Serbian Dances that Sound Croatian

I'm not confused, I'm just well mixed.
Robert Frost

This can be a source of confusion sometimes, when one country's music sounds like another's.  Since I enjoy writing about confusion and Balkan dance it was time for another post on that topic.

Serbian music is usually associated with the accordion (some people find this an instrument of torture but the Serbs love it).  Croatian music is usually associated with the tamburitza orchestra.  The tamburitza orchestra includes a number of string instruments that give it its distinctive sound.

One thing I noticed is that Croatian kolo tends to start to the left and Serbian to the right.

Although most people associate tamburitza music with Croatia, it is also popular in Vojvodina, an autonomous province in Serbia.

The first example is the dance Rokoko Kolo.



Video #2  is the dance Keleruj ,also from  Vojvodina, Srem district. This is a performance of a school group. Notice the Hungarian flag in the background.  There is a significant Hungarian minority in Vojvodina.  It's the most diverse region in Serbia.

Vojvodina was ruled in turn by Romans, Slavs, Ottoman Turks, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  When the Austrian Empire broke up in 1918, parts of it became a part of Yugoslavia, a country that no longer exists. After the Yugoslav wars, it split into different countries.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

The "Flavors" of Serbian Kolo

The "Flavors" of Croatian Kolo



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

Kolo from Osijek

To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful.. This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking.
Agnes de Mille

Today's video features the group HKUD Osijek 1862 singing and dancing a kolo to tamburitza music.  What is really cool is that they get practically the whole city to dance along with them in the square.

The cellist (Ana Rucner) is from the capital city of Zagreb.  Check out the instrument she plays (it's made of metal instead of wood).

Osijek is the fourth largest city in Croatia, and it's located in the Slavonija region of the country.  Slavonija is known for its lively and upbeat music.  This city, along with Vukovar was damaged during the Croatian War for Independence in 1991 and a sizable number of lives were lost.

Tamburitza music is a staple of Croatian culture and the band in the video is a very fine example.  The dance is a Drmes, of which there are many versions from different regions and towns.  This one from Slavonija is one of my favorities.



If you enjoyed this you may also like The Flavors of Croatian Kolo

Dancing Through the Alphabet, Letter K.  In this post, K is for Kolo.




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

The Best of Ensemble Lado from Croatia

I like surprises.
Christopher Hitchens

The Universe of You Tube never fails to surprise me.

Today's post features some goodies from Lado, the National Folk Dance Ensemble of Croatia. They are a group of over fifty dancers and musicians and their repertoire includes all the folklore regions of Croatia.

The ensemble was founded in Zagreb in 1949 and has been performing for 67 years. In this post you will see some samples of them in action. If you like tamburitza music and choral singing you will love Lado.

Croatians usually sing and dance at the same time.  The most popular dance is the kolo, which they do in circles and serpentine lines.  They are also big on call and response songs and tamburitza music.

The medley in Video #1 is from the region of Posavina.



Video #2 is from the town of Valpovo, in the region of Slavonia.  The women's costumes are colorful, ornate, and how many petticoats are they wearing?



Video #3 is of a dance called Drmes.  It is a kolo with a "shaking" motion. There are many versions of this dance in Croatia and you can read a description of one here.  



Video #4 is song/dance medley from the Baranja region of Croatia.  There is also a district in Hungary with the same name. Oftentimes, names cross borders, another example is Dobrudja in Bulgaria and Dobrogea in Romania.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

The "Flavors" of Croatian Kolo

Crazy Croatian Dance Songs

What's in a Name: Part: Two: Croatian Confusion


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

The "Flavors" of Croatian Kolo

The description of right lines and circles, upon which geometry is founded, belongs to mechanics. Geometry does not teach us to draw these lines, but requires them to be drawn.
Isaac Newton

The kolo is a dance very popular in Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia. Kolo means "circle" or "wheel" and the dance is often done in a circle.

Today's post features kolos from Croatia, and as you will see, not all of them are circles. Some are done in lines, which are also geometric figures. It also depends on the number of dancers in the group.You usually need at least 5-6 people to do a circle dance.

Video #1 is the dance Slavonkso Kolo, from the Slavonia region of Croatia (not to be confused with Slovenia or Slovakia). The performers are the Dunav group from Vukovar.

The dance starts at 0:42 after a short slideshow of Vukovar.  In the video there are many dancers in folk costumes and a large tamburitza orchestra.  Tamburitza ensembles are very popular in Croatia (and all over the world - see Croatian Diaspora).

The dancers start in one large circle, then two circles, one male and one female. Afterwards, the circle breaks and the line goes into a "S" shape, into a a circle again, and finishes with a line. Geometry takes on some interesting forms in Croatia :)  Notice the squares on the floor!

There is a call and response in the song.  Listen for it at 1:18 and 2:24.



Video #2  is the dance song Nabrala je.  The lyrics are provided so you can sing along, and if you need a translation you can find one here (in German). It is about a young woman gathering strawberries and flowers for her sweetheart.

If you are a frequent reader of this blog, you will recognize the Dunav group from Jerusalem, Israel.  There are a number of folk ensembles from the Balkans (or connected with Balkan music) named Dunav. The reason for this is that Dunav is the word for Danube, the River of Many Names in several Slavic languages.

There are two Balkan dance groups in Israel, the other is Balkanitsa.



Video #3 is Malo Kolo.  Since there are only two dancers, this one's in a line.  This is a more complicated dance than the previous two, with some fancy footwork, and it's accompanied by tamburitza music but no singing.  By the way, this is the Croatian version: there is also a dance with same name from Serbia.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Crazy Croatian Dance Songs

The River of Many Names Part Six: The Danube in Croatian Folk Songs

What's in a Name Part Two: Croatian Confusion


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

Fun and Fast Kolos from Serbia

If you think of exercise as a 60-minute commitment 3 times a week at the gym, you're missing the point completely. If you think that going on a diet has something to do with nutrition, you don't see the forest through the trees. It is a lifestyle. I know it sounds cliche, but you have to find things you love to do.
Brett Hoeble

Today's post features some Serbian dances that I've done at one time or another.  They are fun and fast and get the heart rate going.  Who needs aerobics when there's kolo?

The first one is a bouncy little number that is often played early in the evening because it's a relatively easy dance to follow: Divčibarsko Kolo. It has something called "ethnic symmetry", which means the same footwork in both directions.







Rokoko Kolo is a hybrid dance from Vojvodina.  It's a Serbian dance that sounds Croatian because of the  tamburitza music.  The accordion is the national instrument of Serbia, but in Vojvodina they are more into tamburitza.  The heel clicks are common to Hungarian dances because a sizable Hungarian minority lives in this part of Serbia. Political borders in the Balkans don't always align with cultural ones.



Polomka is a medley of several Vlach dances with lots of stamping.  Except for the last figure this dance is fairly easy to follow.

Brass music is popular in Serbia, too.  Every year in August there is a festival called Guca where bands all from all over Serbia (and some from outside the country, like Zlatne Uste), compete. This year it was from August 3 to August 9.  If you missed it there's always next year.



Here's Polomka as it's done in the "village" of Maribor, in Slovenia:



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Serbian Folk Dance Around the World

The "Flavors" of Serbian Kolo

If you like tamburitza music, there is plenty of it in The River of Many Names, Part 6: The Danube in Croatian Folk Songs.  The earworms in this post will take up residence in your head, guaranteed.

If you're bored with your usual workout, try some Ethnic Dance and Exercise.


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

Dancing Through the Alphabet: Letter K

Blessed are they who go around in circles for they shall be known as wheels.
source unknown 

Today's post features two kolos from Croatia that begin with the letter K, and a mystery kolo from Balkan Music Night 2011.

A kolo is a dance usually performed in a circle and sometimes in a line. In Croatia, they're done in a circle, using a hand hold, front basket hold, or back basket hold. The Croatian kolo is usually accompanied by tamburitza music, singing, and sometimes both.

Croatia was once a part of the multi-ethnic multi-cultural nation of Yugoslavia, which, surprisingly, stayed together for nearly fifty years. Yugoslavia broke up after the fall of Berlin Wall in 1989 and became like Humpty Dumpty. Once it fell apart, it never got back together. Croatia declared independence in 1991; it has been its own entity ever since.

The first video is of the Dunav group from Jerusalem in Israel performing Krici, Krici, Ticek (Chirp, Chirp Little Bird).  The lyrics are provided so you can sing along :) It's moderately fast, and the dancers use a back basket hold. If you watch them closely, they resemble a wheel, going round.



The next video took place at a New Year's Eve party at a restaurant in Australia in 2009 The dance is Kukunjesce Kolo. The music, played by a tamburitza orchestra, is loud enough to way the dead! The crawling baby (at 4:56) wants to get into the act, too.



This video goes back four years, to Balkan Music Night 2011. It was quite late and by that time everyone was high on endorphins from all that dancing.  The group Padjashi was finishing up a medley of Croatian folk songs and so far no one was kolo-ed out.

Notice the way the line flows around the room and then ends in a circle. Does anyone know the name of this dance or the music that goes with it? If you do, please post it in the "comments" section.



This weeks bonus video is a lesson on How to be a Croatian.. It focuses on important skills like cooking from scratch, preparing the house for guests and loading them up on leftovers when they leave. Oh. and don't leave the windows open in the bedroom, even in summer.  The drafts can kill you!



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

The River of Many Names Part Six: The Danube in Croatian Folk Songs (if you like tamburitza music, you will love this post.)

Crazy Croatian Dance Songs

The Tambura in Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Croatian Folk Music


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