Thursday, August 20, 2020

Most Popular Balkan Folk Dances on Zoom: Part Four

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but the living room in your fortified compound.
Kurt Vonnegut

Today's post is a continuation of the series "Most Balkan Popular Folk Dances on Zoom."

Usually for dances to be popular on Zoom, the footwork has to be adapted to fit in a smaller space because most people dance in their living rooms.  Living rooms are not the only place where I've seen dancers: they also perform in kitchens and garages.  One woman I saw had a really small kitchen and she did the fast Romanian dance Vulpita.  She compressed it to fit in the space.

The series continues. I've spent a good part of the summer participating in Zoom dances.  There is usually at least one for every day of the week.  Most take place in the evening, and the ones that work best for me are on the East Coast.  I usually stay at the dance meetings until about 10 p.m. or so. When we danced in person that was the time the dances ended.

Video #1 is Dedo Mili Dedo (the song for this is also known as Dedo Mili Zlatni).  There is no English translation but from what I got from Google Translate the song describes an elderly couple going about their daily routine (Dedo means grandpa in Macedonian).  The group in the video is the Bonding Folkdance Dance Class from Taiwan.  They have many videos on YouTube.  I wonder if they have resumed in person dancing in Taiwan yet.  Their Covid stats are very low.  I'm sure these days if they do get together they dance in small groups and wear masks.

There is no way we could do that in the United States; the numbers are too high.



The dance Lesi is also very popular on Zoom The song for it also appears in the film Kapetan Lesi from the year 1960.  According to the YouTube comments, the song was created in 1930 by the Albanian composer Tish Daija and originally titled Po Vijne Krushqit Maleve.



Corlu Aroman is a dance from Dobrogea, in Romania. According to the notes, the dance is from the Macedonian ethnic group in Romania.  Corlu is another name for hora;  Aroman is another name for people of Romanian origin who live outside Romania. They settled in a number of Balkan countries: Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia, and Greece among others. They are also known as Vlachs and speak a language related to Romanian.

The article in the link mentions "not to be confused with Armenians or Romanians." Readers of my blog know how I like to write about confusion: are you confused yet?

The music sounds neither Macedonian nor Romanian, except for the gaida (bagpipe) in the introduction.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Most Popular Balkan Dances on Zoom: Part Three (links to the others in the series)

Vlach Dances From Bulgaria and Serbia

Age is an Issue of Mind over Matter: Old People in Balkan Folk Songs

Dances from Oltenia: Part Two

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2 comments:

  1. Dedo mili dedo translation

    This is an intentionally silly song, built on rhyme.

    Dedo odi na pazar
    konja java bez samar
    dedo mili, zlatni, babin p¸urva ljubo
    dedo mili, zlatni, babinovo mom·ce.
    Baba java na mule
    dedo pu·se so lule
    dedo mili, zlatni, babin p¸urva ljubo
    dedo mili, zlatni, babinovo mom·ce.

    Grandpa goes to market
    riding a horse bareback.
    Dear Grandpa, golden one, Grandma's first love,
    dear Grandpa, golden one, Grandma's boy.
    Grandma rides a mule,
    Grandpa smokes a pipe.
    Dear Grandpa, golden one, Grandma's first love,
    dear Grandpa, golden one, Grandma's boy.


    Dedo odi na bostano
    baba pra·sa sa fustano
    dedo mili, zlatni, babin p¸urva ljubo
    dedo mili, zlatni, babinovo mom·ce.
    Baba ide od nivata
    dedo gleda vo tavata
    dedo mili, zlatni, babin p¸urva ljubo
    dedo mili, zlatni, babinovo mom·ce.

    Grandpa goes to the melon patch,
    Grandma dusts [?] off her apron.
    Dear Grandpa, golden one, Grandma's first love,
    dear Grandpa, golden one, Grandma's boy.
    Grandma comes in from the field,
    Grandpa looks in the pot.
    Dear Grandpa, golden one, Grandma's first love,
    dear Grandpa, golden one, Grandma's boy.


    Dedo ide na ru·cok
    baba pe·ce cel krav·co
    dedo mili, zlatni, babin p¸urva ljubo
    dedo mili, zlatni, babinovo mom·ce.
    Baba prede na vreteno
    dedo jade pe·ceno
    dedo mili, zlatni, babin p¸urva ljubo
    dedo mili, zlatni, babinovo mom·ce.

    Grandpa goes to breakfast,
    Grandma's roasting a whole cow[?].
    Dear Grandpa, golden one, Grandma's frst love,
    dear Grandpa, golden one, Grandma's boy.
    Grandma's spinning with a spindle,
    Grandpa's eating baked goods [?].
    Dear Grandpa, golden one, Grandma's first love,
    dear Grandpa, golden one, Grandma's boy.


    Dedo odi za piperki
    baba gali dvete kerki
    dedo mili, zlatni, babin p¸urva ljubo
    dedo mili, zlatni, babinovo mom·ce.
    Baba jade piperka
    dedo sviri na ·supelka.
    dedo mili, zlatni, babin p¸urva ljubo
    dedo mili, zlatni, babinovo mom·ce.

    Grandpa goes for peppers,
    [?]
    Dear Grandpa, golden one, Grandma's first love,
    dear Grandpa, golden one, Grandma's boy.
    Grandma's eating peppers,
    Grandpa's playing a supelka.
    Dear Grandpa, golden one, Grandma's first love,
    dear Grandpa, golden one, Grandma's boy.

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    Replies
    1. Bill, thanks for the translation. This is a fun song and a dance as well!

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