Last full rehearsal before the Bulgarian Cultural Festival!

Today was the last full ensemble rehearsal before the Bulgarian Cultural Festival (which is this Saturday, June 10th, from 1 pm).

Rozhen (the ensemble that I lead) is going to be performing 4 dances:

Кюстендилска ръченица - choreography
Ганкино хоро - choreography
Йовино хоро - choreography
Стамена (Що Имала Късмет) - regular combo/horo

We got some footage of two of the dances - Kiostendilska Ruchenitsa (#1) and Gankino horo (#2).

KIOSTENDILSKA RUCHENITSA

The 'adults' have been part of Rozhen for the past 3 years, with ages ranging from 17 to 50. I feel incredibly lucky to have gained the respect of everyone in the ensemble; lucky because I am the youngest in the ensemble, but it's my job to teach them how to dance.

And because I have their respect and their trust, they give me their full attention I speak and follow directions whenever I give them. This helps better communication between me and the rest of the ensemble, and makes teaching a difficult choreography fun to do.

That being said, I do think that we have a few kinks to work out in this choreography. It's not as polished as I'd like it to be (but then again I tend to be a perfectionist when it comes to these situations), so we're going to meet up before the festival and rehearse one last time.

On to the children's ensemble...

(I'm thinking about calling them "Rozhen Junior")

I'm very proud of the children and all the hard work they've put into learning their dance. They come to rehearsals twice a week (the entire ensemble rehearses only once a week - Sundays - and the kids have an extra rehearsal).

I think that to start folk dancing this suddenly and have only 4 weeks to rehearse before a major performance is like dumping a bucket of cold water on your head - not only are you new to the style of dancing, but you have to perfect an entire routine and make it performance-ready in less than a month.

They've gotten the choreography down, but they don't have the mannerisms of the more 'seasoned' dancers - I'm talking about the precise footwork, the body posture, and all that good stuff. They tend to flop their arms about (just a little bit) and look down at their feet often, but all of that can be fixed with time and practice!

GANKINO HORO

The kids handled everything wonderfully and have come out of their shells in the past 2 weeks.

At first they felt very awkward around me and uncomfortable with the style, rhythm, and motion of folk dancing, but they have adapted so well - well enough that they feel comfortable coming up to me and saying "I'm not very good at this part, can you help me figure it out?"

(these are only 3 of the 4 kids - right to left are Nina, Alex, me, and Alexandra. Melissa, the 4th kid, wasn't here today)

Them being able to ask that question speaks volumes to me because it tells me that (one) they trust me and feel closer to me than they did when we started and (two) they feel the rhythm of the music and know their choreography well enough to say "this doesn't look or feel right, what can I do to fix it".

The kids' costumes are looking awesome - the parents have been working on finding dresses/shirts/shoes, hemming, putting in the traditional red/green/black embroidery, and making sure that everything fits correctly, so I can't thank them enough for putting in that effort.