Fun and Easy Folk Dances from Romania

Some years ago I read a book that brought Einstein's theory of relativity down to an eighth grade level. This convinced me that any subject can be made easy. In other words, always beware of anyone who tells you a topic is above you or better left to experts. This person may, for some reason, be trying to shut you out. You CAN understand almost anything.
Richard J. Maybury

Not all Romanian folk dances are fast and difficult with sudden changes of direction and stamps hard enough to put holes in the floor! Contrary to what you've seen and heard, there are relatively slow and easy Romanian dances. Relatively is the key word here. Relativity is a whole other concept.

What's really cool about today's dances is that they include shouts, called "strigaturi."  You can be a kid again and use your "outside voice."

The first is Hora Pe Sase (Hora for Six). I counted the steps, and none of them add up to six.  Notice that one of the figures in this dance resembles the Bulgarian Pravo Horo.

There are definitely more than six people dancing.  So where did the dance get its name?  If you know the answer, please post it in the "comments" section.



The second dance, Hora Pentesteanca is one I can't even pronounce.  Fortunately it is easy to learn by watching the dancers. The steps are mostly grapevines and taps.

Romanian is part of a family of languages based on Latin. There is a Romanian woman who comes to our dances and she taught us how to say some basic greetings.  Despite my familiarity with Spanish, I had difficulty pronouncing the Romanian words.

Modern Romanian, to me, sounds like a combination of Latin and Italian, with an admixture of Slavic words. The first time I heard it on an ethnic radio program, I thought it was a dialect of Italian until the folk music came on. According to Wikipedia, Romanian is 77% similar to Italian.

There are other dialects related to Romanian, including Aromanian , also known as Vlach.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

The "Flavors" of Romanian Hora

The "Flavors" of Romanian Sirba

The dances of Bulgaria and the Dobrogea region of Romania use similar rhythms.

Crossing the River Part One:  Folk Music From the Romanian Region of Dobrogea

Dancing Across Bulgaria: The Pravo and Regional Folk Dance Styles

If you are interested in some easy folk dances, check out the blog with the same name.

The Alien Diaries is taking a brief break.  Look for the next post in approximately two weeks.


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

Dancing through the Alphabet, Letter H

Hang on to your hats...
 (idiomatic expression)

Today's dance, from Romania, begins with the letter H: Hora de la sud Miadora. It is one of the craziest ones I've seen on YouTube, very spirited and fast.  From what I can see, it looks like it takes place at a wedding reception.

Since many hora dances come from cities and towns, and the name translates into Hora from south Miadora, I did a search on it to see where the dance originated. Instead, I found an online site for handbags and wallets and a restaurant by that name. My guess is that the performers are at the Miadora restaurant. So maybe it's just Hora from the South.

This dance so fast that I wonder how the men manage to hang on to their hats for so long.



This week's added bonus is a teaching video for another Romanian dance: Hora de la Soroca led by Cristian Florescu and Sonia Dion. They are fun to watch and Cristian, especially, has a delightful sense of humor. The first two minutes are devoted to teaching. The rest is the dance performed to music, which includes an English translation of the lyrics.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

The Flavors of Romanian Hora

Romanian Wedding Videos from the Universe of YouTube 

The Flavors of Romanian Sirba


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

The "Flavors" of Romanian Hora

Last week we explored the sirba and its variations.  This week's post will focus on the most popular dance in Romania, the hora. It can be easily confused with the Israeli dance of the same name, or the Bulgarian dance with a similar name (horo) or the Greek dance with a name almost like the Bulgarian (horon).  What's in a name, anyway? Read more, you'll find out.

Hora originated in Romania. It comes in many "flavors", from slow to hang on to your hat fast.  But then you wouldn't dance with a hat on, would you? If you're from Bulgaria,  dancing with hats on is something you'd do anyway :)  I don't know if the Romanians have tried that yet :)

The first video is of Hora de la Munte, performed by the International Folk Dancers of Ottawa, in Canada. You can visit their website here.  They also have a blog, Easy Folk Dances, where you can learn a number of easy to follow dances that they teach to the group, complete with videos and dance notes.

The clarinet dominates this piece of music, it's one of my favorite musical instruments. It can also be used for pain and torture purposes :)



I danced Hora de la Soroca at a Romanian friend's graduation party last week. It's fairly easy, but a little faster. Listen carefully and you can hear the strigaturi (shouts).  This group is from Italy, where they speak a language somewhat related to Romanian.  Both Italian and Romanian have Latin roots.



It's time to speed things up a little with Hora Olteneasca. The dance comes from Oltenia region of Romania, in the southwest part of the country, across the Danube from Bulgaria.  The Olt  River gives the province its name, and separates Oltenia from the province of Muntenia, also known  as Greater Wallachia.  Out of Wallachia came the Vlachs, who travelled all over the Balkans bringing stamping dances everywhere.

There must be plenty of ethnic events in the Great White North, this group, like the first one, is also from Canada! Canada is next on my list of places to visit!



Now it's time for an even faster hora, fast enough that you have to really think about the directional changes, or it gets totally out of control.

The last group is from Holland, and they perform Hora Nuntasilor at a street festival (you will find the dance notes and the lyrics on pages 11 and12 if you click on the link.)  Nuntasilor means "wedding guests", this is a dance specifically in their honor.

From what I've seen of The Alien Diaries stats, the people of Holland love Balkan dance. By the way, Netherlanders, I visited your beautiful country many years ago. Unfortunately, Romanian and other varieties of Balkan dance were not popular back in those days, but next time I'm in Holland, I'll be sure to look you up :)



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

The "Flavors" of Romanian Sirba

Crossing the River, Part One, Folk Dances from the Romanian Region of Dobrogea

How to Take Out Your Frustations and Relieve Stress (Romanian folk dancing can be good therapy!)

Classical Composers Inspired by Balkan Folk Music (check out Enescu's Romanian Rhapsody #1, based on folk tunes).


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