Three Variations of the Bulgarian/Macedonian Folk Dance Arap

Today's featured dance, Arap, has dual citizenship, according to the notes I found on the Internet.  The reason for this is that it is popular in both Macedonia and Bulgaria.

Unfortunately, Macedonia happens to be one of the most contested names on the map. There are three places which share this name. One of them is the Republic of Macedonia where the people speak a language closely related to Bulgarian.  The languages are similar enough that Bulgarians and Macedonians can understand each other.

There is also a Macedonia region in northern Greece. The Pirin region of Bulgaria, Blagoevgrad Province, which borders the Republic of Macedonia is also known as Pirin Macedonia.

The first version of Arap is the one familiar to most folk dancers.  It is Zajko Kokorajko, about a rabbit who's off to Salonika (in Greek Macedonia) to marry a fox.  The wedding guests are as unusual as the couple: a female bear, a female wolf, a hedgehog to play the drums, and a frog to play the zurna, among others. At the end the rabbit is pursued by hunting dogs!

The dominant instrument in this song is the bagpipe (gaida).

The original Macedonian lyrics with English translation can be found here:



The next  Arap is from Bulgaria.  It's called Kulskoto and done to different music. Near the end you can hear the zurna. What makes the zurna so distinctive is its loud, piercing sound, even louder than the bagpipe.

My group dances this version to the music for Zaiko Kokorajko (except for the turns).  I guess different villages do different variations.  It's all good.



The next Arap is also from Bulgaria and very similar to the previous version.  They don't do the turns and they swing the arms, but the footwork is the same.  The music is also different, with bagpipe accompaniment.  It's very pleasing to watch and the costumes are beautiful.

The song is Neveno, Mome, Neveno  which I like very much.  Does anyone out there have the lyrics and/or translation for it?



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

The Bagpipe in Macedonian Folk Music

The Bagpipe in Bulgarian Folk Music

A Dance By Any Other Name

The Zurna in Bulgarian Folk Music (it was originally used to intimidate enemies of the Ottoman Empire!)


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Some Electric Balkan Music: Rakiya

This post is not about booze. It's a writeup about one of my favorite Balkan bands. If alcohol is what you crave, click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakia

On January 2nd, I went to a dance party featuring the band Rakiya. Their high energy electric music was very intoxicating, and the endorphins generated by dancing to them more than made up for the fact this was an alcohol-free event.

The first time I saw them perform was at Balkan Music Night in Concord last March. I was so taken by their dynamic musical style that I took this video, which is also on their web site. The song is Zajko Kokarajko from Macedonia.

http://rakiya.com/



For more on Balkan Music Night, which takes place in Concord, Massachusetts every March (this year the date is March 19), click here http://www.forsyths.addr.com/bmn/

Last year's recap of Balkan Music Night can be read here: http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010/03/march-madness-balkan-style.html

The band is from Boston. Most of their gigs are in New England, except for the Zlatne Uste Golden Festival in New York City, which is a huge Balkan event with numerous bands, now celebrating its 26th year. The festival will be held in Brooklyn on the 14th and 15th of January. It is definitely worth a visit.

This video of Rakiya is from a recent party in Wethersfield, CT. Here they perform a Serbian pop-folk song, Gori Mori. I love the way the singer dances and gets into the music, is she having fun yet?



Besides Balkan, Rakiya plays Roma (Gypsy) and Middle Eastern music. This is a mellow Armenian song: Sweet Girl.



It was an enjoyable event. I was tired and a little sore the next morning, with happy memories of the night before.


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