Balkan Dances That Are Often Confused, Part 17: Opinca and Opincuta

It's sensational to be part of a series that takes on a life of its own.
Robert Wagner

The series continues: who knew that the names of so many Balkan dances were so confusing?

Today's dances are similar when it comes to name (an additional syllable), the first from Romania (Bukovina), the second from Moldova. Moldova is a separate country, although they speak the Romanian language.  Their folk music is very similar to Romanian.  To confuse matters even more, there is a region named Moldavia (Moldova) in Romania.

Opinca is a dance very popular in my Sunday night group. The name is derived from the Romanian word for peasant sandals, now used as dance shoes.  They are made of leather and tied to the feet with leather strips. Nobody in the video is wearing them.



Opincuta is a totally different dance. If you click on the link you can find the dance notes as well as the lyrics, so you can sing along.

The leader is Roy Butler.  He has many videos on YouTube.  He is really into folk dancing, especially Romanian dances.



If you enjoyed this you will also like:

Balkan Dances That Are Often Confused: Part 16.  This post links to the others in the series. You can spend a good part of a day reading them and still be confused.


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

Two Variations on the Turkish Dance Esmer

For this brunette I would die.
(Turkish song Esmer)

Esmer is a dance that has caught my attention recently. It is from Turkey.  The Ottoman empire held sway over the Balkans for over 500 years and much of the music of this region has been influenced by Turkish rhythms (aksak). Instruments such as the zurna and davul (tupan) are especially popular in the Pirin region of Bulgaria and in North Macedonia.

The song is about a man who is smitten by a dark-haired woman (esmer translates to brunette in English).   You can find the lyrics to the song here, in Turkish and in German.

Video #1 is the one done in my Sunday dance group.



Video #2 is an instrumental version with different steps, introduced by Ercument Kilic, a folk dance teacher from Ankara. It's energetic, and includes claps and turns not seen in Video #1.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

The Zurna in Bulgarian Folk Music

The Haidouks (rebels), including the famous poet, Hristo Botev, were instrumental in the liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule.

The Haidouks in Bulgarian Folk Songs


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