If confusion is the first step to knowledge, I must be a genius.
Larry Leissner
Tsigansko Horo is a dance popular in Bulgaria as well as North America. It bears a slight resemblance to Chichovo Horo, another Bulgarian dance. Video #1 shows a dance group from Bulgaria. The song is actually Serbian. by Sanja Ilich and Balkanika. You can find the lyrics here.
You can read more about the song Djipaj and its associated dance in the first post link listed below.
Another dance that I have frequently seen on Zoom sessions is De Secerat, from Romania. It is a women's harvest song. It was introduced by Cristian Florescu and Sonia Dion.
The group is Balkanitsa, from Haifa, in Israel. This is another sing along song! If anyone can find the lyrics please post them in the "comments" section.
The next dance, originally taught by Yves Moreau, made popular by Murray Spiegel on his bi-weekly Wednesday night Zoom sessions, is Vidinsko Horo. He has a teaching video on Youtube as well, with the faster parts slowed down.
Murray mentioned that Boris Karlov (the musician, not the actor, here we go with that confusion thing) composed the music. As a matter of fact, many of our dances use the music of Boris Karlov: for example: BavnoOro, Gankino Horo, and Zizaj Nane (a daichovo dance with calls). You can read about it in post #2 below.
Human history has a repeating theme: we battle pandemics, we lose, we die, it burns itself out, and we rebuild. We always come out the other side stronger. Humanity marches on.
― A.G. Riddle
Things have changed so much in the past few months.
The last time I went to a live folk dance was March 1st. The following week I made a trip to Florida to visit my relatives. As soon as I returned on the 10th things went bad very quickly: Connecticut had declared a state of emergency.
The group was discussing cancelling dancing because there was a state of emergency in Connecticut, Shortly afterwards, scary announcements starting popping up on the news.
Coronavirus spread like wildfire (it had been spreading here in the U.S. probably since January. Yet people continued their normal lives (working, shopping, eating out, having weekly dance meetings). I had planned a trip to Florida in March and didn't think there would have been a problem (although we did take out insurance in case the trip had to be cancelled). We had thought snow or bad weather would have been an issue. It wasn't. So my husband and I went to see relatives and visit the theme parks.
(Epcot Spaceship Earth on March 7, 2020)
The parks were crowded, the weather was pleasant, and coronavirus was the last thing on our minds. The State of Florida did not take this seriously until all Florida theme parks closed on the 15th. People still congregated on the beach for Spring Break until the following weekend.
My husband and I returned on the 10th wondering if we had been exposed to the virus during our trip.
Meanwhile, in Massachusetts and Connecticut, both venues where I dance were closed until further notice. Balkan Music Night and NEFFA were cancelled. All in-person dance events were cancelled until further notice. They have been replaced by Zoom meetings.
Surprisingly, so far, we have been healthy. Those of us who are feeling well enough to dance have been suffering from withdrawal. A group in California addressed this with a Virtual Folk Dance Party on the Zoom platform. After that, other groups followed suit. There is an event every day of the week. They are listed on Dale Adamson's web site.
In the meantime we can dance in the safety of our homes. It's not the same, but at least we can still connect.
Today's post is part one of a series: Most Popular Balkan Folk Dances on Zoom. The first one is a dance just about every group does:Indijksi Cocek. There is more than one tune for this dance; this one is the one played most often.
Video #2 is Gori More, a dance that originated from the Serbian community in Racine, Wisconsin, based on a pop song. If you listen closely, at 1:38 you can hear the melody to Zaiko Kokorajko, a folk song from North Macedonia.
If anyone can provide an English translation of the lyrics, please post them in the comments section.
Video #3 is Zek Zek Dadumle. The song is an earworm (I actually find it quite annoying) but everyone on Zoom seems to love it. It's a Chalga song, in Bulgarian, and requested at almost every dance event. I call it the Theme Song of the 2020 Pandemic (it was introduced in April by Roberto Bagnoli at a Folk Arts Center workshop). The workshop was held online, via Zoom.
If you love Balkan music and dance you have come to the right place! The Alien Diaries began in February 2010 and is updated at least twice a month.
This blog is dedicated to the memory of my cat Fatso (see avatar), who passed away on April 9, 2011 from congestive heart failure. He was the inspiration for several of my early posts.
Don't forget to check out my second blog, Light and Shadow, for some humor, satire, photos and poetry!
