Turks from Macedonia settled in Izmir in the 1950s, dancing Maleševko (what language do they sing in?)
Macedonians in northwest Greece, dancing the same: Maleševsko (happily singing Macedono-Bulgarian)
Now why couldn’t these people just stay in the same villages where they lived together for centuries (for better or worse — I’m not a romanticizer of Islam’s or Ottoman tolerance and pluralism) or in neighboring communities and dance Maleševsko there?
These Thraco-Macedonian dances are beautiful and difficult with tricky rhythms and long and short steps that weave their way through the percussion instead of striking on beat simultaneously. And the zourna and the gaida has that chilling shrill of the “first” music, like this Bufčansko from the village of Buf near Lerin (Florina) and Kostur (Kastoria). Buf had its name forcibly changed by the Greek government to “Akritas”, as in Διγενής…μη χέσω…
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comment: nikobakos@gmail.com
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