Dances From Oltenia: Part Five

When angry, count to four, when very angry, swear. 

Mark Twain 

You won't hear any swearing here. Sorry to disappoint you :)

This is part five in the series "Dances from Oltenia." I have found so many examples of dances from this region of Romania that I had to write another post. 

Video #1 is the most popular version of the dance Mindrele, introduced by Sunni Bloland.  I have been doing this for several weeks in person and on Zoom. The panpipe solo is really good! It's difficult to hear the music in the video with the background noise, but easy to focus on the dancers' feet. This group is from the United States.

 

By the way, there are other versions of Mindrele in the folk dance world. This blog from Germany has eight listed and only two became popular. Music samples are included, including the tune from Video #1.

Video #2 is a group from Austria. The dance is complete with strigaturi and counting. Unu, doi, trei, patru ! 

Galaonul is another family of dances from Oltenia and there are other versions to different music.

   

Video #3 is a Rustemul dance that I have never seen before.  According to the notes on YouTube it was introduced by Sunni Bloland.  Rustemul is native to Oltenia and there are numerous versions. The dancers are from Japan. Notice that they are both masked and one of them is wearing an animal costume. I don't know what was the purpose of the costume, but it doesn't seem to hinder the dancer, nor does the wearing of masks.  It is challenging to dance while wearing a mask because it is more difficult to breathe.  All the groups require them now for in-person dancing. The pandemic isn't over yet unfortunately.

 

Video #4 is Itele, a staple in the folk dance repertoire. It was originally a women's dance that depicted the twisting of thread.  Looks like the dancers can't wait to get into the circle!

 

If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Dances From Oltenia: Part Four (links to the earlier posts in the series)

Balkan Dances Often Confused: Part 22 (links to earlier posts in the series) If you take the time to read them all you will see more dances from Oltenia.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.