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.
Video #2 is the danceKeleruj ,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.
Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but the living room in your fortified compound.
Kurt Vonnegut
Today's post is a continuation of the series "Most Balkan Popular Folk Dances on Zoom."
Usually for dances to be popular on Zoom, the footwork has to be adapted to fit in a smaller space because most people dance in their living rooms. Living rooms are not the only place where I've seen dancers: they also perform in kitchens and garages. One woman I saw had a really small kitchen and she did the fast Romanian dance Vulpita. She compressed it to fit in the space.
The series continues. I've spent a good part of the summer participating in Zoom dances. There is usually at least one for every day of the week. Most take place in the evening, and the ones that work best for me are on the East Coast. I usually stay at the dance meetings until about 10 p.m. or so. When we danced in person that was the time the dances ended.
Video #1 is Dedo Mili Dedo (the song for this is also known as Dedo Mili Zlatni). There is no English translation but from what I got from Google Translate the song describes an elderly couple going about their daily routine (Dedo means grandpa in Macedonian). The group in the video is the Bonding Folkdance Dance Class from Taiwan. They have many videos on YouTube. I wonder if they have resumed in person dancing in Taiwan yet. Their Covid stats are very low. I'm sure these days if they do get together they dance in small groups and wear masks.
There is no way we could do that in the United States; the numbers are too high.
The danceLesiis also very popular on Zoom. The song for it also appears in the film Kapetan Lesifrom the year 1960. According to the YouTube comments, the song was created in 1930 by the Albanian composer Tish Daija and originally titled Po Vijne Krushqit Maleve.
Corlu Aroman is a dance from Dobrogea, in Romania. According to the notes, the dance is from the Macedonian ethnic group in Romania. Corlu is another name for hora; Aroman is another name for people of Romanian origin who live outside Romania. They settled in a number of Balkan countries: Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia, and Greece among others. They are also known as Vlachs and speak a language related to Romanian.
The article in the link mentions "not to be confused with Armenians or Romanians." Readers of my blog know how I like to write about confusion: are you confused yet?
The music sounds neither Macedonian nor Romanian, except for the gaida (bagpipe) in the introduction.
If you enjoyed this you may also like:
Most Popular Balkan Dances on Zoom: Part Three (links to the others in the series)
If confusion is the first step to knowledge, I must be a genius.
Larry Leissner
Tsigansko Horo is a dance popular in Bulgaria as well as North America. It bears a slight resemblance to Chichovo Horo, another Bulgarian dance. Video #1 shows a dance group from Bulgaria. The song is actually Serbian. by Sanja Ilich and Balkanika. You can find the lyrics here.
You can read more about the song Djipaj and its associated dance in the first post link listed below.
Another dance that I have frequently seen on Zoom sessions is De Secerat, from Romania. It is a women's harvest song. It was introduced by Cristian Florescu and Sonia Dion.
The group is Balkanitsa, from Haifa, in Israel. This is another sing along song! If anyone can find the lyrics please post them in the "comments" section.
The next dance, originally taught by Yves Moreau, made popular by Murray Spiegel on his bi-weekly Wednesday night Zoom sessions, is Vidinsko Horo. He has a teaching video on Youtube as well, with the faster parts slowed down.
Murray mentioned that Boris Karlov (the musician, not the actor, here we go with that confusion thing) composed the music. As a matter of fact, many of our dances use the music of Boris Karlov: for example: BavnoOro, Gankino Horo, and Zizaj Nane (a daichovo dance with calls). You can read about it in post #2 below.
Aside from singing, I'm also a dancer. I've been dancing since I was 8.
Billie Eilish
Valle Pogonishte is one of the most popular Albanian dances. People love the melody and sing along with it. You can find the lyrics here. The translation, in German, describes a festival in the Chameria region of Albania. Fritz, the teacher in the video, calls out the steps in German.
The group is from a workshop in Austria. They sing along, too. If you're a trivia buff, the artist for this song is Sami Kallmi.
Siriul is a dance from the Muntenia region of Romania. There are two versions: one with vocals and one without. I prefer the one with singing. Here are the lyrics if you want to sing along. There is also an English translation on the lyrics page. There is a mention of a place called Buzau that is a river in Romania. Siriul Mare is one of the tributaries. (Note: this is not a song about what you eat for breakfast! If you like confusion, there is a post at the bottom of this page for you).
If you listen to the music carefully at about 1:50 and also again 2:47 it evokes the sound of flowing water.
Another Romanian dance popular on Zoom is Hora Banateana. Thanks to Riki Adivi (who does Thursday night Zoom sessions at 8 p.m. Eastern Time) and the video, I'm learning the dance. For those who prefer written instructions I have also included the dance notes.
Banat is a region shared by three counties: Romania, Serbia, and Hungary.
Human history has a repeating theme: we battle pandemics, we lose, we die, it burns itself out, and we rebuild. We always come out the other side stronger. Humanity marches on.
― A.G. Riddle
Things have changed so much in the past few months.
The last time I went to a live folk dance was March 1st. The following week I made a trip to Florida to visit my relatives. As soon as I returned on the 10th things went bad very quickly: Connecticut had declared a state of emergency.
The group was discussing cancelling dancing because there was a state of emergency in Connecticut, Shortly afterwards, scary announcements starting popping up on the news.
Coronavirus spread like wildfire (it had been spreading here in the U.S. probably since January. Yet people continued their normal lives (working, shopping, eating out, having weekly dance meetings). I had planned a trip to Florida in March and didn't think there would have been a problem (although we did take out insurance in case the trip had to be cancelled). We had thought snow or bad weather would have been an issue. It wasn't. So my husband and I went to see relatives and visit the theme parks.
(Epcot Spaceship Earth on March 7, 2020)
The parks were crowded, the weather was pleasant, and coronavirus was the last thing on our minds. The State of Florida did not take this seriously until all Florida theme parks closed on the 15th. People still congregated on the beach for Spring Break until the following weekend.
My husband and I returned on the 10th wondering if we had been exposed to the virus during our trip.
Meanwhile, in Massachusetts and Connecticut, both venues where I dance were closed until further notice. Balkan Music Night and NEFFA were cancelled. All in-person dance events were cancelled until further notice. They have been replaced by Zoom meetings.
Surprisingly, so far, we have been healthy. Those of us who are feeling well enough to dance have been suffering from withdrawal. A group in California addressed this with a Virtual Folk Dance Party on the Zoom platform. After that, other groups followed suit. There is an event every day of the week. They are listed on Dale Adamson's web site.
In the meantime we can dance in the safety of our homes. It's not the same, but at least we can still connect.
Today's post is part one of a series: Most Popular Balkan Folk Dances on Zoom. The first one is a dance just about every group does:Indijksi Cocek. There is more than one tune for this dance; this one is the one played most often.
Video #2 is Gori More, a dance that originated from the Serbian community in Racine, Wisconsin, based on a pop song. If you listen closely, at 1:38 you can hear the melody to Zaiko Kokorajko, a folk song from North Macedonia.
If anyone can provide an English translation of the lyrics, please post them in the comments section.
Video #3 is Zek Zek Dadumle. The song is an earworm (I actually find it quite annoying) but everyone on Zoom seems to love it. It's a Chalga song, in Bulgarian, and requested at almost every dance event. I call it the Theme Song of the 2020 Pandemic (it was introduced in April by Roberto Bagnoli at a Folk Arts Center workshop). The workshop was held online, via Zoom.
The world is a very noisy place and so I don't need to shout about things. There are so many people shouting and a lot of people get lost in it.
Ben Howard
I never thought there would be a part three to the series "Dances from Oltenia." My YouTube search came up with numerous dances.
The first dance has "Alunelul" in the title. There are many "Alunelul" dances from Oltenia.
Oltenia is a region in southern Romania. It borders Serbia to the west, and Bulgaria to the south.
Video #1 is the group Hora Romanesaca. The dance, Alunelul de Briu, was performed at a Romanian festival in Boulder, Colorado, in the United States. This dance has shouts (in Romanian, strigaturi). I wish I understood what they were saying!
Video #2 is the Dunav group from Jerusalem, Israel. The dance, Poloxia Din Bechet, is from a town across the Danube from Oriahovo, Bulgaria. Oriahovo is best known as the town where the composer Diko Iliev spent the most productive period of his life.
Dances are often named after towns or regions, and sometimes after people. Poloxia Din Bechet is another dance with strigaturi. There is something really cool about shouting while dancing, especially when the dance includes stamping as well.
Video #3 is a Rustemul dance from the region near Dolj. This group from Taiwan describes itself as a "Bonding Folkdance Class." You can find their playlist here.
There are several versions of Rustemul, done to different music. I have never seen this version done in the States.
Video #4 is Salcuira, also performed by the Bonding Folkdance Class. People from China and Japan, especially, seem to be fond of Balkan music, and of folk dancing in general. Their enthusiasm is fun to watch.
If you enjoyed this you may also like:
Dances From Oltenia, Parts One and Two (there is a link to Part One in Part Two.)
If we each had to butcher our own meat, there would be a great increase in the number of vegetarians.
Ernest Howard Crosby
First of all, I would like to mention that I am not a vegetarian. Or vegan. I eat meat. As a child, I went on weekly trips with my dad to the butcher shop. He saved my dad the best cuts of pork chops and steaks. His shop had sawdust on the floor and he wrapped the meat in waxed paper.
It's time for the 20th installment of "confusion, Balkan style" and it has to do with butchers, who provide carnivores and omnivores (human and animal) with a steady supply of meat.
"Kasap" comes from the Turkish word for butcher. The Balkan region was part of the Ottoman Empire for over 500 years.
In the Balkans, the butchers also danced! Today's dances are from North Macedonia and Bulgaria. There are three different dances with similar names but different music; you have to be specific on which "Kasapsko" when requesting one of these dances. The Bulgarian ones come from two different regions which adds even more to the confusion. You read this blog to become confused, right?
Video #2 is Kasapsko Horo from northwest Bulgaria. What adds even more to the confusion that it's the same group, Dunav, from Jerusalem, Israel. You would think that a group from Israel would be into Israeli dance, but they specialize in dances from the Balkans and the Middle East.
Video #3 is Kasapsko Horo, this time from southwest Bulgaria (Pirin). Different music and different choreography from Video #2. These dancers wear elaborate embroidered costumes; this time it's a performing group from Bulgaria.
The zurna, an instrument that resembles the oboe, originally from Turkey, has also become part of the music of the Pirin region of Bulgaria as well as North Macedonia. (There is no zurna in this piece, but you can read about it in the one of the posts listed below. It is an instrument people either love or hate).
Video #4 shows a kind-hearted butcher from Istanbul, Turkey who converses with a cat and offers her choice cuts of meat. She was a daily visitor to his shop . The cat's name was Yesim. Yesim came to the shop every day for five years, and the butcher, Ikram Korkmazer, took care of her.
Istanbul is known for its stray cat population. The cats walk into stores and people feed them. They are ferals who maintain their independence and for the most part, have passing relationships with humans.
Unfortunately, Yesim got sick from dehydration and hypothermia from living on the street; Ikram the butcher took her to an animal hospital. Unfortunately, she passed on.
This video is a loving tribute to Yesim and the butcher. Her favorite food was liver. She asked for it by name 😺.
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!
