Rustemul in particular, Romanian dances, Balkan dances in general: Which came first, the music or the dance?
savi...@my-dejanews.com
groups? What part of Romania is this dance from? And was the music made to
fit a dance that someone witnessed and recorded or vice versa?
For some of these old repertoire dances I often do wonder, which came first,
the music or the dance? While that may seem a non-question to some, for those
of you that have actually traveled to Europe and had the honor of
experiencing village dances or seeing choreographed pieces I'd be interested
in your informed opinion or viewpoint....
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The Cat-Tea Corner
Approach by Anca Giurchescu with Sunni Bloland (Wild Flower Press, 1995,
ISBN 0-912131-160, copyright 1982), there are a number of variations of
Rustemul so depending on which one you dance there could be varying
answers.
A brief quote under her classification of Chain Dances:
"The Rustem type (5/16) is specific to the Oltenian Plain and is
comprised of distinct variants. Commonly, the names of the dances in
this type consist of Rustem plus a person's name or the place of origin,
for example Rustemul ca la Ianca (as in Ianca). The name may also
identify some outstanding structural feature of the dance; such is the
case in Rustemul sucit or The Twisting Rustem."
(Oltenia is the sub-Carpathian region of southwestern Romania.)
There is much more. BTW, this book is very detailed to the point of
technical. Highly recommended if you're interested in Romanian dance. I
ordered mine shortly after publication direct from Sunni Bloland for
about $45 for a paperback edition. If you are visiting Bucuresti, you
might want to stop in at Muzeul Satului (The Village Museum) bookshop
where they had the hardcover version for about $4 this summer.
Otherwise, try Wild Flower Press, 451 Ralston Avenue, Mill Valley CA
94941 :-).
opisica
The Cat-Tea Corner(c)
http://cat.findhere.com
email to opisica at hotmail dot com
Todd Rogers
>
> Does anybody know who brought the Romanian dance, Rustemul to US folkdance
> groups? What part of Romania is this dance from? And was the music made to
> fit a dance that someone witnessed and recorded or vice versa?
My dance notes (courtesy of the BYU folk dance department) say:
"Rustemul is from Southern Romania, the region of Muntenia. It was
learned by Mihai David during the years 1963-65 while dancing with the
Romanian State Folk Dance Ensemble."
--
- Todd Rogers
"I've been asked what I mean by word of honor. I will tell you. Place
me behind prison walls - walls of stone ever so high, ever so thick,
reaching ever so far into the ground - there is a possibility that in
some way or another I may escape; but stand me on the floor and draw a
chalk line around me and have me give my word of honor never to cross
it. Can I get out of the circle? No. Never! I'd die first!"
-Karl G. Maeser Founder of Brigham Young University
BUhlemann
to be taught in the U.S. was by Martin Koenig to a tune on the old Balkan Arts
label. The dance most U.S. folkdancers know as "Rustemul" was taught, as one
post said, by Mihai David and is a group of Rustem-type steps choreographed to
fit a particular piece of music. Mihai taught another Rustem choreography to a
bagpipe tune, but since he had already used the name "rustemul" , he called the
dance "Cimpoi" (meaning "bagpipe"). The original pirated music was called
"Rustem" and was played by Ion Laceanu, I believe.
You bring up an interesting and important point about the origin of the
dances we do, and it pertains to what we are learning now, not just the "old"
folkdance repertoire. Those of us lucky enough to learn dances in their
original context (at weddings, feast days, etc.) in the country of origin are
often at a loss to find appropriate music when we want to teach the dance here
in the U.S. I am fortunate enough to have a ton of Romanian LP's at home, but
when I wanted to teach Starodavny (from Moravia) some years ago, I was stuck
with only one tune - it worked fine, but the people in that region use a
variety of tunes , and learning it as a set number of measures is not
"authentic". Some teachers are less bothered by this and will teach any
plausible step-figures they can think of to whatever music they have at hand.
Some of these can be quite "artful" (e.g. Floricica Olteneasca), some not
(Tarina din Maramures is a circle dance in the U.S., but a Tarina is a couple
dance; in addition , the dance was taught to music from the Arad district of
Southwest transylvania, not from the Maramures, which is in the north).
Some say it doesn't matter, as long as we all have fun. On the other hand, if
fun is all there is to this, why do we have to say the dance comes "from"
anywhere at all?
-John Uhlemann
John Uhlemann
St. Louis, Missouri
Buhl...@aol.com