21 July 2006
Dear LUTSF
Bulgarian Ritual Dance Tour
2-13 May 2006
I
am writing to express my deep thanks for the funding support I received from
the LUTSF which enabled me to attend this seminar. It was a fantastic
experience that has enriched my teaching of Bulgarian dance and culture and I
know has already enriched the experiences of my dance participants.
I
was very excited to witness traditional dance in its context at the
Since
returning from the Tour I have been teaching much of what I learned: in a dance
course on Balkan Circle Dance (June/July 2006), on a residential weekend where
I concentrated on Bulgarian dance (7-9 July 2006) and in a public presentation
on my trip (17 July 2006). Participants included not only dancers from the
I
have found all my contact with the LUTSF very efficient and I appreciated the
arrangements and attention from John Lesirge. Everyone was very professional.
My only criticism is that I could not access the website when I was first
enquiring about whether this fund would be appropriate for me, even though this
was in December.
My
report is an article, or may be divided into a series of articles, for the
Grapevine magazine, the magazine of the international circle dance network. The
article will appear in the autumn issue.
Yours sincerely,
Karen Michaelsen
The Archaeology of the Dance
Ritual Dance Tour of
As the plane prepared to
land in
Soon
after Yves’ workshop, I received an email about The Bulgaria Ritual Dance
Tour, which, I was amazed to discover, included a trip to Bulgari, the
village where the Nestinarsko dance and ritual originates. It was serendipity!
And I began a process of applying for and obtaining funding from the Arts
Council of Great Britain and the Lisa Ullmann Travelling Scholarship Fund.
The tour was sponsored by
the
This
theme gave the tour an absorbing variety, visiting marvellous collections in
archaeological museums and witnessing and participating in festivals and festival
reconstructions. The tour was timed to coincide with one significant festival, Gergiovden,
Gergiovden
Two
and a half hours later, over the mountain’s peak, we arrived at the sacred
meadow and oak groves, to be joined by another 200-300 hundred people. Ritual
breads were blessed, the lambs we had seen blessed the previous day, were
cooking on spits, beds of oak branches were spread for our picnic blanket and
the Babi led the dancing! There was a poignant moment when the Babi
were trying to teach the young girls how to do the Pravo. Each year,
fewer of the Babi can make the journey up the mountain and unless the
younger women can learn to appreciate the significance of the dance, a time
will come when it will no longer be done. The Horo is done in three
sacred places, in the meadow at the top of the mountain, at the first rest on
the way back and in the village square. The dance is done to invoke the rain!
As their saying goes, “Every drop of rain on
Oak,
as their sacred tree, was present in a variety of ways: the dancers carried oak
branches, men wore oak ‘buttonholes’ and even the packhorses were adorned with
oak. We made wreaths from oak leaves and many people, men and women wore these.
It reminded me of the folk traditions in Derbyshire, particularly the Castleton
Garland at the end of May, where everyone also wears a sprig of oak.
Wherever
we travelled in
Our
meeting with the Babi of Varvara was deep and intense. Perhaps it was our love
and appreciation of their folklore which bound us together. But, for many of
us, meeting these women was like meeting our ancestors, a brief and intense
glimpse into the past, how ancient communities survived, thrived, were
self-supporting and enjoyed a richness of culture.
In
the many villages we visited, it was to see dance as an affirmation of life,
not separate from life, but part and parcel with it. These ritual dances were a
vital ingredient of the celebrations for spring and summer, when the fertility
of the land returns. It was moving to see, even now, how the village people are
connected to the land, the animals and to each other. This interrelationship with the fertility of
life all around them was the very lifeline which has assured the continuation
of the community for several millennia. The dance is an obvious manifestation of
that interconnectedness.
Symbolism
There is much symbolism
around the dance. The word, dance, has only been in the Bulgarian language for
the last 150 years or so. Prior to that time, ‘dance’ was expressed by a word
like ‘play’ or something similar. The Horo, a
common dance form in traditional Bulgarian folkdance,
is seen as a snake, significant for the goddess worshipping cultures as a
symbol of transformation. When closed, it’s a snake biting its tail: when open,
a spiral, or other snake-like form. The front of the Horo chain is known
as the ‘head of the horo’ with the end known as ‘the tail’. This was very evident when at times, I saw
the ‘tail’ decide to take the dance in a different direction! The dance is seen
as a living thing, a form that is created by the dancers moving together. How
often have we as circle dancers tried to articulate what circle dance is, what
it means to us and what happens to us when we dance? It strikes me as
noteworthy that the Bulgarians seem to have an inherent understanding of this
miracle that happens when we dance together!
The
symbolism is carried too to the significance of the belts worn by all the women
dancers. The ‘closed’ snake corresponds
to the belief that heaven encircles the neck, the earth encircles the waist and
below the earth encircles the knees. [1]
Wearing a belt signifies a readiness for life on earth, a maturity. It is an
important and well-used component of Bulgarian traditional costume and is the
most common dance hold for the Horo. I really enjoyed using the belt
hold. It felt very secure and reassuring and I have begun to explore using this
hold with my dancers.
It
was very exciting to combine the tour with visits to archaeological museums and
sites and I was able to see the most fantastic Neolithic and Thracian
artefacts. Many of the designs on vases, bowls and other pieces of pottery were
symbols that could be directly correlated to the symbols in the dance: spirals,
tree of life, double headed snakes. Other Neolithic designs also were found in
the prolific embroidery of costumes, wall hangings, rugs and other cloth. These
included hearts, crosses, lozenges and zigzag meanders.
But
what of the meaning of these symbols? As well as being related to the snake,
the Spiral is considered to be a symbol of connectedness, a visual reminder that
polarities can be harmonised, that differences can be incorporated. For the
Neolithic civilisation, the survival of the community depended on the
harmonisation of conflict.
The
Tree of Life is a symbol of interconnectedness. We talk today of the ‘Family
Tree’ when we are thinking about our genealogy and even that is a symbol of our
connections to generations before and after us. I think too, it is a symbol of
our connection to Nature, to our dependence on her and our relationship with
her. The Tree of Life motif is well recognised as being manifest in the dance
as the Pravo, three steps: R, Lxf, R (the trunk) then do something to
the right, followed by do something to the left: a cross, a lift or a step,
(the branches). The Pravo was the main dance of Gergiovden,
Grain
too was a recurrent symbol in the festivals we attended. As a symbol of
fertility, grain was thrown at us as we began our climb up the sacred
Finally,
the table itself is a powerful symbol. The Bulgarians and indeed the Balkan
countries as a whole, are renown for their hospitality. However, I saw
miniature representations of tables in the archaeological collections and it is
thought that these are symbols of the table as an alter. The table too, is the
heart of the home, the place of sharing, eating, and singing in the tradition of ‘table’ songs. The table is
therefore a setting of celebration, an obvious manifestation of fertility and
nurture. We experienced the ‘table’ many times, with feasts prepared for us
wherever we went. Their hospitality was genuine and humbling.
The
study of folklore in
Nestinarki
The final part of our
journey in
We
met the Nestinarski, Visilina, who took us around the village to follow
the steps of the procession and the journey of the icons. We were told that the
origin of the ritual dates from the time of the Christianisation of the area
but there is also a theory that it originated much earlier in ancient 
During
the festival, the people dance as the village icons are carried from the church
to a small chapel used only for this purpose. In the evening, a fire is made
and the Nestinarski, the initiated, usually women but can be men, walk
over the coals of the fire. The Nestinarksi walk straight in, then
swivel and go out on a diagonal. This ‘meander’ is recognised as a symbol of energy
and the life giving force. The dance I had learned several months before from
Yves Moreau, was, I understood, a dance that was done prior to the fire
walking, to build up the atmosphere and create the intention prior to the
ritual, very much the feeling you get when doing the dance. The icons are
‘rested’ in the chapel overnight and the next day, are taken to St. Elena’s
well and blessed with sacred water, while the people dance the Horo in
the meadow nearby.
The
initiation of the Nestinarski is unknown and may well have been lost but
there are several qualities about them that are known. They must have been
married and they must have been very ill and have suffered but have come
through this. They are considered wise women and are consulted for advice,
giving them a measure of authority and respect in the community.
As
we were there too early for the festival, we saw an enactment of it at our
hotel. Although the accompanying folk group’s performance and the opportunity
to dance with them was enjoyable, the ritual itself lacked passion as it was
done out of context. Of course, many aspects of the ritual were changed and
some may have been deliberately left out in order to ‘protect’ the ritual.
The Tour
There are many layers to any
experience and a tour highlights those layers. There are the basic, practical
arrangements: accommodation, food, travel, information. Then there is the
leadership: the teaching, imparting of skills, preparing for the experiences to
come. There is you, the participant: your needs, your expectations. There is
the group: the dynamics, the friendships, the conflicts, the group bonding. And
finally, there is the ‘other’: the meeting people, the observations and
participations in experiences, the contacts.
I
have always been interested in the relationship between leadership and group
dynamics, and how this interplay, managed well, can ‘hold’ a group and
facilitate a satisfying experience. I believe that anyone who calls themselves
a leader of a group has an obligation to take on this responsibility, to think
through the ‘aims,’ and how those aims attempt to meet the differing needs of
any given group of people.
On
a practical level, the tour was a great success. We enjoyed wonderful
hospitality, care and attention from the tour guides, Balkan Connections,
Inc. But the dance leadership missed many opportunities to strengthen our
experience and understanding of our numerous, daily meetings with Bulgarian
people. In my experience, it is a common mistake to assume that every moment
must be filled. Time and attention is needed to assimilate, digest, question
and discuss. The value of any experience is not just the ‘how much’ but is,
more importantly, for me anyway, the quality. And, it seems to me, that
quantity and quality are not necessarily compatible.
In Conclusion
The archaeology of the dance
is an ‘uncovering’, and an interpretive work, finding meaning and significance
in dance, music and folk customs by recognising their interplay and
connectedness. It is not an absolute science so a certain amount of supposition
and belief is involved. There must also be a recognition and appreciation that
customs and folklore evolve and that evolution is layered, much like the
layering of civilisations evident in an archaeological dig. Some traditions
will be effected by more recent influences such as political or religious
impositions and others will be from ancient traditions. Also, in
I
have attempted to penetrate the surface of what was an intense and packed tour,
which also included dances for the day after
It
was an emotional journey, and I felt privileged to witness traditional dance in
its context. We were so warmly welcomed by the villages’ Babi. But the
realisation that these traditions will in many cases die with these women was
overwhelmingly sad.
Karen Michaelsen
July 2006
For more information and
reading:
Gimbutas, Maria. ‘The Living
Goddesses.’
‘The Goddess Lives! Sacred
Dance in
The travel cost of this
project was support by the Lisa Ullmann Travelling Scholarship Fund. For more
information see:
www.ullmann-trav.fsnet.co.uk
(between 1 Sept and 24 January each year)
The tour cost of this
project was funded by the Arts Council through my regional office. For more
information see: