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.
Lesser artists borrow. Great artists steal.
Igor Stravinsky
A number of years ago I wrote two posts about the Bulgarian composer Diko Iliev. While searching for Diko Iliev on YouTube I found several gems by a composer named Panko Dobrev (not the Japanese bread crumbs!) that were strongly influenced by Diko Iliev.
The first one is Gankino Horo, a dance that originated in Northern Bulgaria. Brass music is very popular in that region and this piece really sparkles. It made me want to get up and dance. By the way, the piece was named after a woman named Ganka, and there are numerous versions of Gankino Horo making the rounds. The dance itself is a basic kopanitsa.
The second piece is Rachenitsa Simona. I take it that Simona is also a woman's name. Rachenitsa is the national dance of Bulgaria and performed everywhere in the country. It can be in 7/8 or 7/16 depending on the speed. This one is rather slow and it's a lovely piece of music.
Video #3 is Elenino Horo, the dance we know as Eleno Mome, another dance that originated in Northern Bulgaria. So far every dance tune I've found by Panko Dobrev was named after a woman; this time it's Elena.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find Panko Dobrev on Bulgarian Wikipedia, although he does have a YouTube channel.
Talent does what it can, genius does what it must.
Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
Recently I have been watching excerpts from Slavi's Show on YouTube. The host is a very talented man who has captivated late night Bulgarian TV watchers since 2000.
This show features Bulgarian pop and folk music and Slavi (full name Slavi Trifonov), with his Ku-Ku Band, have hosted numerous performers. It is the Bulgarian version of the Tonight Show (the older version with Johnny Carson as MC.) Unfortunately, the last broadcast of Slavi's Show will be on 31 July 2019.
Video #1 is a sing-along. The song isNazad, Nazad, Mome Kalino. I don't know the name of the woman who sings with him, if anyone out there knows who she is, please post her name in the "comments" section. Note: in the lower right hand corner of the video, there is a logo for Seven-Eight Productions. 7/8 is a very common dance rhythm in the Balkans (especially in Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Romania). There are different forms of 7/8: lesnoto, chetvorno, and rachenitsa. depending on the grouping of the beats. This song is a 7/8 lesnoto.
In Video #2 Slavi sings Svatba. This is a different song from the one that we dance to (sung by Nikolina Chakardakova). It means "wedding" in Bulgarian. If anyone out there can get me the lyrics for Svatba, please post them in the comments.
The drummers in the intro are amazing. They play for nearly two minutes!
Video #3 is another Slavi sing along. This time it's the Bulgarian National Anthem. You can feel the excitement here, as well as the Bulgarians' love for their country (too bad the end was cut off abruptly).
The world has only one border. It is called humanity. The differences between us are small compared to our shared humanity. Put humans first.
Nadia Murad
Today's post features the Bulgarian singer Nikolina Chakardakova with a medley of Bulgaro-Macedonian folk songs. There are links to them in the same order as in the video. I was able to find translations for most of these (some in German, some in English) and transliterations via The Songbook for Nearsighted People compiled by Birgitt Karlson. Songs that weren't in the Songbook I found at various websites including Wikipedia, where you can find almost everything.
These songs are excellent examples of songs that cross borders. They are popular both in Bulgaria and in Northern Macedonia. Sing along with Nikolina!
Jovano Jovanke
(Macedonian to English, no transliteration)
Ludo Mlado
(Bulgarian transliteration and German translation)
We have sung and/or danced to all of these at one time or another. Usually our dances end with a lesnoto in 7/8 time. The dancers here do a ten minute lesnoto sing-along that is fun to watch.
Numbers constitute the only universal language.
Nathaniel West
Today's featured dance is the 16 Count Tsamiko. It's slightly more complicated than the basic Tsamiko that is usually done at Greek festivals. We do it at the Sunday night dances.
The dance is sometimes called Tsamikos. In Video #1 the spelling is "Chamiko." This dance and its variations may have originated with the Cham people; ethnic Albanians who lived in Greece.
This is the Tsamiko dance that we do when we're not dancing the 16 count version. It is often done at Greek festivals. Notice that it's the same music as video #1. At 1:54 the leader introduces a variation. She also does a few turns: some leaders embellish the basic dance with turns, jumps and acrobatics. Male leaders tend to do this more than women, but there are exceptions.
Since The Alien Diaries is an equal opportunity blog, the Tsamiko in Video #3 shows a female leader in an all female line doing some masculine moves that include turns, jumps, and knee bends. She spices it up with shouts.
You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive.
Merce Cunningham
At the Friday night and Sunday night dances there are a number of dances from the Romanian region of Oltenia in our repertoire. They tend to be fast, with lots of crossing, stamps, and grapevines.
One that we're working on is Hora Lui Chisar. The music is delightful with caval, cimbalom and panpipes.
The next dance isVulpita. It translates to "little fox" in English. We have been doing this one a long time. It's short, only a minute and a half but really fast.
This is a dance I would like to introduce to the Sunday night group. One of the Friday night leaders taught it a few years ago. The one thing I remember about Hora Spoitorilor is that the first figure is in the form of a square.
Another favorite of ours is Rustemul. This is the tune that we use, although there are others out there. There are also other versions of Rustemul as well; you can see an example in Dances From Oltenia (part one).
Our death is not an end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation. For they are us; our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life. – Albert Einstein
On Orthodox Easter Monday, the Bulgarian National Radio published a post on a Vlach custom: The Horo for the Dead.
It is done in the Northwest (Severnjasko) region of Bulgaria, a place where the population is aging and dying and few young people are born to replace them. The people in this region get together at the Albotin monastery or in the town square with pictures of relatives who died since the previous Easter. Unfortunately, the custom may disappear because the authorities don't support it.
Their way of mourning the dead is to dance with them in spirit. Each dancer holds the picture of a deceased relative. Most of the people in the line are elderly, although there are a few young people. They dance a slow pravo horo, accompanied either by an accordion or brass band.
I found this post shortly I had been notified of the death of a relative in Puerto Rico. She was my aunt, who passed on at the ripe old age of 88.
This custom reminds me of the Mexican Day of the Dead, when relatives visit cemeteries and bring food and drink for themselves and the spirits of the departed. They decorate the graves and celebrate the lives of their deceased friends and relatives.
The Sunday night group used to have a memorial dance in June. Tom Pixton (who is fantastic on the accordion), played requests from the group, usually a favorite dance in memory of a member who had passed on. Our group is aging and few young people are replacing them. In that respect we are much like the northwest region of Bulgaria.
Here is the video (entirely in Bulgarian). It begins with a church service. It is worth watching in its entirety; but if you're limited on time the dancing (with accordion and drum accompaniment) starts at 11:34. The dance in the town square, accompanied by a brass band starts at 15:00.
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!
