Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Pasarelska

Being authentic can be a good thing in that often people who are fixated on that are also fixated on having very high standards, so they may maintain something they think has tremendous value. On the other hand, most of the kinds of music that I've been excited about are hybrid in their origins.- Edgar Meyer

The dance Pasarelska has an interesting history. It was created by a Bulgarian choreographer and first taught in Los Angeles, California.  It is a dance with Shope (western Bulgarian) steps. The melody is from the Rhodope (southern region) of Bulgaria. There is a town near the Bulgarian capital, Dolni Pasarel, after which the dance was named.

I'm sure if someone from North America traveled to Dolni Pasarel and requested the dance from the local musicians, that person would get strange looks, since the dance was created in the States.  

Pasarelska is a hybrid dance. It is often requested on Zoom and you can learn it by watching this pandemic-era video by Susie Shoaf, who posted it on YouTube. It is not a difficult dance (it starts slow and speeds up at the end), however, I find the slow part more challenging than the fast part.

The steps don't follow the music, either. First, here's the teaching video:

 

Here is Ira Weisbund's group doing Pasarelska. Notice that he has this listed as a Macedonian dance. One of the dance notes I read mentioned that this dance is from the Pirin region of Bulgaria (sometimes called Macedonia.)   The rhythm certainly fits the Pirin style; 7/8 in the slow part and 7/16 near the end (slow-quick-quick).

  

The subject of Macedonia can get quite confusing, because there is a country, North Macedonia, that shares a border with Bulgaria. There is also a Macedonia region in northern Greece. You can read more about this below:

Macedonia: One Name, Three Countries

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

The Clones of Chetvorno Horo

If you are successful, you will be cloned. That's life. In fact, it's a sign that you've made it when clones of your website, mobile app, and business start cropping up.
Fred Wilson

The Bulgarian folk dance Chetvorno Horo is very popular, judging from the number of variations I've seen on YouTube.  There are also clones of this dance that go by different names.  Today you will see two examples.

The first is Denjovo Horo from north-central Bulgaria, near Gabrovo, a town whose symbol is the cat with the cut-off tail.  There is a museum called the House of Humor and Satire, which is a big tourist attraction.

Denjovo Horo is named after a man named Denjo, who was probably the best dancer in the village. Bulgarian folk dances are usually named after cities, towns, districts and people.

The dance has four distinct figures and the rhythm is 7/16 (pineapple-apple-apple).  The leader can either call the steps or do them in a specific sequence.



Another Chetvorno-type dance is Ripna Maca (the cat leaped). It starts with the basic Chetvorno step and follows with three other variations. Like the previous dance, the leader can call the steps, either in order or random.

The name Chetvorno most likely originated from the Bulgarian word for four: "chetiri" in Bulgarian.  In Cyrillic it looks like this: четири. If you look closely, the first letter resembles the number 4.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Three Variations on the Bulgarian Folk Dance: Chetvorno Horo

Dancing in Sevens (part one)

Bulgarian Folk Dances Named After Cities and Towns


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