Balkan Dances That Are Often Confused, Part 17: Opinca and Opincuta

It's sensational to be part of a series that takes on a life of its own.
Robert Wagner

The series continues: who knew that the names of so many Balkan dances were so confusing?

Today's dances are similar when it comes to name (an additional syllable), the first from Romania (Bukovina), the second from Moldova. Moldova is a separate country, although they speak the Romanian language.  Their folk music is very similar to Romanian.  To confuse matters even more, there is a region named Moldavia (Moldova) in Romania.

Opinca is a dance very popular in my Sunday night group. The name is derived from the Romanian word for peasant sandals, now used as dance shoes.  They are made of leather and tied to the feet with leather strips. Nobody in the video is wearing them.



Opincuta is a totally different dance. If you click on the link you can find the dance notes as well as the lyrics, so you can sing along.

The leader is Roy Butler.  He has many videos on YouTube.  He is really into folk dancing, especially Romanian dances.



If you enjoyed this you will also like:

Balkan Dances That Are Often Confused: Part 16.  This post links to the others in the series. You can spend a good part of a day reading them and still be confused.


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