VIRTUAL NEFFA 2020 RESOURCES

* Beranches: Basic and Bodacious Balkan

The term "Beranche" refers to a family of dances originally from Slavic-speaking natives of Macedonia (including parts of Greece, North Macedonia, and Pirin, Bulgaria) in asymetrical meters of the form SQQ SQ. The ratios of slows to quicks can vary with the dance, region, or specific performance (322-32, 423-43, etc.) so it's best to just latch onto the SQQ SQ pattern.

You can find dozens of video examples of Pusteno (the first dance I taught on the Virtual Neffa 2020 video), by searching for it under its many names (in many alphabets): Bajrače, Bajrache, Berançe, Berače, Beranče, Bufsko, Boufsko, λυτός, Litos, Lytos, Kucano, Nešo, Pušteno, Pusčeno, Пуштено, πουστσένο, etc. The second dance, Amoliti Gaida, is basically the same footwork, but alternating 3 measures moving to the right (LoD), then 3 measures moving to the left (RLoD). It's good for fitting into the tight spaces in which most of us are confined during this Covid-19 season, but is probably a dance that was mostly done on stage rather than regularly in village settings.

Useful links

• Music with a very clear Beranche beat for listening, often used for Zhensko Beranche.
• Andrew Carnie's description of Zhensko Beranche.
• Brief Wikipedia page on Poutseno, and a longer one on Leventikos (another name used for this dance by some Greeks).
• Andrew's description of the first dance I taught on the NEFFA 2020 video, Pusteno.
• Wonderful performing group chorography of Amoliti Gaida Xino Nero Ekdilosis Kalohoriou 1985
• Tom Deering's syllabus for Amoliti Gaida.

* Zwiefache

The dance name means "twice-made", referring to the two parts that make it up: pivots and waltzes. In Bavarian dialect the word for two is pronounced "zvee" whether it's spelled "Zwie" or "Zwei", since standard orthography was never set for this German dialect. Some "correct" the spelling and pronounciation to match high German, so you may see "Zweifacher" or "Zwiefache" in different places.

My sense is that these dances are rarely done in Bavaria anymore, but I'd be happy for this sentence to be an application of Cunningham's Law. Certainly one finds examples of tunes played by Bavarians, but most dancing examples seem to be of non-Germans, typically in the international folkdancing or social dancing traditions. Pat McMonagle tells me that it's traditional in Bavaria to dance them on the spot rather than around the room in line of direction the way most IFD and social dance groups do; this makes them particularly well suited to dancing in small spaces. If you have no partner, it's still possible to dance alone, with a stuffed--or better live-- animal. More heft is better.

Useful tips for dancing Zwiefache:

• Get the tunes in your head, and the beat in your feet. I found that just listening to the standard set of tunes over and over again (on a cassette tape in my car back in the day) made a huge difference later on the dance floor. I knew what was coming next. You can practice stepping in the pattern of different dances even without a partner.
• Be on the ball (of each foot). Whether you are waltzing or pivoting, you will be rotating on the balls of your feet, so need to get your heels off the ground.
• Firm up your frame if you have a partner (of any sort). It starts by having good posture yourself, and then connecting with your partner in a way that you can move as a single unit. Try to keep it strong but relaxed, so that you are not adding unnecessary tension. If you and your partner are comfortable dancing closer together, this can make turning easier.
• If you get dizzy:
  • Focus on your partner in front of you, not the room spinning around.
  • Keep your head straight and face forward. Avoid looking up or down, except out of the corner of your eye if your partner is much shorter. Balance is partially controlled by inner-ear fluids.
  • Defocus your attention from the room spinning around and find the Zen point of relaxation at your core. (Good advice for life as well, especially these days!)
  • After you've stopped dancing, jump up and land to reset your equilibrium.
  • Some trained dancers try to spot on particular points on the wall as they spin, but this works less well in a social dancing situation than on a stage and looks somewhat awkward.

Useful links

• A few short clips of Zwiefache done social-dance style from The Library of Dance.
• Ira Gessel's incredibly valuable MIT Folk Dance Club Songbook includes lyrics and translations for some Zwiefache.
• A sheet I made long ago of Patterns For Many Zweifache (PDF file). These were based on a single recording of each tune, so you may well find variants on the web. You can google the names to find recordings of these, often with non-natives dancing in the background.

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