The name ‘Eliznik was based on an amalgamation of the authors’ names which they had previously used for dance teaching booklets and notes. This website has two parts: the reference ‘fixed pages’ and the newer Blog. These are interlinked through the context dependent menus on the left sidebar, so posts will have links to related reference pages, and references pages will have links to posts. This Blog is divided into three subject areas: Ethnography – our continued research and interest in the customs, music and dancing in the Balkans Academic – subjects from the perspective of academic study Photos – the latest uploads History The …read more
The Dorna region is situated in a depression within the Carpathian Mountains. The name comes to Romanian from old Slavonic for a shallow and clear river bed. The area was previously forested and was colonised during in the period of the Principality of Moldavia, the first major settlement being documented in the 17th century. Țara Dorlior was included in the administration of Ținutul Câmpulung, and the population were free from obligations in return for guarding the border. The region continued to expand as forests were cleared, for example Panaci appeared in 1835 after Negrea from Crucea settled in an area …read more
The Covurlui river is minor tributary running through the northern part of Galați county and the name Covurlui has probably been used since the 15th century for the plain surrounding the Covurlui river. Ținutul Covurlui was one of the counties formed in the 1864 reorganisation of the administration of Romania until it was absorbed into the large new county of Galați in 1950. Ținutul Covurlui originally included four Plasa administrative zones; Plasa Prutul de Jos with the city of Galați, Plasa Bujor with the market town of Târgul Bujor, Plasa Pechea or Siret with the market town of Pechea, Plasa …read more
Valea Ampoiului ethnographic zone comprises the villages along the valley of the Ampoi river which runs west from the city of Alba Iulia into the Apuseni Mountains. The main town is Zlatna (meaning “gold” from old Slavonic) was founded in Roman times as Ampelium (meaning vine yards from Greek αμπελώνας). It was a centre of gold mines during the Roman times and is known for its silver and gold industries and many place names reflect this Roman toponym. Slovaks settled in the 19th century in the village of Tăuti (meaning Slovak from tót in Hungarian) in this zone. ReferencesStoica, Georgeta …read more
Câmpia Blahnița (plain of Blahnița) is the plain adjacent to the river Blahnița which is a tributary of the river Danube in the county of Mehedinți. The ethnographic zone is approximately this geographic region. The inhabitants were moșneni, free villagers not enslaved to a landowner. However the boyars (feudal aristocracy and nobles) and monastic domains constantly expanded their lands resulting in the displacement of entire villages (for example Pristol and Punghina in 1604 and 1605) (Ciobanu and Surdu, 1982) and the villagers becoming țăran with feudal obligations. The 1802–1831 zone of Blahnița included the Blahnița de Jos district and Blahnița …read more
There is a continuing Bulgarian culture in some north Dobruja villages. Dance expert Jora Roman[ref id="1"] lists Lunca, Vișina, Izvoarele, Caugagia, Cerna and Nalbant as having people of Bulgarian ethnicity and it is clear there are derivatives of Bulgarian dances within the local dance repertoire still taught by the Romanian choreographers. The village of Vișina has an active Bulgarian cultural group.
Jora Roman, in his book on the dances of northern Dobrogea, gives a list of villages that he terms “old Romanian” in order to separate these from the post-Ottoman immigration into Dobrogea from other regions of Romania. These villages are within the areas documented as Romanian in the works of Ion Ionescu de la Brad in 1850 and Guillaume Lejean in 1861 which both record the ethnicities at the end of the Ottoman period. The “old Romanian” villages form a chain along the Danube from just south of Cernavoda town to the north of Lake Razim. The wider area between …read more
This a popular melody and dance distributed across the former “Yugoslavia” (Croatia, Serbia, Vojvodina, Bosnia) that can also be found danced by Romanians in the Banat mountains and in one location in northeast Transylvania. In Banat a version titled Plocoanele or Complimentul in the Almăj valley.
The people known as Grebentsi by other Bulgarians are thought to be the remaining decedents of the old population of north western Bulgaria. It is suggested that their name is related to a characteristic element in their bridal head-dress that looks like a rooster’s “comb”, but they are also called “Elians” meaning countrymen or locals from the Turkish “yerli”. Their dialect and clothing separates them culturally from other neighbouring groups of Bulgarian people. The Grebentsi are considered to be more closely related to the older population in Shumen and Razgrad regions before the many movements of people. They now live …read more
Paidușca is the Romanian transliteration of the Bulgarian Paydushka for melodies that are in 5/16 meter (short-long rhythm). Popescu-Județ gives a list of many locations where he documented Paidusca as a local dance, and there are also other locations given for notations of music. However, there are few descriptions of the dances. Paidușca denotes a Bulgarian origin, but this 20th century popularity does not cross the Danube from Dobrogea to the county of Brăila, suggesting that the dance is endemic to the population of northern Dobrogea and not a spread as a fashion in local dance into the wider Romanian …read more
The name Paydushka (Пайдушка) is both a generic term which is applied to various different dance types in the “short-long” rhythm (generally notated in 5/8 meter) and a name given to a popular dance in this rhythm which is widespread in Bulgarian and adjacent countries. In Romanian Dobrogea it is transliterated to Paidușca. It is thought that the name Paydushko comes from Turkish “paytak” meaning knock-knees or to waddle, however, there are other theories. Tsonev’s list of collected dances has very many labelled as Paydushka, generally meaning they are in the “short-long” rhythm, so including dances that are from other …read more
“Pomorišje” is the term used for a number of towns and villages situated along the Mureș river between Arad and Szeged that once had a substantial Serbian population for a period of time in the past, but now the Serbian population is greatly depleted. ReferencesKollárov, M. István (1912) Arad város és Arad vármegye szerb népe [The Serbian people of the city of Arad and the county of Arad]. In: Benedek, Jancsó & Gyula, Somogyi (eds.) Arad vármegye és arad szab. Kir. Város monographiája [Arad County and City monograph], pp.464-507. Arad: Kölcsey-egyesület.Papp, Árpád (1997) A délvidék Magyar újratelepítése 1699 és 1945 …read more
“Pomorišje” is the term used for a number of towns and villages situated along the Mureș river between Arad and Szeged that once had a substantial Serbian population for a period of time in the past, but now the Serbian population is greatly depleted. This is not a homogeneous ethnographic zone, rather it is a collections of villages and towns that received an immigrant population of Serbs over the period from the start of the Ottoman campaigns in the 15th century in southern Serbia until the Habsburg Empire gained the whole Banat region at the start of the 18th century. …read more
On this page I have included mostly the dances in Marcu’s category of “swaying” dances (Leuca, Pe picior and Lența (variant 3)) which he linked by observation of a characteristic body swaying movement when changing body weight from one foot to the other. In addition to Marcu’s movement observations, these and other couple dances from the Banat plain also have a step pattern structure of “1101” in Leibman notation – “slow-slow-quick-quick-slow”. This this step pattern is the same as the Banat Hora and the mountain De doi through the common use of “1101” step pattern, however these dances appear to be specifically Banat plain dances.
The social dances in the villages of the Banat plain were, in past times, mostly couple dances. These couple dances fall into several types including Banat column couple dances, Soroc and other syncopated stepped dances, and the generic Ardeleana. The article is about the dances Pre loc (Pe loc, Pră loc or Zopot) and Întoarsa. I describe these as “walking dances” as the dominant step is just walking while performing many different figures as a couple. There may be additional motifs such as step and close or faster triple steps, however walking predominates. This is different to the other couple …read more
“The subtype Sorocul (north of Timiş and south of Arad) is performed both as a highly virtuosic men’s solo or group dance, and as part of a mixed couple walking and turning dance named either Sorocul or Ardeleana” (Giurchescu and Bloland, 1995). The term Soroc is used in northern Banat for various dances with “syncopated” steps, but also for a cycle of dances. The dance(s) now commonly referred to as Soroc in the Banat area appear to include several layers of earlier dances.
In the north area the column dances Bradu and Diesca were recorded by Bartók (1910s) and Marcu (1950s). In the case of Desca the melody has not changed during this period. Whereas Duba and Lența are not in the collections of Bartók or Brediceanu, suggesting a mid-20th century popularity.
Mândra or Mândrele is a dance from Oltenia region (southern Romania, predominantly Dolj county) and Vidin region (Bulgaria) in an asymmetric rhythm. Mândrameans the “proud” girl or beloved girl and Mândrele is the plural form, the proud ones or the beloved ones. In Romanian dance classification Mândrele is classified within the “Rustem” dance type.
This page of video examples complements our post on Băluța (Балуца) and Shira (Шира) dance type in Romania and Bulgaria Hora: Băluța (Балуца) and Shira (Шира)
Băluța is a type of Hora danced in the regions of Vlașca, Argeș, Muscel, Vâlcea, Romanați and Dolj in southern Romania, and a variation of this dance is also danced the Vratsa region of Bulgaria under the title Balutsa (Балуца) and in the Vidin region under the title Shira (Шира). Băluța is a colloquial term for “blond”, such as for a white horse from “băl”. Shira is from Romanian “șir” meaning row, Shira is “rows” (plural). In the Vratsa region of Bulgaria this dance can also be titled Shala una (Шала уна).
The term Arnăuți is derived from the mainly Albanian mercenaries of the 18th to 19th centuries when the Phanariot rulers of Wallachia and Moldova formed army corps. The Romanian term Arnăuț comes via Turkish from the Greek “arvanites” for the Albanian population in Greece. In time, the term Arnăuți came to refer to the occupation as a mercenary rather than an ethnicity. After the fall of the Phanariot regime in 1822, these army corps formed by Arnăuți were disbanded, but they remained in the cities as armed servants of boyars or foreign officials. The Arnăuți as part of the New …read more