Dancing in Sevens, Part Three: The Dance Group Rhythm 7/8 and Čekurjankino Horo

Determination is kind of like rhythm: you can't teach it.
Jaime Pressly

Bulgarian folk dances don't have a monopoly on the 7/8 or 7/16 rhythm, but it is so popular over there that there is a dance group named Ритъм 7/8 (Rhythm 7/8). People in Bulgaria are really into folk dance, and some groups also compete.

Ритъм 7/8, judging from the number of videos on YouTube, has participated in numerous competitions all over Bulgaria. This video took place in Varna, a seaside town; the competition is Na Megdena Kraj Moreto (at the town square by the sea).

I didn't catch the name of the dance, but it looks like a variation of Chetvorno Horo.  The rhythm is pineapple-apple-apple (7/8).

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Video #2 is a dance in two parts: slow and fast.  This one is apple-apple pineapple.  The name is Čekurjankino Horo from northern Bulgaria.

Although this dance is not specifically named rachenitsa, it is in rachenitsa rhythm, which can be either 7/8 or 7/16 depending on the speed.  It is the national dance of Bulgaria.

The group, Kolo Dragan, is from California.



If you enjoyed this, you may also like

Dancing in Sevens, Part One

Dancing in Sevens, Part Two

The Clones of Chetvorno Horo

The "Flavors" of Bulgarian Rachenitsa

Part One

Part Two


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Dancing Through the Alphabet, Letter G: Ginka

The dance of the week is Ginka, from the southwest (Pirin) region of Bulgaria.


For some reason Ginka is more popular in Bulgaria than it is in the Western Hemisphere, although I found the notes for it on an American folk dance camp website.  It's done to a different song, Mitro le Mitro.

The first video features dancers in elaborate embroidered costumes and they are from the Philip Kutev ensemble. You can find this dance and many more on the website horo.bg  which has videos of dances from all the folklore regions of Bulgaria.Click on the English flag on the upper right hand corner of the website if you're Cyrillically challenged :)

If you're familiar with the song Dobra Nevesto, you'll hear a bit of it at the end (minus the singing).  The rhythm is 7/8 (pineapple-apple-apple).



Ginka #2 is from a Bulgarian dance class; same dance with modern music.



This week's bonus is some gaida (bagpipe) music, since gaida beings with the letter G.  The Chinese New Year starts on February 19th.  It will be the year of the sheep (or the goat, depending on which Chinese Zodiac sign you prefer.)  Both animals share two things in common: they chew their cud and are made into Eastern European bagpipes in the Afterlife.

Someone at the Uncyclopedia got really creative with this gaidasheep. If you enjoy satire, check out a few of their articles.



A man from Macedonia who lives in Australia makes bagpipes from the bodies of goats, including the heads. He sells them over the Internet. They are a one-of-a kind product, although some people might be uneasy listening to dance tunes coming from dead goats.

I don't being reincarnated as a gaida is a bad thing. This goat can be happy in the knowledge is that he's creating beautiful music (with the help of Risto Todoroski) for the world to enjoy.

The tune is Pajduško, a dance very popular in Macedonia and Bulgaria.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Bulgarian Folk Songs Reincarnated

Modern Versions of Traditional Bulgarian Folk Songs: Part One and Part Two

The Bagpipe in Macedonian Folk Music


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

Two Variations on a Bulgarian Folk Dance: Rachenitsa na Horo

Welcome to the Different Village, where dances with different music and different steps have the same name. Today's dance is Rachenitsa Na Horo, from Bulgaria. The rachenitsa is the national dance of Bulgaria. It is very versatile in that it can be done solo, in couples and in a group.  The dance is in 7/8 rhythm with this pattern: apple-apple-pineapple.   Today's post features the group version: "na horo."

Version One is the one popular with folk dance groups in the United States.  Check out the woman hamming it up for the camera at the very beginning of the video. Part of the dance is done holding hands, part of it is "disconnected."



Version Two is video of a costumed folk dance group performing in France.  This is an easier variation and I learned it very quickly.  The introduction is rather long, though, the dance starts at 1:05. The woman leading twirls a handkerchief:  the word "rachenitsa" means "little handkerchief."



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

The "Flavors" of Bulgarian Rachenitsa, Part One and Part Two

Variations of another national dance: this time from Romania:
The "Flavors" of Romanian Hora

Some variations of a popular Serbian dance: Cacak
The "Flavors" of Serbian Cacak


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

The "Flavors" of Bulgarian Rachenitsa

Today we explore the national dance of Bulgaria, the rachenitsa. This is a dance with many variations and lends itself to creative improvisation. Back in the day, men and women met and mingled at dances; and seldom were both genders allowed together unsupervised. The village dance was the place where men showed off their fancy footwork to attract the ladies.



Bulgarian music makes extensive use of time signatures with odd numbers and is an interesting combination of rhythms.

Dancers learn Bulgarian/Balkan rhythms as a combination of "quick-slow" beats. The person teaching the dancing will have the students clap the rhythm before teaching the footwork. The point of this is to feel comfortable with the beat before learning the dance.

To get an idea of the rhythm of the rachenitsa, say the words "apple apple pineapple." The time signature is in 7/8, for you music theorists out there (7 beats to the measure, the eighth note gets the beat).

Here's an example of a rachenitsa from a Bulgarian teaching video. This is the couple version of the dance Shopska Rachenitsa, and at the end you'll see why this is a dance with a sense of humor :) This reminds me of a courtship dance, which it probably is:



Rachenitsa comes in many "flavors" and because of the diversity of the different folklore regions of Bulgaria, there are lots of them. Here is one on my favorites, by the composer, Petko Stainov, of a Thracian rachenitsa for orchestra, which sounds more like classical music than Bulgarian folk, but beautiful nonetheless:



This last video is a dance called Brestaska Rachenitsa, which is rachenitsa for the rest of us, performed by a group from the United States. These are people who dance on Friday (or any other night of the week), for fun and exercise, like myself.



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