Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable.
Leonard Bernstein
Every dance I know of has a name. Sometimes there are dances that have the same name but different choreography and different music (Mindrele from Romania is a good example). There can be a lot of confusion in folk dancing!
Today's post is about dances named after people or those who choreographed them. Video #1 is Shantel, named after Stefan Hantel, a Roma Romanian dance arranged by Maurits and Tineke Van Geel. This is a tune that will take up residence in your head for days if not weeks.
Video #2 is a song about Mitro, a very classy lady who tends to forget things (like yours truly). This dance is for all the absent minded people out there. I often forget the change at 2:35 and since I lead this it drives everyone else crazy!
The dance is a Pravo variation from the Rhodope region of Bulgaria. The teacher in this video is Jaap Leegwater (more about him below).
Video #3 is Sborenka, also known as Jaap's Sborenka. Jaap Leegwater, a choreographer from the Netherlands, was the one who introduced this to the folk dance community. This dance is from the Dobrujda region of Bulgaria. There is also a region with a similar name in Romania, and it's spelled Dobrogea.
There are many different versions of Sborenka. This dance is also spelled Sborinka. Transliteration from Bulgarian into English can be a little tricky.
This is also a tune that will earworm its way into your head.
If you enjoyed this you may also like:
What's in a Name? (dances from Bulgarian Dobrudja)
Balkan Dances Often Confused Part 23 (this contains links to previous posts)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
