St'tris (Σ'τρεις) - Dance Tidbit

Thank you to Bill for the following contribution.

The lively dance with the gaida (bagpipe) called St' tris that we did last Wednesday is just one version, but is the version as it is done in the village of Kufalia.

Kufalia is about 39 km (24 miles) northwest of Thessalonika, Greece. The people in Kufalia arrived as refugees from East Romelia in 1906 and settled in a number of villages in Northern Greece. Their region, East Romelia, was in northern Thrace, which is today part of Bulgaria.
St'tris is one of 6 dances from Kufalia that were taught during the `12th Seminar of Greek Dance' this summer. Tripodhis is one that I taught and we have been doing the last couple of weeks.

Others from Kufalia include:
Rihtos
Kastrinos
Sygkathistos
Baituska

St'tris literal translation is 'On Three' or 'In Three' possibly because one complete pattern is composed of 3 counts of 4.

St'tris is pronounced 'Strees' with a trilled 'r'. Other parts of Greece may pronounce it as sta treese.

The following are some YouTube videos of different versions of St'tris. The music is not the same as used in Kufali but the dances are all very similar. St'tris is characterized with very rapid arm swing behind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcvplAaFsj8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ln2AUMzSS0&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6_lssnFTj4

Some variations of the dance involve a swinginig arm movement with a pause where the arms are held in the 'W' position.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKiZRXfTtvk&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAJp8SjZNJo&feature=related

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Another Day, Another Dance!

Tripodhis,Kukuvicka, and the Greek Seminar

Bill has taught the Greek Dance " Tripodhis" that he learned at the dance seminar we attended in Greece this past summer. Sue C. noticed that it sounded very similar to the Bulgarian dance we do "Kukuvicka ". You can listen to a version of "Kukuvicka" at http://www.dunav.org.il/balkan_music_bulgarian.html#all .

The dance "Tripodhis" is done to the song "Bati kuritsia stu churo". Neither one could be found online. Sorry! If you find them, please let me know.

Anyone looking for a great dance vacation check out the 13th Annual Seminar with a great teacher Kyriakos Moididis! The 12th was fantastic!
http://www.moisidis-dance.gr/en/

Timber Ridge and beyond

Another great year at the Labor Day Camp at Timber Ridge. Dance, sing and play 'til you drop!!
Go to http://www.dancingplanetproductions.com/dancecamp.htm to see what you missed!

A big THANK YOU to Betsy and Jamie Platt!

I was able to start the third part of the BIRD Project, which is interviewing folk dancers about their experiences folk dancing. Thank you to all that participated.

Susan O. is teaching Pembe a Macedonian dance. The one on Youtube is near to the one that we dance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2qvxvY7lq4&feature=related
There is also a Serbian dance of the same name but different music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj2E-S_x3dU

Please forward this blog to your dancing friends!
Happy Dancing!
Another Day, Another Dance

Serbian Dancers on Jay Leno

Did anyone see Novak Djokovic, the world's reigning top tennis player (from Serbia), on Jay Leno the other night. He brought with him some Serbian dancers!

Here is a clip of that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpnHiVMxb7k
International Folk Dance needs some more publicity like this!
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Keep on Dancing!

Another Day, Another Dance!

Sighanon

Thank you to Bill for the following "Dance Tidbit" information.

The dance we tried out on Wednesday, 8/10/2011 was called Sighanon. It comes from the Pontos region which is now part of present day Turkey, the southern coast of the Black Sea.

"40 Red Apples"
The actual name of the song that we danced Sighanon to, is "Seranda mila kokina" or "Saranta Mila kokkina" which translates to "40 Red Apples".

We learned this in the village of Prochoma in Northern Greece which is populated mainly by refugees from Pontos and Kars. Kars is a present day city in Turkey.

Greek Genocide
The refugees were from the Greek Genocide carried out by the Turks during the years of 1914 to 1923 when the worlds attention at the time was focused on the aftermath of WW I. Explains the sometimes derogatory references to Turks in some of the lyrics of other Greek dances.

Links

I don't at present have a video link to the dance Sighanon but do have some links to performances of "Saranta Mila kokkina", "40 Red Apples".

Modern Acoustic Session. Recorded 16.10.2006 live at at Octalogic Studio (GER)
http://youtu.be/7oXm_BeQrm4

Very dated ( 60's ??) black & white movie with people singing to lone bagpipe version of the song. They appear to be drinking Ouzo.
http://youtu.be/HIIhkYzBf4I

Some lyrics from "Saranta Mila kokkina"

saranta mila kokkina pouli m'
saranta mila kokkina giavri m'

s' ena mantil demena
s' ena mantil demena

saranta sevtas ki' an eftas pouli m'
saranta sevtas ki' an eftas giavri m'

k' evrik's ki amon emena
k' evrik's ki amon emena

gia ela ela pouli m'
me temen ela giavri m'

This is a 'latin alphabet' based version of Greek words.

Boris Karlov

Thank you again Susan J. for the following Folk Dance "Tidbit":

When people hear the name "Boris Karloff", they usually think of the English actor who took this as a stage name, and used it in his roles in horror movies.

But the REAL Boris Karlov was an accomplished Bulgarian accordianist, who recorded a lot of wonderful music on the Bulgarian record label HORO (this means "circle dance", and in Cyrillic is looks like XOPO.) See this entry for information on this musician:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Karlov

Some of his tunes are regulars on the folk-dance circuit. You can check out YouTube to listen to some of these.
1. Obedjansko Horo
2. Vrabniska Racenica
3. Sitno Horo
4. Racenica
5. Bre Blagatka
6. Makedonsko Horo
7. Dajcovo Horo (1A)
8. Sofijsko Sopsko Horo
9. Gankino Horo (1)
10. Kjustendilsko Horo
11. Severnjaska Racenica
12. Gankino Horo (2)
13. Trakijsko Horo (A)
14. Trakijska Racenica
15. Gankino Horo (3)
16. Dajcovo Horo (2)
17. Plovdivsko Horo
18. Dajcovo Horo (3)
19. Gankino Horo (4)

Keep on dancing!
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Another Day, Another Dance!

Mary Baldwin Visit

Last Wednesday, it was great to have Irene Sarnelle and her students from Mary Baldwin dance with us again! They came prepared with a list of dances that they enjoyed dancing with us. Many we had danced before, but there were also new ones that they shared with us. The room in which we dance many times seems very large, but Wednesday it almost seemed too small! The energy was so high that it was hard to stop dancing at 8:30 -- we "could have danced all night!"

See pictures of last Wednesday and other days at http://charlottesvilleinternationalfolkdance.com

Please pass this blog on to your folk dance friends.

Keep on Dancing!
Another Day, Another Dance!