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medieval bulgarian gypsy dances - off topic

  • Thread starterEngine9
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Engine9

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Oct 20, 2007
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many people dismiss or at least discount, the contribution that bulgarian culture has had on the world. while most americans couldn't pick out bulgaria on a map, the same could be said of italians & germans and even poles.

meanwhile, bulgarian university students have one of the highest geography scores on standardized tests of any country short of moldavia and luxembourg.

with this post, i intend to educate everyone on the majestic & magical dances that defined the bulgarian & southern rumanian era between 1241 AD and the tragic, cultural demise spurred by igor ushkalev's moral purification (i.e. slaughter) in 1377. please before you bash this post as irrelevant, give me some time to explain why this is so important.
 
Well that gets the special award for most bizarre post of the year so far.
 
Bulgaria has recently experienced a real boom in neo-traditional popular music. The music in question has several local names and consists of various regional and pan-Balkan styles and style mixtures (cf. Dimov 1995). In the following, for the sake of simplicity, it will be called either folkpop or ethnopop. The terms are overlapping and often used as synonyms. However, ethnopop has a special connotation: it refers primarily to the popular music of ethnic minorities like gypsies. The reason is the convention according to which majority cultures are usually not called ethnic. The masses of majority citizens are usually termed folk or, in the Balkans, narodna, whereas minority people are ethnic(1). When using the same logic, folk becomes ethnic, and vice versa at the very moment when the context changes: Turks are folk in Turkey, but ethnic in Bulgaria; Bulgarians are folk in Bulgaria, but ethnic in the USA; Finns are folk in Finland, but ethnic in Sweden; there are also cultures that are ethnic everywhere, for instance Gypsies, Lapps, and Kurds.

During the last two, three years, Bulgarian folkpop has started to sound more and more 'ethnic'. Quite often a new hit song is influenced by oriental features which come typically from Gypsy tradition or Turkish folkpop called arabesk. Like arabesk in Turkey, Bulgarian folkpop is often regarded as nationally inauthentic and kitsch by local music experts and authorities. For many of them, folkpop and Gypsy ethnopop are really a symbol of cultural decay and bad taste.
 
The dance culture of Bulgaria - the dobrudza region - is still alive and has preserved much of it's authenticity. Bulgarian music uses much 5/16 (Pajdusko horo), 7/16, 9/16 and 11/8 beats and is swinging like hell! Their music and rhythms has a drive which is lacking in the modern European so called 'dance music'. Their use of unusual structures is a prove of the Bulgarian genius.


Dobrudzans dance with their knees always bent and their backs hollow. To get the feel of Dobrudzan dancing stand with your feet apart and bend your knees as far as you can comfortably with your feet flat on the floor.
The dancer of 18 the century lithograph is not perhaps not Bulgarian as dancing with a bare belly was not done by Bulgarians. It might have been a gypsy dancer.
When a Dobrud_an dances he uses his whole body. There are some dances for women only. Women's movements are more fluent with slight shoulder twists. Bulgarian music and dance are unique in many aspects. Lively melodies on uneven but swinging rhythms.
 
i'm fascinated with european cultures, and cultures of other countries. interesting post.
 
bulgarian culture is so interesting. can't wait to read more about it
 
look i'm not here to b.s. about it, but truth is, 1241 AD in bulgaria was like 1241 BC on the mediterranean, but unlike BC, they have historians who wrote about it.

i appreciate the interest this topic has already generated & god knows, ancient bulgaria, is indeed fascinating, particularly the era i intend to write about.

in my very next post, don't be surprised if you learn of princess zymmzati caught talking with a bearded servant boy. cuckold themes, for sure, albeit it, pretty mild. but ill have other tales, specific to bulgraia & one that is from southern romania.
 
E9 glad to hear your still kickin. Looking forward to an education on this topic. It amazes me the cultural differences with regards to sex that we face today compared to the midddle ages. Just look at poly relationships in history and one quickly deducts that we are currently in the dark ages in this country. Places such as New York City are the closest habitat for poly and multi partner relationships.
 
A little story... Princess Keratsa was betrothed to the future Emperor Andronikos IV Palaiologos. The marital document issued by the Patriarchate stated that "it would be beneficial to the Christians: Byzantines and Bulgarians, and pernicious to the infidels (the Turks)".

On 12 August 1376, Andronikos IV deposed his father John V Palaiologos and replaced him as Emperor of the Byzantine Empire. With Keratsa as his Empress consort. The new imperial couple remained in control of Constantinople until 1 July 1379. John V was then restored to his throne. Andronikos IV was declared co-emperor but conflict between father and son lasted until the death of the latter in 1385.

Keratsa spent the later part of her life as a nun under the name Mathissa. She died in 1390.
 
Due to the large Roma population in Bulgaria, gypsy music is very popular there even today. It forms part of the roots of chalga music, which is widely played at dances and parties, most notably at Bulgarian swinger's clubs, where respectable Bulgarian housewives go to spread their legs for the well endowed bulls of Romania.

Good times.
 
yep... we´re all interested in your bulgarian cuckold story...welcome back
 
I Can't Wait To Read More...

Welcome Back!!!
 
thanks for the interest & have plenty to recount, but this post is to start laying the groundwork for talking again...but it'll be a few weeks before i start relaying my findings as i did before. it's a controversial topic & need to be more careful. but am going away with them + t on friday as there's a bulgarian parade in montreal and hope to garner additional insights from the locals there. when i come back, will need to verify assorted quotes, get bulgarian translations correct etc, but i will be updating more in the next few weeks.
 
Sigh... I wish the Bulgarians would grow a pair and kick the arrogant Americans out of their country. The Bulgarian economy is very fragile, and some Bulgarians could find their wives leaving them for mail-order husbands.

That is, if this isn't all some ancient Gypsy myth.
 
Great to see Engine9 & his excellent educational skills back online. A great source of information to many, and in an area where i am sure we all can learn.

Hope the field trip goes well
 
Bilgaria forever

It's great to have you back Engine9! I look forward to hearing about everything "Bulgarian."
 
And it's also great to hear that they and t are still in the picture.
 
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