DANCE, SENSES, URBAN CONTEXTS

Dance and the Senses · Dancing and Dance Cultures in Urban Contexts

29th Symposium of the ICTM

Study Group on Ethnochoreology
July 9–16, 2016
Retzhof Castle, Styria, Austria

Editor
Kendra Stepputat

Copy-editors
Liz Mellish
Andriy Nahachewsky
Kurt Schatz
Doris Schweinzer

ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology

Institute of Ethnomusicology, University of Music and Performing Arts Graz
Graz, Austria
2017
Symposium 2016
July 9–16
International Council for Traditional Music
Study Group on Ethnochoreology

The 29th Symposium was organized by the ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology,
and hosted by the Institute of Ethnomusicology, University of Music and Perfoming Arts Graz
in cooperation with the Styrian Government, Sections 'Wissenschaft und Forschung' and 'Volkskultur'

Program Committee:
Mohd Anis Md Nor (Chair), Yolanda van Ede, Gediminas Karoblis,
Rebeka Kunej and Mats Melin

Local Arrangements Committee:

Kendra Stepputat (Chair), Christopher Dick, Mattia Scassellati,
Kurt Schatz, Florian Wimmer

Editor: Kendra Stepputat

Copy-editors: Liz Mellish, Andriy Nahachewsky, Kurt Schatz, Doris Schweinzer

Cover design: Christopher Dick

Cover Photographs: Helena Saarikoski (front), Selena Rakočević (back)

© Shaker Verlag 2017

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 Liz MELLISH

DANCING THE BALKANS IN THE UK: BEING A LITTLE BALKAN IN

LONDON, MANCHESTER, EDINBURGH

The UK "Balkan dance scene" is an urban based activity. Although it built on longer
term connections between the UK and dances from the Balkan area, the majority of
the participants were born and grew up in the "West" and have no genealogical
connections to southeastern Europe. Drawing on anthropological fieldwork and the
author's long term "participating" observation, this paper investigates how this
"scene" has developed over the years, individual reasons for participation, sources of
repertoire and preferences for certain dance types. It proposes that the lack of shared
cultural background among the participants has resulted in the creation of their own
culture specifically linked to the time spent at Balkan dance events.

Keywords: UK; Balkan-dance; scene; repertoire; music

************************************

The UK "Balkan dance scene" 1 emerged as a specific activity in the mid-1980s. 2 It forms a sub-
scene of UK recreational international folk dance, and is almost totally an urban based genre.
Although it initially built on longer term connections between the UK and dance and music
from southeastern Europe, the majority of the participants were born and grew up in the
"West" and have no genealogical connections to this region. The following decades have seen
various dance groups set up by the new waves of Balkan migrants to the UK, but the UK
Balkan dance scene has continued as a separate parallel genre with only a few members from
either "scene" attending the events of the "other".
This paper follows the history of the UK Balkan dance scene starting from interwar
contacts between the UK and the Balkans that led to the founding of the first Balkan dance
groups in the UK after the Second World War, and later to the emergence of Balkan dancing
as a specific hobby pursuit. It draws both on documentary sources and anthropological

1
When referring to Balkan dance participation in the UK as a "scene" I am drawing on the use of this term by
Bennett and Peterson [2004:1–6]. Bennett and Peterson comment that the term "music scene", increasingly
adopted by academics from everyday and in journalistic use "to designate the contexts in which clusters of
producers, musicians, and fans collectively share their common musical tastes and collectively distinguish
themselves from others" [Bennett, Peterson 2004:1]. They prefer to use the term "scene" rather than "subculture"
because the latter term implies the existence of a shared dominant culture from which the subculture is deviant
[Bennett, Peterson 2004:3]. They propose three general types of scenes, "local, translocal and virtual" [Bennett,
Peterson 2004:6–7]. I take their definition of a translocal scene of "widely scattered local scenes drawn into
regular communication around a distinctive form of music and lifestyle" as the most applicable to the Balkan
dance scene in the UK and beyond as the action takes places in various locations both in the form of regular
classes or groups and less regular courses, festivals or tours to the Balkan countries. The term "Balkan scene" is
also used by Laušević in her book, because, as she explains, that was the term used by the participants, and she
was unable to find a "better word to describe such a network of people, locations, and activity" [Laušević
2007:17]. An alternative term that can be used to describe UK Balkan dancers is an "affinity group" a group of
people formed around a shared interest.
2
This paper is an initial overview of the author's ongoing project on the UK Balkan dance scene.

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 MELLISH: Dancing the Balkans in the UK

fieldwork among participants, including responses to a questionnaire that was circulated

among long term participants and informal interviews with key participants as well as
drawing on the author's long term "participating" observation of this scene. Focussing on the
participants in this scene and the context they create, the key issues investigated include how
the cultural cohort has developed over the years, individual reasons for participation, sources
of repertoire, preferences for certain dance types, and for dancing to recorded as opposed to
live music.
Although various brief non-academic accounts covering aspects of the history of the UK
interest in Balkan dance have been published in magazines, pamphlets, and booklets over the
years, a detailed academic account has never been written. This contrasts to the US Balkan
dance scene that has been the subject of several publications, including Laušević's book Balkan
fascination [Laušević 2007], Shay's Dancing across borders: the American fascination with
exotic dance forms [Shay 2008], and Cohen's One heart, many voices: a biographical history of
the American Balkan scene [Cohen 2014] and as well as the work of Daniela Ivanova-Nyberg
[2017] and Judy Olson presented at this Symposium [Olson 2016].

1930s–1950s key people

The UK's relationship with dance in southeastern Europe can be traced back to the period
between 1930 and 1950 and was focussed around several key individuals and the complex
links between them. A major landmark was in 1935 when an international folk dance festival
was held in London organised by the English folk dance and song society. Groups from
Romania and Bulgaria were included among those that attended although the invited
Yugoslav group did not come due to financial problems [Howes 1935]. The Romanian group
of călușari dancers were the stars of the show with their frantic impressive dance [Howes
1935:17] and it was also reported that during the final event of this Festival many of those
attending "took the opportunity to learn the Bulgarian Horo" [Howes 1935:16].
During the 1930s noted collaborative friendships developed between those interested in
Balkan dance and music in the UK and Balkans. Philip Thornton, a British linguist and
musicologist travelled in the Balkan between 1936 and 1939 and wrote two books describing
his encounters, entitled Dead puppets dance and Ikons and oxen [Thornton 1937; Thornton
1939]. During his travels he crossed paths with leading dance researchers of the time in
Bulgaria, Romania and Yugoslavia. Meanwhile the Janković sisters, dance scholars from
Yugoslavia established a relationship with Maud Karpeles whilst studying in the UK at Oxford
during the 1930s. This led to Maud Karpeles and John Kennedy visiting Yugoslavia in 1936
where they met the Janković sisters in Belgrade and then travelled on to Skopje where Philip
Thornton joined them. However these collaborations were interrupted by the war years and it
was only in the years following the end of the war that participation in dances from the
Balkans began to take place in the UK.
As in the US, the UK Balkan dance scene emerged as a sub-scene of the recreational
international dance scene. The Society for International Folk Dancing (SIFD) was founded in
1946 in London and around the same time a "basic" international dance repertoire was
introduced into the UK that was taught in schools, physical education teacher training, the
Youth Hostelling Association, the Scout and Girl Guide Associations and the Woodcraft folk.

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 MELLISH: Dancing the Balkans in the UK

These dances included "Alunelul" from Romania, "Djatchko kolo", "Makazice" from
Yugoslavia, "New Kolo", "Mayim Mayim" from Israel. By 1949 Philip Thornton mentioned
above was organising kolo classes in London. The repertoire taught at these classes came from
dances Thornton had learnt during his travels through Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria in
the later 1930s. One of his early pupils, Ken Ward, developed a passion for Yugoslavia dance
and from 1957 onwards he started to visit Yugoslavia regularly where he studied dance and
amassed a substantial collection of local costumes that are now held in the British Museum in
London (Rudoe 2014). Ken founded the Zivko Firfov dance group in London, named after his
close friend, the Macedonian musician, that specialised in dances from ex-Yugoslavia, and
Ken was responsible for introducing the classic Macedonian, Serbian and Croatian repertoire
into the UK during the following 10 to 20 years. The Zivko Firfov group has continued to exist
following Ken's death in 2011 [Barnard 2012:18–20]. Around the same time in the late 1950s a
Bulgarian dance group was founded in London. This was first taught by a Bulgarian chauffeur
who worked at the Bulgarian embassy, and was later taken over by Danny Lumley, an English
man who developed a passion for Bulgaria and its dancing. For both of these groups the
majority of the membership was British. This was in contrast to the Rastko performing group
based at the Serbian church in London that continues to perform mainly among the Serbian
community, and the Oxford Serbian group founded in the 1960s as a Serbian community
group, although by the late 1980s the Serbian members had dwindled and the group has
continued as a recreational Balkan dance group with mostly British members.
As in the US the late 1950s and 1960s was the period of increasing antagonism between
those participants in the international dance scene who saw the merits of this scene as taking
part in a social and recreational activity with a mix of repertoire of couple and line and circle
dances and those who were striving to increase the depth of their knowledge by specialising in
the dances of one or two specific countries [Shay 2008:24, 27]. 3 This topic was frequently
discussed in the monthly SIFD Newsletter and was closely associated with debates on
preservation and striving for "authenticity", whatever this might mean for those who enjoyed
doing dances from somewhere not connected to their own cultural heritage [Laušević
2007:64]. 4
From talking to long-term participants in the UK Balkan dance scene the emergence of a
specific interest in dances from southeastern Europe can be traced back to a variety of times
and places depending on the person's individual dance history (also see Laušević 2007:226).
The older generation of longer term participants look back to the kolo classes of Philip
Thornton; from the perspective of those that started Balkan dancing in the 1960s as students,
this period was the start point of the UK Balkan dance scene, mostly in the groups that

3
In the US Shay also links the divide between those in the recreational international and the Balkan dance
scenes to the first US tours by the Tanecs and Kolo ensembles in 1956, that led to a new enthusiasm for
performing Balkan dances in the US, especially among the younger dancers.
4
As Laušević recounts in the US "[c]oncepts of authenticity and preservationism are used to regulate the scene,
to censor and evaluate. Scene members rarely if ever consider that their wrestling with issues of authenticity and
preservationism is not particularly about Balkan culture, nor does it occur in the interest of this culture. These
issues, rather, help scene members explain and validate their own involvement in Balkan music and dance"
[Laušević 2007:64].

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 MELLISH: Dancing the Balkans in the UK

specialised in Bulgarian or Yugoslav dances. From my own dancing history I suggest that this
scene only emerged as a distinct entity in the mid-1980s when stronger links were established
between activities in the UK and those in the US and the Netherlands when the repertoire
widened to that shared among the wider international community of Balkan folk dancers. In
my view this can be traced to two key events: in 1985 the founding of the Balkanplus
organisation that organises monthly dances in London for dances from southeastern Europe
[Dowsett 2016], 5 and in 1986 the setting up of the Sborenka Balkan dance group in central
London, and the organisation of many weekend and day courses. 6
In the latter years of the 1980s and early 1990s the number of participants in the UK Balkan
dance scene peaked. During these ten years the Sborenka group in London had over 30
members at their weekly classes and groups specialising in Balkan dances were active in other
UK cities. 7 From the mid-1980s and especially after 1989 dancers from UK started to travel to
southeastern Europe mostly on organised dance tours. 8 This period was also the period of
peak membership of the Circle Dance movement, a separate organisation with a different
clientele and ethos to the SIFD [Bithell 2014:93], 9 although there was (and still is) some cross
over. One of the informants elaborated on this contrast:

Some circle dancers are certainly going along for the feel of the group, made up of the
music, the people, the sense of dancing as a unit [...] the SIFD makes a more intense
effort to pass on a dance which is exactly the same as the dance that left the original
country whereas circle dancers are less interested in authenticity. [AT in Green
2016] 10

Participants and community

In the UK, similar to the US and elsewhere, many participants came to Balkan dance from
other dance genres, the majority from international folk dance, followed by English dance,
ballet or ballroom dance. The participants in the UK Balkan (and international) dance scenes
include a high proportion of school teachers as well as engineers and mathematicians, but in
5
As Brian Dowsett, Chairman of Balkanplus, explains "[f]ounded in 1986 to provide a regular forum for
Balkan folklore enthusiasts, Balkanplus organises monthly dances at Cecil Sharp House – home of the EFDSS.
The 'plus' is in Balkanplus because we like to include a sprinkling of popular dances from other parts of the world
in our programmes. The monthly dances take place, whenever possible, on the second Saturday of each month,
[...] additional events such as workshops held in conjunction with the regular Balkanplus dances. Balkanplus has
successfully developed as the major regular Balkan dance event in London" [Dowsett 2016].
6
This group was set up by Cathy Meunier with the assistance of Nick and Helen Green, Liz Mellish, Jane and
Julian Sinton and later others.
7
Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Norwich, Birmingham.
8
The topic of folk dance tourism is beyond of the scope of this paper.
9
See Grapevine website [≤ 2016]. Caroline Bithel recounts that the circle dance movement places more
emphasis on the esoteric dimensions "[t]he circle dance scene has its parallel in the Society for International Folk
Dancing (SIFD), and many of the same dances constitute the repertoire of SIFD teachers. In the SIFD world,
however, the dances tend to be approached in a more athletic manner whereas in Findhorn and elsewhere sacred
dance/circle dance continues to be viewed – in part, at least – as ritual and spiritual practice. The circle dance
repertoire also includes newly choreographed dances set to classical, contemporary popular, and New Age music,
whereas the SIFD repertoire consists entirely of 'authentic' (if stylised) folk dances accompanied by traditional
songs and melodies" [Bithell 2014:93].
10
Individual respondents are indicated by initials.

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 MELLISH: Dancing the Balkans in the UK

contrast to the US, few folklorists, ethnomusicologists or dance academics. One indication of
the lower enthusiasm for academic interest is that less than five UK Balkan dancers follow the
discussions on the US based East European Folklore Centre (EEFC) mailing list for Balkan
dance 11 although the total number involved in the Balkan dance scene in the UK is in the low
100s. Another is that the monthly SIFD Newsletter, that is the only point of contact among
UK Balkan Dancers, only occasionally includes articles on ethnography or more in-depth
discussions.
In the UK Balkan dance scene people go to dance, where dancing is the goal in itself
[Nilsson 2016]. Similar to the UK folk musicians described by Finnegan in The hidden
musicians: music-making in an English town, the participants only come together for the
duration of the dance events or courses. They mostly have no knowledge of the other
participants' lives outside the time they share during this activity. In fact they often do not
"even know each other's names" as they do not consider that this knowledge is important "for
the purpose for which they had come together" [Finnegan 1989:303]. 12 I see that this
situationally limited contact distinguishes the translocal UK Balkan dance scene from the
cultural cohorts described by Turino, and from the participants in other UK dance activities
such as English folk dance, morris, folk camps in the UK where the relations between the
participants are more in line with the contra dance cultural cohort described by Turino
[2008:160–161]. 13 I suggest that there is not a cohesive community among the UK Balkan
dance scene participants and in particular among those that attend London based Balkan
dance events, as the participants lack any shared cultural background other than their UK
"place rooted" culture. They therefore create their own identity that is specifically linked
(restricted) to the time spent at Balkan dance events that does not even necessarily draw on
the cultures from the various locations of provenance of the dances that they enjoy dancing.
This follows Bauman's suggestion that "[s]hared tradition remains the essential criterial
attribute of the folk group, grounded in a shared identity [...]. Any such group, as it persists
through time and accumulates a body of experience in common, will have its own core of
traditions, hence its own folklore" and "will continue to do so as long as people continue to
come together in groups" [Bauman 1992:35–36]. I also propose that this lack of any shared
identity (and creation of a UK situational identity) results in the dances tending to lose their
specific "place connection" and so in their practice form a separate dance genre that forms a
homogenous entity only within the dance space where the participants temporarily reside.
Since the mid-1990s the UK Balkan dance scene has contracted in participation. Taking on
many of the trappings of the SIFD, as discussed above it never became, especially in London, a
community activity. It was first hit by the increasing popularity of social couple dancing: at

11
See East European Folklife Center [≤ 2016].
12
Ironically the more travelled of the UK Balkan dancers often maintain stronger social relations with those
with similar interest outside the UK then with other UK based dancers.
13
Turino proposes the term cultural cohort "to refer to social groupings that form along the lines of specific
constellations of shared habits based in similarities of parts of the self" [Turino 2008:111]. He distinguishes
cultural cohorts from cultural formations where a group of people "have in common a majority of habits that
constitute most parts of each individual member's self. It is the pervasiveness and often the time-depth of habits
influencing individual thought, practice and decision" [Turino 2008:112].

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which stage the transient dancers, who follow the most popular genre for a period of time
then move on to the next most popular, turned to tango argentino or ceroc, and subsequently
by the advancing age range of those who participate. Despite this it has continued as a
minority activity where, similar to Finnegan's comments regarding UK folk musicians where
although "[s]ome people [...] drop out from time to time" sufficient "continue to keep the
paths clear so that when one group dissolves or one individual passes on their work is replaced
or complemented by that of others" [Finnegan 1989:325].
The majority of the participants in the UK Balkan dance scene are mature people mostly
now retired, and similar to the US the average age is increasing. Among the newer
participants the majority are also of a similar age to the longer term dancers. Questions have
been often asked by those involved as to why the events that are organised do not draw in
younger people or attract the newer Balkan immigrants. Among the potential answers to this
is that hobby groups tend to attach people of a similar age and social class hence the UK
Balkan dance scene does not resonate with younger people. Also the community groups that
the Bulgarian and Romanians in London join provide them a meeting place for shared
cultural activities linked to their homeland lifestyle and culture that the UK Balkan dance
scene, with its own particular characteristics does not provide for them.
Taking an overall view of the history of Balkan dance in the UK from the mid-1940s until
post 2000s, I suggest that there are three categories of groups (see Figure 1):
1. Balkan dance groups whose repertoire includes dances from many countries in
southeastern Europe.
2. Groups that specialise in the dances of one southeastern European country whose
members are mostly Brits.
3. Groups with majority of participants with a family history in southeastern Europe.

Figure 1. Timeline of London Balkan dance groups. Graphic by L. Mellish.

As previously mentioned migrants in 1960s to 1980s from the ex-Yugoslavia formed their
own community groups in Oxford and London. As access to the UK from southeastern
Europe opened up after 1990 an increasing number of southeastern European migrants

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 MELLISH: Dancing the Balkans in the UK

arrived in the UK, and several dance groups were set up. The first of these was the London
Romanian dance group, Mărțișorul, founded by Romanian students from the Bucharest
university folk ensemble (Doina Studenților) who stayed in the UK between 1992 and 1994
following tours with their ensemble. The membership of Mărțișorul was a mixture of
Romanian dancers and UK based international folk dancers. In the early 2000s just after the
number of Balkan dancers began to fall, several new community dance groups were set up by
the new waves of Balkan migrants in London including the Macedonian community group,
Sonce, that met between 2003 and 2005 and the Bulgarian dance group, Tanec, based at the
Bulgarian Embassy that continued to meet from 2004 until 2014. These group fall within the
third category of groups I propose as the membership was almost totally from among the
immigrant community. More recently, since around 2011, numerous Bulgarian "Horo club"
[Ivanova 2009] have been set up in the London area and also in other major towns of the UK.

Repertoire analysis
Analysing the UK line and circle dance repertoire by country of provenance gives the
following results: Bulgarian dances are by far the majority, followed by Macedonian,
Romanian, Greek, Serbian, Albanian, Israeli, Croatian, and Turkish. Although there have
been slight shifts in the order, the balance (and predominance) of Bulgarian dances has not
really changed over the past 30 years. The repertoire of southeast European dances in the UK
has its origins from several sources: Dances learnt and re-taught by Brits who travelled to the
Balkans, dances taught in the UK by teachers from abroad (from the Netherlands, US or
southeastern Europe) and a few dances composed in the UK.
Prior to mid-1980s the repertoire was fairly stable and included a small range of generic
dances and basic choreographic arrangements whose introduction into the UK repertoire
could be traced to a relatively small number of sources, the majority being the individuals
mentioned above. In this period the number of visiting teachers from southeastern Europe
was few. Kiril Haralampiev from Bulgaria came to teach choreographies to the London
Bulgarian group in the 1950s, Madame Popescu-Județ from Romania taught a course in
London around 1970, and in 1985 Olivera Vasić taught Serbian dances at the biennial SIFD
summer school.
Interestingly, one dance constructed in the UK has a connection to Dennis Boxell from the
US [Ivanova-Nyberg 2017]. Dennis visited London in 1961 where he danced with the London
Bulgarian group. Amongst others, he learned the dance Bavno Oro or slow dance. This dance
had been put together by members of the London group based on motifs from one of the
choreographies taught to them by Kiril Haralampiev, and this constructed dance was given
the name "Bavno oro" by one English member of the group. On his return home Dennis
Boxell taught this dance to the US folk dancers. For many years it was assumed that he had
learnt this dance in Bulgaria until folk dance historians started to investigate further (see
Society of Folk Dance Historians 1987).
From mid-1980s onwards there was an influx of new dances taught by many visiting
teachers from the Netherlands, where Balkan dance was very popular, and to a lesser extent

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teachers from the US and southeastern Europe. 14 The dances taught were initially mostly
based on generic dances but as time progressed dances with more new choreographed
sequences came into the repertoire. Also around the same time more Brits began to travel
abroad to dance courses who re-taught some of the dances they had learnt on their return. For
the majority of UK participants it matters more that a dance has a catchy tune and is a set
length with a fixed arrangement of motifs, than the provenance of the dance and whether it is
what the locals dance. Although the majority of the participants have travelled to southeastern
Europe at least once (mainly on organised tours) and some do this once or twice a year; they
mostly only have a passing interest in the places they visit as tourists, rather than as
ethnographers. Comparing the current repertoire danced in the Balkan dance scene with that
danced in the many Bulgarian dance clubs in the UK, the Brits prefer the security of the three
minute fixed arrangement of motifs, and feel uncomfortable when a Bulgarian choreographer
comes to a Balkan dance event and leads a generic dance such as a kopanitsa or pravo oro,
whereas on occasions when Bulgarians attend events organised within the Balkan dance scene
they generally find it confusing trying to follow the more complex fixed order of the motifs in
the dances that are popular among the Brits.

Music – live or not

In the UK, there is a preference among Balkan dancers for dancing to recorded music as
opposed to live music. This could be linked to pleasure gained from dancing to familiar
recordings where the precise rhythm and repetitions are secure and invariable, and the length
of the recording (maximum 3 minutes) suits the energy and boredom span of the dancers.
Dancers who have attended courses by visiting teachers that bring musicians with them often
comment afterwards that they have difficulty in subsequently replicating the dances to the
recordings provided by the teacher as the musical arrangement and possibly the exact speed is
not familiar. To quote from one of our respondents "Recorded music is much easier to lead [a
dance] to as it is predictable" [AH in Green 2016]. This "complaint" applies to the occasions
where live musicians are playing for a dance. This might possibly be attributed to the
perceived quality of live music available or it could be because only a very small number of
UK Balkan dancers are also musicians. In the UK, unlike the US, there is only one UK Balkan
band, called Dunav who have regularly played for Balkan dancing for over 50 years, plus a
splattering of independent musicians, and transient music groupings. The more recent
immigrant musicians from southeastern Europe play only among their own communities and
also are unaware of the fixed musical arrangements preferred by the UK Balkan dancers.
Taking that southeast European dancing in the UK takes place mainly to recorded music
what is the sources of these recordings? In the 1950s to 1960s reel to reel tape recordings were
used together with a small number of vinyl records produced in the UK that included a few
southeast European tracks. By late 1970s there was access to poor quality, second or third
hand audio cassette recordings, and one shop in London, Collects, stocked eastern European
records of which a small number included tracks that could be used for dancing. Towards the
end of the 1970s one or two dancers who travelled to the US brought back copies of some of
14
From the Netherlands, Eddy Tijssen, Jaap Leegwater, Martin Ihns, Silviu Ciucumiș, from North America,
Sunni Bloland, Yves Moreau.

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the key vinyl records with Balkan dance recordings. Other LPs were sourced from the
Netherlands via the sister of one group leader. By the mid-1980s visiting teachers brought the
music for the dances they taught on commercially recorded cassette tapes that participants in
their course could buy. In general the repertoire that was maintained was limited to the
dances where good quality recordings were available.

Conclusion
In the UK the emergence of a specific interest in dances from southeastern Europe can be
dated back to the period following the Second World War. The number of participants in this
scene peaked around the late 1980s, subsequently continuing with a lower membership. Their
favoured dance repertoire has a catchy tune and is a set length of around three minutes with a
fixed arrangement of motifs. The majority of participants in the UK Balkan scene prefer
dancing to the recorded tracks that they are familiar with rather than to live music. They do
not place importance on whether this is what the locals dance. Hence this results in the dances
tending to lose their specific "place connection" forming a separate dance genre within the
dance space where the participants temporarily reside. In the UK Balkan dance scene people
go to dance, where dancing is the goal in itself. I proposed that there is not, and has never
been, a cohesive community among the UK Balkan dance scene participants and in particular
among those that attend London based Balkan dance events. These observations were
concisely summarized in a quote from one participant in the survey completed for this project
"our groups themselves have a tradition and a life of their own. We are not in fact Bulgarians,
or Israelis, we are a group of people in Britain (or wherever) who choose to spend some of our
lives doing this" [AT in Green 2016].

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world song. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Dowsett, Brian.
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[≤ 2016]. GRAPEVINE: the home of circle dance UK. United Kingdom: Grapevine.
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Link to original symposium presentation

Mellish, Liz (speaker).
2016. Dancing the Balkans in the UK … or a being a little Balkan in London, Manchester,
Edinburgh (paper presentation); 15 July. Retzhof, Austria: 29th Symposium of the ICTM Study
Group on Ethnochoreology.
<http://phaidra.kug.ac.at/o:38694>. (2017 May 3.)

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