Variations on a Theme: Folk Ensembles Named Horo

Ultimately, your theme will find you. You don't have to go looking for it.
Richard Russo

I never expected to find the word "horo" in an online dictionary.  The original source for the definition was from Encyclopedia Brittannica. It is derived from the Greek χορός,  which means a dance done in a line or circle, and the Bulgarian word is almost the same as the Greek.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/272102/horo

The name's the same for all three of the folk ensembles in today's post.  The first band is from the Bulgarian city of Ruse (Rousse). The dance is Dunavsko Pravo Horo. If you're wondering why the dance looks familiar, it's the same dance (done to different music) during New Year's celebrations in Bulgaria.



Check out this 50th anniversary performance (which took place in 2012).  Horo Orchestra was founded in 1962.  The dance in this video is a Daichovo Horo from northern Bulgaria.



Everything you always wanted to know about the Horo Orchestra of Ruse can be found by clicking this link. You can also check out samples of their music.

http://horo.silvena.net/history_en.html

The next Horo is a group of ladies from the city of Brisbane, Australia and they perform a spirited Shopska Rachenitsa.  Many Bulgarians emigrated to Australia (and other countries as well) after the fall of Communism, this is called the Bulgarian Diaspora.  Bulgaria is currently suffering a "brain drain" because many young people go abroad in the hope of earning more money than they could at home.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_diaspora

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=143305



Xopo from Shelburne, Massachusetts, USA, plays a very charming melody (lesnoto) from the Pirin region of Bulgaria. Their repertoire is from the Balkans with an emphasis on Bulgarian and Serbian folk music. Everyone, including band members pronounces their name ZO-PO.  That drives me absolutely crazy, maybe because I've been teaching myself how to read the Cyrillic alphabet, and in Bulgarian, "X" has an "H" sound. 



If you enjoyed this you may also like Folk Ensembles Named After Dances

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2012/01/folk-ensembles-named-after-dances.html

Bulgarian Folk Dance Around the World

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2012/01/bulgarian-folk-dance-around-world.html

Everything you always wanted to know about the Cyrillic Alphabet and the Bulgarian holiday connected with it:

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/05/cyrillic-alphabet-cracking-code-and.html


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

Bulgarian Folk Dance Around the World

Elitsa Todorova, Bulgarian pop/folk singer plans to lead 50,000 young people from Bulgaria in the the longest folk dance in the world on June 9th and 10th, in Varna. She hopes this event (Horo 2012) will make it into the Guinness Book of World Records. Read more about it here:

http://www.elitsatodorova.com/public/news/

*Update from Novinite June 11, 2012: The longest folk dance in the world has been cancelled due to lack of funding. Read more below:

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=140131

On my forays in the Universe of You Tube, I have found Bulgarian folk dancing in many locations around the world. You don't have to be Bulgarian to dance like one :)

Our journey begins in Kodiak, Alaska, a small town in the United States on an island in the Pacific Ocean. It is known mostly for one of the most fearsome creatures, the Kodiak bear. Before Alaska became a state it belonged to the Russians, who sold the land to the Americans for a bargain basement price. Alaska is sparsely populated, averaging about 1 person per square mile. What's surprising is that even in a remote location like this one, Bulgarian folk dance has made a foothold. About half the population in the state is here :)



There are a number of videos of this Chinese group on YouTube. They describe themselves as a "Bonding Folkdance Class." Here they perform Tervelska Tropanka, a dance from the Dobrudja folklore region.



Do you have a sense déjà vu? If you're a regular reader of this blog you'll recognize this group from Jerusalem, in Israel.



If this is your first time here, check out the Dunav website:

http://www.dunav.org.il/

Now we go south of the Equator. Bulgarians have settled in the most remote regions of the globe, and they have a sizable population in Australia. Everywhere they went they brought their culture with them, so they wouldn't get too homesick.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_Australian

This group, Horo, is from Brisbane and they dance the Shopska Rachenitsa. Horo translates to "chain dance" in English, and as it turns out, this is not the only folk ensemble named after a dance.



At the bottom of the world in a land of ice and snow is the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute. There have been sightings of dancing penguins, this happens to be one of them. If this video looks familiar, you have probably seen the movie Happy Feet.



If you take a look at the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute's website, you'll see more dancing penguins. Rumor has it that the scientists there have been teaching them :)

http://www.bai-bg.net/index_files/Page304.htm

It's back to the European continent. This ensemble from Silistra, Bulgaria, performs in Spain.



If you enjoyed this you may also like Bulgarian Folk Music Travels Abroad
http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010/06/bulgarian-folk-music-travels-abroad.html

The national dance of Bulgaria is the rachenitsa. Read more about it here:

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010/07/flavors-of-bulgarian-rachenitsa.html

There are also ensembles named after folk dances.

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2012/01/folk-ensembles-named-after-dances.html


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