"Rachenitsa! Try to Outdance me!": Competition and Improvisation the Bulgarian Way (original) (raw)
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Romanian dance ethno-choreography: past trajectories and evolving approaches
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This paper investigates the history of Romanian ethno-choreography and its proponents by drawing from documentary sources and the author's long-term fieldwork. It explores multi-layered notions of local cultural norms, choreographic authority and knowledge, presentational performances, and 'modes of representation'. The first section outlines the history of Romanian ethno-choreography from the early twentieth century, when Romanian dances were included within staged art productions. It outlines the framework of the network of folk ensembles established after the Second World War that contracted between 1990 and 2005, then expanded following a renewed enthusiasm for local culture. The second section follows the choreographers and dance instructors placing these individuals according to their generations and investigates available options for choreographic training both past and present. The third section examines the evolution of the structure of Romanian ensemble performances, and ethno-choreography styling, the role of the choreographer as mediators between the dance moves and the creation of their dance performances and various strategies used to construct choreographies. Finally, this paper looks forward at the notion of continuity and ethno-choreography in relation to evolving performance in Romania, the future of the gene, its mediators and their pupils, audiences, and funding bodies. CITATION: Mellish, Liz (2024). Romanian dance ethno-choreography: past trajectories and evolving approaches. In Dunja Njaradi, Miloš Rašić, & Krešimir Dabo (Eds.), The Choreography of Traditional Dance on Stage: Crises, Perspectives and Global Dialogues (pp. 109-133.). Belgrade, Serbia: Institute of Ethnography SASA and Ensemble of Traditional Dances and Songs of Serbia "Kolo". ISBN-978-86-7587-121-7.
Dancing in the House of Koryak Culture
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This paper explores two interrelated themes found in the anthropology of ethnic dance ensembles in Kamchatka, Russia: authenticity and the place of individual in society. I use two elite dance troupes (one professional, the other semi-professional) to analyse local categories of cultural authenticity. People in Kamchatka were vocal about representations of indigenous dance on the stage and critiqued dance performances on the basis of whether or not they lived up to their expectations for a proper representation of traditional forms. These critiques are consistently made with respect to the representations themselves and are wholly detached from ethnic (or other) identities of the performers. They provide insight into the nature of authorised knowledge of cultural traditions in Kamchatka. The second part of the paper explores the role of children's dance ensembles in cultural revival movements in small villages. Performing traditional indigenous Kamchatkan dance is not a case of memorising a set stock of moves and positions but entails finding oneself through an individually creative engagement with a style modelled by elders. In both cases, I argue that a semiotics of dance focuses our attention on what symbols do (as opposed to simply what they mean) within a cultural field.
Folk dance production at the stage in Croatia has never been considered as a revival. At this point this discussion should not be a part of this panel but as the participants are always invoking past dancing through the paradigm of showing old, domestic and local tradition, discussion fits into proposed cross- cultural comparison. The concept of revival got some other connotations in our social and political context after the last war 1991/92. From time when it started in 1920s and 1930s public practice of folk music and dance was a part of political program of the Croatian Peasant Party. Political ("national") orientation focused on local, regional, and ethnic/national identity in dance was always important especially when social and ideological circumstances changed. Following these changes up until today the author analyses and puts together emic and etic dimensions and views of participants in processes and interpret them from the other proposed discourses – "recr...
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This chapter examines the professional stage art of “Bulgarian Folk Dances” which, even in the context of Eastern Bloc folk ensembles, is notable on account of its unusual scale and contribution in the construction of national identity. I focus on the creation of the State ensemble, followed by 19 regional professional ensembles and 15000 amateur groups, together with reference to educational institutions, key choreographers and theoretical understanding of the new genre. Why and how did the “folk dance” matter so much and why and how it still matters in Bulgaria, are my main questions. Through application of the Semantic Star, a strategy designed to facilitate reflection on past experience, the phenomenon is analyzed as a form of culture in historical time, geopolitical space and social life. Bulgarian specifics such as the mythology of folklore and the roots of Russophilism are discussed. In conclusion, I emphasize the power of inspiration that evokes authenticity as an expression of national identity.
Improvisation in Hungarian Ethnic Dancing: An Analog to Oral Verse Composition
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Scholarly investigation of the mechanisms, the structures, and the aesthetics of verse composition in the study of oral traditions naturally proceeds in several dimensions-across genres, across ethnic and national traditions, across the expanse of time from ancient Greece to the present day, and across the spectrum from oral to oral-derived to highly literate traditions. 1 There has even been some interest in applying oral-formulaic theory to jazz improvisation (see Gushee 1981). Indeed, it probably makes good sense to view oral composition with some awareness of how improvisation works in other media. A phenomenon restricted to verbal artistic expression would, after all, likely appear more peculiar and baffl ing than one that could be understood in the context of proximate relatives in other forms of expression. It is, furthermore, possible that viewing how improvisation works in a somewhat alien fi eld will assist us in achieving a degree of detachment from the controversy which has persisted around the question of the putative orality of certain classic literary texts. Improvisation has been recognized as an established mode not only in oral verse and in music, but in theater and mime, in dance and dance therapy, in visual art. 2 In the