Balkan Dances that are Often Confused Part 18: Hora Fetelor and Hora Femeilor

If you're not confused, you're not paying attention.
Tom Peters

There never seems to be an end to confusion in Balkan dance. I have seen programmers confused by requests because the names of two dances are very similar.  I find this very amusing and often ask that both dances get played, so we can compare the differences.

The first two dances have several things in common:  (1) they are slow and graceful (2) they are from the Oltenia region of Romania and (3) both are geared to the female gender.  Notice that a man leads both of them. He is Yehuda Ben-Harush from the Dunav group in Jerusalem, Israel.

Video #1 is Hora Fetelor (Girls' Dance).



Video #2 is Hora Femeilor (Women's Dance).



Video #3 is another version of Hora Fetelor with different choreography and different music. The ladies are in charge. Notice that in the previous videos a man led the dance.  The Alien Diaries is an Equal Opportunity Blog, and features men leading women's dances as well as women leading men's dance.

Here the big girls take over: the dancing as well as the singing. (The men have their own circle on the side). This lively version of Hora Fetelor was recorded at a wedding in Craiova.



If you enjoyed this you will also like:

Balkan Dances that are Often Confused Part 17 (links to the rest of the series)

Some Equal Opportunity Folk Dances

Women's Dances from Macedonia Led by Men


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 Six: Chetvorno and Chetvorka

Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not understood.
Henry Miller

Confusion reigns again in Balkan Dance World. This week's dances, from Bulgaria, are Chetvorno and Chetvorka.

Chetvorno, a dance from the Shope region, is the more popular of the two and there are several variations.  Video #1 is "Shopping Mall Chetvorno."



Video #2 is a more complicated version of Chetvorno with multiple figures. The group is Balkanitsa from Haifa, Israel.



Video #3 dance #1 is a Chetvorka from the town of Petrich, in southwestern Bulgaria.  The other two dances are Graovsko Horo (at 2:59) and Kystendilsko Horo  (at 4:02)  The person who posted the video mistakenly called the second dance Kyustendilska Rachenitsa.  It is essentially the same dance as Graovsko, but in 2/4.

Are you confused yet?

The singer is Nikolina Chakardakova, who performs modern folk songs from the Pirin region.



Video #4 is another example of Chetvorka. The group is Leb i Vino (Bread and Wine), who pride themselves on authentic folklore from the Pirin region. The musicians play two zurnas and a tupan.



The zurna is an instrument very popular in Turkish and Middle Eastern music.  The people of the Pirin region often use it in their folk music. It was introduced to Bulgaria via the Ottoman Turks, who ruled Bulgaria for nearly 500 years,.

Leb i Vino's web site is currently under construction, but you can read about them in one of the posts below.

If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Leb i Vino: Traditional Music from the Pirin Region of Bulgaria

Three Variations on a Bulgarian Folk Dance: Chetvorno Horo

The Clones of Chetorno Horo

Dances that are often confused:

Part One: Cacak and Cocek
Part Two: Lesnoto and Lesnoto Oro
Part Three: Vrapceto and Kopcheto
Part Four: Bavno and Ravno
Part Five: Djurdevka and Djurdevica


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 Two)

I had nothing to offer anybody except for my own confusion.
Jack Kerouac

A few months ago I wrote a post about confusion regarding Balkan dances with similar names.  This is the sequel, otherwise the first one would have been too long.

Video #1 is the very popular Jove Malaj Mome from Bulgaria. It has traveled around the world and has gone as far as China.  The lyrics describe a girl named Jova, who prefers the city guys from Sofia, and won't even look at the men from her village. She is way too good for them.

If you are a frequent reader of this blog, you've seen the "Bonding Folkdance Class." They have a large repertoire of dances and a high energy teacher.

The dance is in a compound rhythm 7/16 +11/16.  Many folk dance people happen to be good at math (but I'm not one of them).



Video #2 is a dance from Macedonia, Edno Maloj Mome (One Little Girl).  Many Macedonian and Bulgarian songs are in the 7/8 rhythm (pineapple-apple-apple). The dance usually done to this rhythm is lesnoto, but as you will see this one is a bit more complicated.



Before you can run, you have to learn to walk. Video #3 is a "plain vanilla" lesnoto. There are many variations of lesnoto;  this one is the easiest. It's basically walking in 7/8 rhythm while alternately lifting each foot. It is how Macedonians learned to walk when they were babies. This rhythm is ingrained in them in the womb.

The group dances to a medley of four songs: Oj ti pile, Zalna majka, Bitola moy roden krai, and Makedonsko Devojce.



Video #4 is of another dance from Macedonia, Lesnoto Oro. It is a dressed up version of lesnoto.  Are you confused yet?

Lesnoto Oro starts slowly then speeds up, typical of Macedonian dances.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Balkan Dances that are Often Confused, Part One

Dancing in Sevens, Part One (Bulgaria) and Part Two (Macedonia)


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