video #2 is a performance by the group Faux Pas, at the Balkanalia Festival in Dresden, Germany. This Eleno Mome has lyrics (you can sing along if you want).   Elenino Horo can be done to many different tunes; there are versions by the Bulgarian accordionist Boris Karlov, and also brass renditions by the composer Diko Iliev.

These dancers stay in step a little better than the people in Video #1 (who may have had something to drink before dancing in the U-Bahn.)  I have to admit subway platforms are not ideal dance floors.



Video #3 is an amateur group from Bulgaria practicing Enino Horo in a studio. The music sounds similar to the song Ripni Kalinke.

The bagpipe in this piece is the kaba gaida, an instrument native to the Rhodope region of Bulgaria. The dance is a pravo variation from that area.



If you enjoyed this you may also like Balkan Dances that are Often Confused (there is a link that connects to the entire series).

If you like watching subway performers (they can be very entertaining!) check out the Bisserov sisters performing in the Sofia Metro: The Best of the Bisserov Sisters and Family.



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