Most Popular Balkan Folk Dances on Zoom: Part Three

If confusion is the first step to knowledge, I must be a genius.
Larry Leissner

Tsigansko Horo is a dance popular in Bulgaria as well as North America.  It bears a slight resemblance to Chichovo Horo, another Bulgarian dance.  Video #1 shows a dance group from Bulgaria. The song is actually Serbian. by Sanja Ilich and Balkanika. You can find the lyrics here.

You can read more about the song Djipaj and its associated dance in the first post link listed below.



Another dance that I have frequently seen on Zoom sessions is De Secerat, from Romania. It is a women's harvest song.  It was introduced by Cristian Florescu and Sonia Dion.

The group is Balkanitsa, from Haifa, in Israel. This is another sing along song!  If anyone can find the lyrics please post them in the "comments" section.



The next dance, originally taught by Yves Moreau, made popular by Murray Spiegel on his bi-weekly Wednesday night Zoom sessions, is Vidinsko Horo. He has a teaching video on Youtube as well, with the faster parts slowed down.

Murray mentioned that Boris Karlov (the musician, not the actor, here we go with that confusion thing) composed the music.  As a matter of fact, many of our dances use the music of Boris Karlov: for example: Bavno Oro, Gankino Horo, and Zizaj Nane (a daichovo dance with calls). You can read about it in post #2 below.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

(Almost) The Same Music, Different Dance: Part Two

Call and Response: Daichovo Horo

The Legacy of Boris Karlov, Bulgarian Folk Accordionist

Here are the links to Part Two and Part One


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

(Almost) the Same Music Different Dance: Part Two

It's a crazy world, so sports and athletics and music can be a form of escapism.
Eddie Veder

The world has indeed changed in the past two months.  Many of us are under stay at home orders and cannot get together in person to dance anymore for a while.  I have taken to music as a form of escape. It keeps my mind away from all the gloom and doom reports.  There are also plenty of Zoom dance events these days.  It's not the same, but I get some exercise from them.

It's time for some cultural cross-pollination between Bulgaria and Serbia. The dances are Bulgarian, the music is from Serbia.

Video #1 is Tsigansko Horo from Bulgaria. The performing group is Nadigrai Me (also the name of a competitive folk dance show that was broadcast in Bulgaria 10 years ago.  It lasted for several seasons.) The dance is similar to Chichovo Horo, with some fancier moves. Listen to the music carefully.



Video #2 is a crazy version of Chichovo Horo, another Bulgarian dance performed by Lyush from Dallas, Texas. They use the song Kermes by Sanja Ilic and Balkanika.  It's similar to the music in Video #1.  The main difference is that the melody is played on a gaida instead of brass instruments. The chorus part is the same (at 1:25).



Why does the music in Video #1 and Video #2 sound similar?  It's the same band, Sanja Ilic and Balkanika.   They are very popular in Serbia, and have performed at Guca, a brass band festival that takes place every year in August.  They also participated the Eurovision Song Contest for 2018, and placed 19th. (Unfortunately the contest has been cancelled for 2020 because of coronavirus concerns, but you can find this year's songs on YouTube.)

This is a totally wild video with a little bit of everything, an auto mechanic, a man with a bullhorn, an oboe player, women cleaning a fancy car, even a dog!

You can find the lyrics for Djipaj (in Serbian) here.

At the end the ladies push the car.  The "mechanic" couldn't fix it!



If you enjoyed this, you may also like:

A Sense of Deja Vu

Almost the Same Music, Different Dance: Part One

Eurovision and Folklore


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