Dances From Oltenia, Part Three

The world is a very noisy place and so I don't need to shout about things. There are so many people shouting and a lot of people get lost in it.
Ben Howard

I never thought there would be a part three to the series "Dances from Oltenia."  My YouTube search came up with numerous dances.

The first dance has "Alunelul" in the title.  There are many "Alunelul" dances from Oltenia.

Oltenia is a region in southern Romania.  It borders Serbia to the west, and Bulgaria to the south.

Video #1 is the group Hora Romanesaca.  The dance, Alunelul de Briu, was performed at a Romanian festival in Boulder, Colorado, in the United States. This dance has shouts (in Romanian, strigaturi).  I wish I understood what they were saying!



Video #2 is the Dunav group from Jerusalem, Israel.  The dance, Poloxia Din Bechet, is from a town across the Danube from Oriahovo, Bulgaria.  Oriahovo is best known as the town where the composer Diko Iliev spent the most productive period of his life.

Dances are often named after towns or regions, and sometimes after people.  Poloxia Din Bechet is another dance with strigaturi.  There is something really cool about shouting while dancing, especially when the dance includes stamping as well.



Video #3 is a Rustemul dance from the region near Dolj. This group from Taiwan describes itself as a "Bonding Folkdance Class." You can find their playlist here.

There are several versions of Rustemul, done to different music.  I have never seen this version done in the States.



Video #4 is Salcuira, also performed by the Bonding Folkdance Class.  People from China and Japan, especially, seem to be fond of Balkan music, and of folk dancing in general.  Their enthusiasm is fun to watch.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Dances From Oltenia, Parts One and Two (there is a link to Part One in Part Two.)

The Different "Flavors" of the Romanian Folk Dance Alunelul

If you want to know more about Diko Iliev, click this link:


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Dances from Oltenia Part Two

You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive.
Merce Cunningham

At the Friday night and Sunday night dances there are a number of dances from the Romanian region of Oltenia in our repertoire. They tend to be fast, with lots of crossing, stamps, and grapevines.

One that we're working on is Hora Lui Chisar. The music is delightful with caval, cimbalom and panpipes.



The next dance is Vulpita.  It translates to "little fox" in English. We have been doing this one a long time.  It's short, only a minute and a half but really fast.



This is a dance I would like to introduce to the Sunday night group.  One of the Friday night leaders taught it a few years ago.  The one thing I remember about Hora Spoitorilor is that the first figure is in the form of a square.



Another favorite of ours is Rustemul. This is the tune that we use, although there are others out there. There are also other versions of Rustemul as well; you can see an example in Dances From Oltenia (part one).



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Dances from Oltenia

Variations on the Romanian Folk Dance Trei Pazeste

Balkan Dances That Are Often Confused Part Nine: Cimpoi and Sirba din Cimpoi


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

Balkan Dances That Are Often Confused, Part Nine : Sirba Din Cimpoi and Cimpoi

Men are like bagpipes. No sound comes from them until they're full.
Irish proverb

Bagpipes are popular all over Europe: Ireland, Scotland, and the Balkans. This week's post is part of the continuing (and possibly never ending) series: Balkan Dances That Are Often Confused.

Video #1 is Sirba din Cimpoi. Sirba is a very popular Romanian dance usually punctuated with shouts and stamps. Cimpoi is a bagpipe. Bagpipes and Sirba go very well together, especially when the bagpipes are well inflated with hot air :)

Although bagpipes are often associated with Bulgaria and Macedonia, where the instrument is called gaida; they are part of the folk music of Romania as well.

The choreography is by Mihai David (seen here in the video) and the one most popular with recreational folk dancers.



Video #2 is another variation of Sirba din Cimpoi.  The group is Tingluti from Copenhagen, Denmark. The in and out step with the arm swinging reminds me of a dance very popular in Bulgaria: Dunavsko Horo.



Video #3 is Cimpoi, a fast and furious dance played on (guess what?) a bagpipe.  The rhythm is 6/8.

I have noticed when the Dunav group posts a video, the number of people dancing indicates the difficulty. They are from Jerusalem in Israel and have an excellent web site, with downloadable music and video, as well as song lyrics, dance notes, and sheet music.

Yehuda and Mika, the dance experts, demonstrate Cimpoi.  



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Another Country Heard From: The Bagpipe in Romanian Folk Music

The "Flavors" of Romanian Sirba

The series: Balkan Dances that are Often Confused:  this link leads to part eight, which in turn goes back to seven, six, five, four....it just doesn't go to liftoff!


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