Macedonian Folkdancing

Last night, Irena and I went to the sports center here in Resen to watch some of our students perform.  It was interesting for me, being an Irish Dancer, seeing traditional Macedonian dances; and Irena was excited to go because she use to dance with this company when she was younger.  The most common and popular dance is the "Oro," which as a volunteer we learned during our first week here.  It is danced at times of celebration, i.e., weddings, birthdays, name days; and we have even danced it at school events. But there are many more Macedonian dances and each one has a different story and comes from a different place.  Some of the dances are from a region, i.e., Ohrid Region, and others are from villages or cities.  For me, the outsider, all of the music sounds the same, but for the Macedonians they know each and everyone and can sing or dance along to it.  Its just like me and Irish music, to someone else it all sounds the same; but I can tell whether its a reel, jig, hornpipe, etc.  Each dance also has a different costume that goes along with it, but the dancers do knot own their own costume.  The  dance company owns them; and they are passed down from generation to generation. They are very detailed and according to Irena are very heavy.  Some costumes have 3-5 layers and can weigh around 15 kilos or 33 lbs.  There was also a dance group from Bulgaria that was performing.  It is common for other dance companies to travel to other shows.  The Resen company, this summer, will be performing in Croatia and Portugal.

 The company/school in Resen is called Таше Милошевски, Tashe Miloshevski, who is an important figure in Macedonian history.

The first group was very good and they danced as one.  You can see how detailed the costumes are. During the show I took some videos with my camera because I wanted people to be able to see what Macedonian dancing looked like; but because of internet problems and restrictions, I can not upload them.  So I will just have to add more pictures.

These pictures are from the Bulgarian group's performance.  The costumes are different and they "bounce" more when they dance.  Their knees come up and they bang the ground with their feet and all of their motions and dance moves are faster. 

 The items in their hands resemble loaves of bread.

The demon of the show. There were 3 of them and then one girl came out holding a religious icon and all the demons left.

Another Macedonian dance, that is from the Ohrid region.  In the picture above are some of my students.

The little ones!!!!  They did 2 or 3 dances and all of theirs was in a circle form.

Some of my 8th grade girls and their costumes were more traditional.

The last dance of the evening was a new one that they all had just learned. It was performed by the older students and is a dance from Prilep.

 The boy on the left, use to be Irena's dance partner. Both of them were very good.

 You can see how detailed the costumes are.

And, of course, you cannot end a Macedonian event without dancing the "Oro."  All of the dancers, old ones and current, plus some parents all celebrated the end of a great show with a traditional Macedonian dance.