Who Will Fill Their Shoes? The Aging of the Folk Dance Community

To live is to dance, to dance is to live.
--Charles Schulz [in Peanuts (Snoopy speaking)]

Why don't more young people go to folk dances?

That is something that has been plaguing folk dance groups in recent years. The dancers get grayer by the year.  When they die, who will fill their shoes?

According to what I've read on the Internet, and from speaking with veteran dancers, the peak years of international folk dance were during the 1960's and 1970's, when they were college students.

If this trend continues, the only place to find folk dance groups will be in retirement communities.

Part of the problem could be that the young are too busy doing other things.  Or maybe dancing with people their grandparents' age is just not for them.

Another issue was budget cuts: courses in folk dancing have been cut from school curriculums.  In my opinion, dance should be offered as a physical education class as an alternative to team sports.(See the link to my post below: "On Ethnic Dance and Exercise.")

A variety of reasons were mentioned and listed here.

There was a time, not so many years ago, when ballroom dancing was primarily an activity for seniors. Dancing With the Stars changed all that. Now people of all ages take classes and participate in ballroom dancing. 

Check out the video and you'll see what I'm talking about:  the majority of the dancers are 50+. This was taken during a live music event when attendance is higher than during regular dance nights.



This group from Canada is at a workshop taught by Yves Moreau.   Many of the participants are also seniors.



Fortunately, Balkan folk dancing has taken a foothold in communities with large ethnic populations, such as New York City and Boston. Balkan Music Night, held annually in Concord (a suburb) of Boston has a large turnout of young people. In 2010 I went to a Zlatne Uste event in New York city that had a very youthful crowd, so there is hope. These young people may well be the future of folk dancing as we know it.

And in Bulgaria, young people have taken up an interest in folk dance because of the TV show Nadigrai Me, a show which features dancers from folk dance clubs all over the country. This show has finished its fifth season. It is one of the most popular shows in Bulgaria.



In 2012, a folk dance club opened in Sofia,  Club na Horoto.  The idea behind it was to have a place for dancers to congregate any hour of the day or night. This concept might work in a city with a large Eastern European immigrant population like Boston or Toronto.

Club Na Horoto reminds me of a disco....one of those places I used to frequent years ago. I would love to see a venue like this open up in the United States. They look like they're having a great time!  From what I've read on their website, this venue is extremely popular. Right now they're taking reservations for their New Year's Eve party.



If you have been successful in attracting young dancers to your group, please post your ideas in the "comments" section.

If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Bulgarian Folk Dance Around the World

Why Dancing Makes You Smart

On Ethnic Dance and Exercise 

A One of a Kind Club for Folk Dancers


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

More Quirky Odd Rhythms in Balkan Dance

I can tell by the way somebody walks if they can dance or not. Just by the rhythm. Bruce Forsyth

Today's post is more of a dance lesson than a math lesson. So don't let the numbers and the odd rhythms scare you. Many people find Balkan dancing intimidating for this reason.

Drăgăcuţa, a graceful and beautiful dance from Romania,is in 3/4 meter..  Most people associate this rhythm with waltz music. (1-2-3-1-2-3).  This is a quick-slow (with the accent on the second beat). It's easy to follow (most of it is walking) but difficult to lead because of the quirky rhythm. 

In Romania, women dance this at weddings to mourn the loss of the bride to the world of the married; in this instance it's an equal opportunity dance, since there are several men in the group.



The next number is five, and this Macedonian dance is Strumicka Petorka (pet is Macedonian for five).  It's has a totally different feel from Pajduško Horo, another dance with a five in the time signature.



I skipped over seven and nine since they have been covered in previous posts (see links at the end).  The next dance is Gankino Horo, a basic kopanitsa from Bulgaria. The rhythm for this is 11/16. (quick-quick-slow-quick quick).



Kopanitsa comes in different "flavors." Bulgarian dances are often named after cities and towns and sometimes regions, for example there is a Pazardzhishka Kopanitsa and a Shopska Kopanitsa. This particular dance is Bistrishka Kopanitsa. As difficulty goes, I would rate this as a 9 on a scale of 10.



Perhaps the people who work at the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute taught these cute little penguins how to dance Bistrishka Kopanitsa.  If the video looks familiar, you have probably seen the movie Happy Feet.



If you enjoyed this you may also like: The Travels of Padjusko Horo

Balkan Folk Dancing and its Relationship to...Math?

Dancing in Sevens, Parts One and Two

If you like the number nine, this post on Daichovo Horo, a Bulgarian folk dance, is for you.



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

Dancing by the Numbers

Music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting. ~Gottfried Leibniz

People in the Balkans seem to have an obsession with numbers, which is probably why they're so good at math. They are good at dancing as well, after all it's just a matter of counting.

Today's post is about dances named after numbers. The first one, from Serbia, is the Five Figure Cacak. If you watch carefully, you'll notice a three-two-one pattern very common to Serbian dances. There are five different sequences (figures) and each one is repeated. Twice.



Chetvorno is a dance connected with the number four, which is четири,(chetiri) in Bulgarian. In Cyrillic, the "ch" resembles a 4.



If you are looking for the children's game "Connect Four", you'll find it here :)

https://www.amazon.com/Hasbro-A5640E86-Gaming-Connect4-Game/dp/B0745QFHP3

Trite Puti, another dance from Bulgaria, translates to "three times." Three times what? Despite the fact that math was not my favorite subject, I like this dance very much. Three happens to be one of my lucky numbers. In numerology, three is the number of artistic talent, creativity, and a way with words. In astrology it corresponds to the sign Gemini. Yes, I know Gemini is the sign of the twins, but it's also the third sign of the zodiac. (I think the guy commenting in the next video must be a Gemini....he's a bit on the chatty side. Just ignore him and his running commentary...he's a distraction. Watch the dancers instead.)



The third time is a charm. Here is another dance with the number three, which must be a lucky number in the Balkan world. The dance Trei Pazeste is from Romania.  They are even dancing in groups of three!  The shouts are characteristic of Romanian dances, they are called strigaturi.



By the way, the most famous vampire in the world, Count Dracula, was based on an actual person, the Romanian nobleman, Vlad Tepes. I mention this bit of trivia because it's October, and Halloween falls on the very last day of the month. This holiday is a big deal in the States. After dark on Halloween, children (accompanied by adults) traipse from house to house, and some of them dress as vampires. Scary costumes are the norm on Halloween; it is the holiday of ghosts, ghouls, monsters and vampires. The purpose of this activity is to acquire as much free candy as possible. The adults come home exhausted after making the rounds of the neighborhood; the children get a burst of energy from a sugar overdose.

Dracula (Romanian for devil) was quite the character and his favorite method of putting people to death was impaling them on wooden stakes. According to some estimates, he may have killed up to 100,000 people in this manner.

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

You can see a more benign version of the Count on the children's show Sesame Street.



If you enjoyed this, you may also like Balkan Folk Dancing and its Relationship to... Math?

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010/06/balkan-folk-dancing-and-its.html


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