Dances from Oltenia, Part Six

It's been a while since I've written here. I finally found an arthritis friendly keyboard and a computer with a large screen (less eyestrain! less hand pain!) Today's post is a continuation of a series that started years ago: Dances from Oltenia. During the past year I have been at in person dances and Zoom Meetings.  These are dances our group hasn't done.

 I had no idea that folk dances from Oltenia were so popular. Oltenia is the region directly north of the Severnjasko region of Bulgaria, best known for its spirited dances. Video #1 is Hora Mare Olteneasca (Large Oltenian Hora).

I found these on the Dunav website.  They specialize mainly in Balkan and dance and what I like is that they specify the region of the country as well. The problem is that they sometimes cut their videos short.

   

 Video #2 is Galaonul de la Birca.  Birca is a town in Dolj county. (For some reason the video lists Muntenia as the region of origin.  Somebody goofed :)

Video #3 is Briuletul de La Birca, not to be confused with the dance in the previous video.  Didn't I say many times that confusion happens quite frequently when it comes to Balkan dancing?

Briul means "belt" in Romanian.

   

There are several versions of the Rustemul dance. Video #4 is Rustemul de la Pristol.  According to a Romanian YouTube commenter, this dance duplicates how young horses are trained.  

The rhythm is 5/16, similar to the Bulgarian/Macedonian Paidusko.

 

If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Dances From Oltenia, Part Five (links to the previous posts in the series)

Balkan Dances that are often Confused Part 23 (links to previous posts in the series)

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