Your wedding can be the most memorable day and night of your life...or just another party.
Steven Crowder
What makes wedding celebrations so much fun is the dancing. Today's post features some spirited dancing at two Serbian weddings.
Video #1 is a basic version of the dance we know as U Sest or Uzicko Kolo. It's long (over five minutes) and energetic (young people in the line). The bride is second in the line and my guess is that the groom is the leader. I love the energy and the shouting; the dancers are having a great time!
Video #2 is a group in traditional Serbian elaborate embroidered costumes performing a medley of dances at the wedding of Jelena and Dragan: U Sest, Makazice, Moravac (similar to U Sest), and Cacak. There were two other dances as well, one that I recognized but I didn't know the name, and the other was not familiar. Readers, if you know what they are, please post the names in the comments section.
Never give a sword to a man who can't dance.
Confucius
The video below is a group of Thracian dances performed at a Bulgarian wedding. The music is from the folklore region of Thrace.
The dances (in order) are Trite Puti, Pravo Horo (with attitude), and Bucimis, Notice that the choreography is different from what we do at recreational folk dances in North America. It starts with a mixed line for Triti Puti. During the Pravo (at 1:47) the guys dance in separate line from the women. Traditionally, men in Bulgaria dance as a way to flirt with women and demonstrate how macho they are.
At 3:28 the women form a separate line for Bucimis, so they get a chance to show off, too. At 4:03 it becomes a mixed line (with the bride somewhere in the middle). At 4:39, the guys form a separate line for Bucimis, and all hell breaks loose.
This is a fun video to watch. I would love to go to a Bulgarian wedding!
Create your own style… let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.
Anna Wintour
Today's post is about a unique project by the company Richmart Vintage, a company that manufactures made-to order men's suits. You can read about it here:
Last year they created a project to promote Bulgarian folk dances. The resulting videos were quite creative. These are a small sample of what was posted on YouTube.
The first one takes place at a wedding. There are a number of wedding videos posted because that is where people dress in their best outfits.
If anyone out there knows the name of the dance, please post it in the "comments" section.
Now here is something really different: a firefighter's dance that reminds me of Zumba. The song is in Spanish. How this is connected with Bulgarian folklore, I don't know, but I think it's really cool, since I like Latin music and go to Zumba class once a week.
These guys have rhythm and must be sweating like mad in their protective gear.
Continuing with the fitness theme, here's a group in bathing suits, dancing Graovsko Horo in a swimming pool.
Richmart's videos take place in cities around the world. Here is one from Regensburg, Germany. This group dances a devetorkato the song Biala Roza. Although the notes mention that the dance is popular in Macedonia, it is popular in Bulgaria as well. There are a few dancers in folk costumes, but the woman I really noticed wore red sneakers.
Here is another video taken at a wedding. Red is the predominant color here and it has a lot of symbolism in Bulgarian folklore. It is the color of happiness. The dance is a Shopska Rachenitsa.
Almost nobody dances sober, unless they happen to be insane.
H.P. Lovecraft
May is Dance Month on The Alien Diaries, and today's post focuses on different "flavors" of the Romanian folk dance, Sirba or Sârba, as it is spelled in Romanian. The hora and the sirba are the two of the best known Romanian folk dances. There are many varieties of hora; with regional differences, and they are usually done in a circle. The hora is especially popular during festivals and weddings, big communal celebrations in which everyone is expected to get up and dance.
The sirba may have had Serbian origins because the name means "Serb like." This proves that the Balkans are a multicultural mish-mosh. Dances (as well as dancers) are notorious for crossing existent and non-existent borders. Sirba can be done in either a circle or a line, depending on the preference of the leader, and the dance is often punctuated by stamps and shouts.
The first group, from Denmark, performs Sirba din Cimpoi.Cimpoi is Romanian for bagpipe (also known in Slavic-speaking countries as a gaida). They like the bagpipe in Romania, too, almost as much as their friends across the Danube, the Bulgarians. The in and out step with the arm swinging reminds me of a dance very popular in Bulgaria, Dunavsko Horo.
The next video is of Sirba Pe Loc, also played on a bagpipe, and a staple in the repertoire of folk dancers around the world. It translates into "dance in place." Most of the steps here are stamping and heel clicks; there's just a little bit of lateral movement. Notice the shoulder hold, this is very common in Romanian folk dances.
These guys take sirba to a whole new level. Since this is a male only group at a party, they, of course, want to show off. My guess is that they have been hitting the bar as well, which fuels the energy here.
The shouts you hear are called strigaturi, and they are a common feature of Romanian folk dances. If I were there I would have joined the circle, the men have more fun. Notice that the men try to outdo each other, it's most likely a contest to attract the women with their physical prowess; in that respect sirba is similar to Bulgarian rachenitsa.
The music here is also different, a brass band with accordion, accompanied by a singer. Despite all the distractions (staff bringing plates to tables and little kids running around), these men are totally focused on the dance. Maybe it's the booze.
This integrated (male-female) group dances an extremely lively and animated sirba at a wedding. My guess is that the craziness is related the the amount of alcohol consumption. This dance has lots of stamping (bataie), and everyone circles around the accordion player. Some people consider the accordion an instrument of torture. In Eastern Europe, however, they love it almost as much as the bagpipe.
Today's post will feature some odds and ends from the Universe of You Tube, with videos from the United States, Bulgaria, and France.
Is this an earthquake? No, it's actually the synergy of vibrations from the brass band music and the dancers which shook up the chandelier in the room. This video was taken at the Zlatne Uste Golden Festival, a yearly celebration of Balkan music and dance which takes place the third weekend of January. Fortunately, the chandelier didn't fall, with the number of people at this festival it would have been quite a disaster.
These people at a wedding dance a rachenitsa (Bulgarian folk dance in 7/8 time) with a cake. Or two. That takes skill.
The next video is of IRé, a Bulgarian singer living in France, who mixes jazz with Bulgarian folk music. She and her friends are totally caffeinated and a joy to watch :)
Read more about IRé here (and you can watch the video again, as well)
And finally, there's physical education class in Bulgaria. Looks like these kids are combining folk dance with aerobics, a good way to work off the excess energy that is so abundant in young people. According to the video's creator, this is a group of kindergarteners and they look like they're having a great time! What's really cool is that they're wearing traditional Bulgarian costumes and dancing to music by Diko Iliev. This is definitely more fun than playing dodgeball or field hockey.
By the way, they are also very cute :)
Here are the answers to last week's Bulgarian Folklore Quiz: (no, I didn't forget!) How did you score? Come on, it wasn't that hard :)
If you love Balkan music and dance you have come to the right place! The Alien Diaries began in February 2010 and is updated at least twice a month.
This blog is dedicated to the memory of my cat Fatso (see avatar), who passed away on April 9, 2011 from congestive heart failure. He was the inspiration for several of my early posts.
Don't forget to check out my second blog, Light and Shadow, for some humor, satire, photos and poetry!
