Balkan Dances That Are Often Confused, Part Nine : Sirba Din Cimpoi and Cimpoi

Men are like bagpipes. No sound comes from them until they're full.
Irish proverb

Bagpipes are popular all over Europe: Ireland, Scotland, and the Balkans. This week's post is part of the continuing (and possibly never ending) series: Balkan Dances That Are Often Confused.

Video #1 is Sirba din Cimpoi. Sirba is a very popular Romanian dance usually punctuated with shouts and stamps. Cimpoi is a bagpipe. Bagpipes and Sirba go very well together, especially when the bagpipes are well inflated with hot air :)

Although bagpipes are often associated with Bulgaria and Macedonia, where the instrument is called gaida; they are part of the folk music of Romania as well.

The choreography is by Mihai David (seen here in the video) and the one most popular with recreational folk dancers.



Video #2 is another variation of Sirba din Cimpoi.  The group is Tingluti from Copenhagen, Denmark. The in and out step with the arm swinging reminds me of a dance very popular in Bulgaria: Dunavsko Horo.



Video #3 is Cimpoi, a fast and furious dance played on (guess what?) a bagpipe.  The rhythm is 6/8.

I have noticed when the Dunav group posts a video, the number of people dancing indicates the difficulty. They are from Jerusalem in Israel and have an excellent web site, with downloadable music and video, as well as song lyrics, dance notes, and sheet music.

Yehuda and Mika, the dance experts, demonstrate Cimpoi.  



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Another Country Heard From: The Bagpipe in Romanian Folk Music

The "Flavors" of Romanian Sirba

The series: Balkan Dances that are Often Confused:  this link leads to part eight, which in turn goes back to seven, six, five, four....it just doesn't go to liftoff!


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