Crossing the River, Part Five: Trei Pazeste in Romania and Trey Pazuste in Bulgaria

We are defined not by our borders, but our bonds.

Barack Obama

The region of Oltenia in southwest Romania and the Vidin region of northwest Bulgaria have dances in common.  They are separated by the Danube River. 

There are numerous versions of the dance Trei Pazeste from Romania.  Video #1 is Trei Pazeste Batrinesc very popular in the folk dance community.

The dancers are from Boulder, Colorado in the United States.  I don't know if they are still performing (many community events have been cancelled due to Covid 19).  Hopefully they will resume when the pandemic is over.

This dance is very popular on Zoom.

Video #2 is Trei Pazeste de la Bistret. It's not as popular as the "Batrinesc."  What both Trei Pazeste dances have in common is that they are from the Romanian region of Oltenia and that they are fast.

   

 Video #3 is Trey Pazushte (slightly different spelling) from Bulgaria. It resembles Izruchana, another dance from Northwest Bulgaria and Trei Pazeste Batrinesc.

Northwest Bulgaria is the home of the Vlachs, originally from Romania, who settled in Bulgaria.  Their language is a dialect of Romanian.  There are some dances that go by similar names (but different music) in the Vlach border region: for example: Florecica and Kalushar. 

Bulgarian music from the Vlach region sounds almost but not quite Romanian.

 

If you enjoyed this you may also like: 

Crossing the River, Part 4 (links to previous videos)

Balkan Dances that are often confused Part 21 (links to the others in the series)

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