Balkan Dance

This collection of essays examines popular forms of dance in the Balkan nations, including detailed studies on the history and development of dance in Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, Romania, and Greece, among other nations. The essays address the ways in which ethnic and national identity constitutes an important aspect of the performance of Balkan dance, whether by state folk dance ensembles or immigrant groups in other countries. Several essays also examine the unique popularity that Balkan dances and music have found among American audiences, with special attention paid to the work of international folk dancer Dick Crum in promoting Balkan dance within the United States.

Award winning choreographer Anthony Shay is an associate professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Pomona College, Claremont, California. His articles have appeared in Dance Research Journal, Iranian Studies Journal, International Encyclopedia of Dance, and other publications.

Edited by Anthony Shay
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 291
Bibliographic Info: 78 photos, notes, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2008
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3228-8
eISBN: 978-1-4766-1098-6
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vii

Preface      1

1. Richard George “Dick” Crum: A Life

ROBERT HENRY LEIBMAN      5

2. Introduction: Choreographing the Balkans

ANTHONY SHAY      12

Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Performance

3. Transnational ToVek: Gender and the Politics of Balkan Romani Dance

CAROL SILVERMAN      37

4. Dance and Place: The Case of a Roma Community in Northern Greece

CHRISTOS PAPAKOSTAS      69

5. Dance as Propaganda: The Metaxas Regime’s Stadium Ceremonies, 1937–1940

IRENE LOUTZAKI      89

6. Nationalism and Scholarship in Transylvanian Ethnochoreology

COLIN QUIGLEY      116

7. Bulgarian Dance Culture: From Censorship to Chalga

ERICA NIELSEN      130

8. Clapping for Serbs: Nationalism and Performance in

Bosnia and Herzegovina

LYNN D. MANERS      145

9. Choreographing the Other: The Serbian State Folk Dance Ensemble, Gypsies, Muslims, and Albanians

ANTHONY SHAY      161

Balkan Dance in America

10. “Inside, Outside, Upside-Down”: The Role of Mainstream Society Participants in the Ethnic Dance Movement

ROBIN J. EVANCHUK      179

11. Balkan Tradition, American Alternative: Dance, Community, and the People of the Pines

JUNE ADLER VAIL      195

Morphology of Balkan Dance and Music

12. Hai la Joc! Periodicity at Play in Romanian Dance Music

JAMIE L. WEBSTER      213

13. Dvoransko Kolo: From the 1840s to the Twentieth Century

NANCY LEE CHALFA RUYTER      239

14. Dance Structure and Its Application to the Understanding of Macedonian “Cross” Dances

ROBERT HENRY LEIBMAN      250

About the Contributors      271

Index      275