Dancing in Sixes

It’s like asking why is Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony beautiful. If you don't see why, someone can't tell you. I know numbers are beautiful. If they aren't beautiful, nothing is.
Paul Erdos

Today's post features two dances, two from Serbia, and one from Romania.  All of them have the number six in the name.

Video #1 is Sestorka.  шест is the number six in Serbian.  What is really amazing about these young dancers is their ability (this is not an easy dance) and that they are members of a Chinese folk dance club in Dallas, Texas.

Follow the link to these to old dance notes (there is no year, but you can tell they are old because they were done on a typewriter.)  Also there is mention of a country, Yugoslavia, that no longer exists. Although there are only three kids in the line, the shout "ooh ah" is done after the first set of six steps.  So I see a connection here.



Video #2,  U Sest (In Six) is also a very popular Serbian dance from the region of Sumadija.  The music is played on a frula, a traditional folk instrument.

This is a leader-called dance. The different variations are mentioned in the notes, and if you listen carefully, you can hear Yehuda call them.

The Dunav group is from Jerusalem in Israel, and they have numerous Balkan dance videos on YouTube.  While you are isolated at home, you can connect with the rest of the world and learn some new dances as well!



Video #3 is Hora pe Sase from Romania.  It has three sets of figures: the three steps in and one step out (pravo step), the second figure (czardas), and the last is the step together step.  I don't see anything here in six or its multiples, so how did the dance get its name?  I couldn't find any notes.  If you can find an explanation for the name or dance notes, please post them in the comments section.

The dance reminds me of Bulgarian Pravo Horo with a shot of Romanian attitude.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Dancing in Sevens (the series)

Dancing in Nines


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

Dancing in Circles: Serbian Kolo on YouTube

The whole universe is based on rhythms. Everything happens in circles, in spirals.
John Hartford

Kolo is a dance from the countries which used to be part of Yugoslavia: Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia. The literal translation of the word is "wheel" and kolo is often danced in a circle, but not always.  According to a tweet from UNESCO: "Kolo, traditional folk dance just inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Congratulations, #Serbia!"

Today's post features two kolo videos from Serbia and one from Canada.

Video #1 is a group of young people dancing in the street in Belgrade, Serbia. The group's name is Krsmanac. They perform a medley of dances that people who folk dance regularly will recognize. Two of them are U Šest and Čačak.



Video #2 took place during a halftime show at a basketball game in Toronto, Canada. Skip the intro and start at 1:00.  The dance that begins the medley resembles Bulgarian rachenitsa, apple-apple-pineapple, in 7/16 time. Čačak begins at 4:14.



Video #3 is Malo Kolo  (small circle dance) from Banat, from a festival that took place in Novi Sad in 2011. This dance is anything but small and it is not to be confused with another dance with the same name from Croatia.  This is a large group dressed in elaborate embroidered costumes. Check out the small circle in the middle of the crowd at 4:00.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

The "Flavors" of Serbian Kolo

The "Flavors" of Serbian Cacak


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