Folk Dance Holiday Parties

The real friends are the ones who celebrate with you.
Ella Purnell

Today's post features dance parties with a holiday theme. It doesn't matter which holiday you celebrate as long as it falls in December.

Video #1 is a lively Romanian dance, Briuletul, performed by the International Folk Dancers of Ottawa, Canada.



Koleda wouldn't be fun without a lot of loud noise (to chase away the evil spirits) and dancers in elaborate embroidered costumes. After the noise, there's Shopsko Horo (0:39) and at 2:06 the kids dance a rachenitsa for three. The video ends with a fancy men's pravo .This group is from St. Louis, in the USA.



Video #3 is about 20 minutes long and features the folk ensembles listed below. See below for the order in which they appear: 

Dancers: RIPNI KALINKE, San Jose, MARTENICHKI Family Group, ANTIKA Folk Ensemble, San Francisco, TANYA KOSTOVA, Founder, Artistic Director

VASSIL & MARIA BEBELEKOVI (gaida & vocal), NESTINARY BG Orchestra

Notice the ugly Christmas sweaters in the first group, doing a daichovo. (0:20 to 3:47) There is also a dancer wearing a Santa hat, not a part of the traditional Bulgarian folk costume.  Other familiar dances include: Padjusko at 2:55,  Trite Puti at 11:35, Rhodope Pravo at 14:35, and Graovsko Horo at 19:40.

This party took place in the San Francisco area of California.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Dancing in Sevens (the series)

Bulgarian Folk Dance Around the World


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Dancing in Nines: Daichovo, Dzanguritsa and Svornato

Today's post features three dances from three different regions of Bulgaria.

Video #1 is Daichovo Horo.  It is a dance originally from northwestern Bulgaria, and the musical accompaniment to this is usually a brass band or an accordion.

The style is pure northern Bulgarian, with arm swinging, bounciness, and crossovers (typical of Vlach dances). The rhythm is in 9/16: quick-quick-quick-slow. The accent is on the first beat, although the fourth is the longest.  This variation uses some of the Zizaj Nane steps, but none of the calls.

What makes this particular daichovo interesting is the music:  It has a strong Macedonian accent. The most emphasized instrument is the tambura,  more typical of southwestern (Pirin) region and Northern Macedonia.  You can also hear gaida (in the introduction), kaval (at 1:20), and tambura (at 1:57).  The tupan keeps the rhythm going, although it's hard to hear it in the background.

The group, Gergiovden, is from Barcelona, in Catalonia (an autonomous province in Spain).  Bulgarian culture is alive and well in that part of the world.



Dzanguritsa is a dance from the Pirin region.  It is also in 9/16 and the same rhythm as Devetorka, but a totally different choreography. Rhythm is quick-quick-quick-slow. You can hear the tambura in the background in this piece, too. It's not as strong as in the previous video.



Video # 3 is Svornato Horo from the Rhodope region in southern Bulgaria.  The music is played on the kaba gaida.  The dance begins with the devetorka step and there is an up and down arm movement at the end of each sequence.



Video #4 is a more basic version of Svornato, and it's the one we use at our dances. It's nice to have a dance room in which to practice, but I don't know how this lady can stand that awful shade of pink.  It reminds me of Pepto Bismol.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Dancing in Sevens (the series)

Mandolins, Marimbas, and Bulgarian Folk Music



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.