Fourth International Folklore Festival Veliko Tarnovo
  
 
June 30 - July 7, 2001
  

MUZEQEJA FOLKLORE ENSEMBLE, Tirana, Albania
  
BAYKAL STATE SONG AND DANCE THEATRE, Irkutsk, Buryatia
  
DILA ENSEMBLE, Tbilisi, Georgia
 
 
Created in 1970 and consisting of a dance group, soloists performing folk songs and a band of five musicians playing the accordion, clarinet, lahuta, violin, tambourine and drums. Its repertoire features most prominently the folk dances and songs characteristic of Southern Albania, as well as the folklore values of the rest of Albania.
The dancers are with characteristic Albanian national costumes.
The dances are mainly in large groups, and - together with the songs and the orchestra music - they reflect with dignity the rich musical and choreographic folklore of Albania.
  
Every spot on this planet attributes in itself a unique appearance to the natural landscapes, whether they are of a desert, steppe or water expanse. The gem of this part of the world is the sacred Baykal Lake - a name borne with pride by the State Song and Dance Theatre in the Republic of Buryatiya.
The best examples of the music and choreography of the people of the Republic of Buryatiya have been preserved in the songs and dances of the Baykal Theatre, established during the years of the Great Patriotic War (1942). The Theatre demonstrates a multi-genre art that communicates with the spectators through the language of Eastern plastic art, tender and militant dances, intimate and protracted songs of the folk choir, as well as the deep and alive sound of ancient Buryat instruments: morin-hura, chan-sui and lim-bui.
  
The group was created in 1980. The ensemble has won prizes at many festivals in Georgia and has toured in many countries: Russia - 1982; Ukraine - 1983, 1984, 1988, 1989 and 1996, as well as in 1991 in the Baltic Republics, where fifteen participants from different countries also took part. Participation in Poland in 1998, in Greece in 2000 during the Festival in July/August held there. Currently the Ensemble is working on a new programme.
         
EFXINOS LESHI VERIAS, Drama, Greece
  
"CRIHALMA", Juderup, Denmark
  

EL-TANNOURA TROUPE FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE, Kairo, Egypt
 
 
From the ancient years (8th century b.c.) at the shores of the Black Sea the Iones Greeks started to build cities which had a special character.
The population of those cities later on, populated other areas of those regions which were named "Anatolia". The Greeks of this area became border guards of the empire of Alexander the Great and his decendants. Those guards played the same role during the Byzantine era. From the beginning of Christianity those people began to adopt the Christian belief. When Constantinople fell to the Crusaders (1204 a.c.), Trapezounda became to capital of the region.
In 1461 a.c. the Byzantine Empire fell apart and was conquered by the Ottoman Turks and the people of pontos lived the most difficult period of their history. Many people fleet to Russia and those who stayed behind were forced to speak the Turkish language and adopt the Islamic religion.
During the years of 1912-1913 the Greeks of pontos started a revolution against the ottoman rule. At the beginning Russia supported the Greeks but abandoned them after 1917 and supported the leader Kemal Ataturk.
The Greeks of Pontos suffered genocide. Over 400000 Greeks were slaughtered, and in 1922 the remaining of those populations left Pontos and immigrated to Greece.
Many of them started their new life in Macedonian cities of Thessalonica, Kilkis, Drama etc.
One of those cities was Veria where in 1955 EFXINOS LESHI VERIAS
was founded. This folklore group became famous because of their livelyhood and their activity in Greece but also in other countries.
 
"Crihalma" folk dance group was founded in 1972 by the Romanian choreographer, Nicolai Apetri. "Crihalma" is a group of people living in Copenhagen, both Danish people and people from ethnic minorities. The group perform dances and song from the Balkan countries, mostly from Bulgaria, Romania and former Yugoslavia.
"Crihalma" had during the years a big activity with exchange with folk dance groups from Balkan. Sider Voivoda from Gorna Orjachovitza was the first group from Bulgaria, that "Crihalma" had collaboration with. It started in 1975, when a group of Scandinavians visited Gorna Orjachovitza, arranged by Nikolai Apetri, and that was beginning to a still lasting contact. Sider Voivoda visited "Crihalma" in Denmark latest in 1992.
"Crihalma" have besides had a long lasting collaboration with the famous choreographer from Philip Koutev, Todor Karapcianski. He was several times in Scandinavia teaching Bulgarian folk dances and he made a choreography for "Crihalma".
"Crihalma" make many performances in Denmark in theatres, at festivals, in shopping centers, at benefaction arrangements only to mention a few. The group also perform abroad, in Romania at a festival in Bistrita Nasaud in Transsylvania, in Holland at a Balkan festival, in Norway at a dance festival and in Sweden at a festival for ethnic minorities.
"Crihalma" perform in costumes from the country in question, some of the costumes is made by the members themselves after original models.
The name, Crihalma, originate from the name of a Romanian village in Transsylvania. It is also the name of one of the favorite dances from the repertoire.
  
The historic origin of this troupe is in Cairo Al-Ghoury palace for cultural heritage-El-AZHAR.
It was established in February 1988 in Al Ghoury palace for cultural heritage, which is, considered a specialized palace for reviving the artistic traditional forms that are threatened of becoming extinet. This troupe offers its performances all the year on Saturday and Wednesday. It also participated in all the national occasions in Egypt in and the program for the foreign cultural exchange and in the international festivals.The troupe has performed in Japan, USA, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland,France, China, North Korea, South Korea, Hong Kong, Maroco, Tunisia, Syria, Libanon, Jourdan and Yemen.All the members of the troupe have learned this art-form from their fathers and grandfathers.
         
THE FOLKLORE GROUP S'ISPRONE - GAVOI - SARDINIA, Italy
  
TAIPEI HWA KANG ARTS SCHOOL, Chinese Taipei
  
AFRICAN HERITAGE DANCE THEATRE AMBASSADORS, Nigeria
 




 
The group has been existing under that name since 1988.The group has conducted in-depth research with a view to the accurate restoration of the musical tradition of Gavoi.
The instruments used by S'Isprone ("spur" in translation) are among the oldest in the Mediterranean region: su pipiolu - shepherd's flute made of reed, su tamburinu - drum made of goat skin, su triangulu - triangle made of wrought iron. A diatonic organ with eight basses was included in recent years as well. Very often the rhythm of the jumps in the dance are set by the voice of the performers, the lyrics of the songs being borrowed from the traditional oral folk poetry.
  
.Located YanMing Mountain with special mountainous and steam views, pink peach, plum, and cherry in winter, green forest in summer, radiantly red maple in fall, and all-seasonal fog, HwaKang is thus full with the abundantly colorful decorations.
School was reconstructed from HwaKang High School by educator Doctor Chang Chi-Yun in 1975, primarily with four departments of Chinese music, Western music, dance, and Chinese drama. In 1986 the department of Chinese drama was shifted to drama department, and the department of fine art was added, however, School is expanded to have six departments with additional arts performance in year 2000. It is a purely artistic high school with the longest history in Taiwan.
Dr. Chang Jen-Hu, son of Dr. Chang Chi-Yun and also a noted geographer, has been chairman of the school since 1985. He has been awarded honorary Doctorates by University of Saint Petersburg State University of Russia, Kyung Hee University of Korea and Soka University of Japan. He is the first person to be elected a full member of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences by the academy's general assembly.
Education goal of School is to fund the bases of artistic profession, and cultivate students' artistic temperament and healthy characters. School did educate numerous professionals and scatter artistic seeds everywhere in the society. Most members in Music Orchestra are graduated from Chinese Culture University or HwaKang Artistic School. Chinese instruments all have special characters, the string "Chan" clanging, sounds of the balloon guitar like wind flowing.
  
African Heritage Dance theatre is a multicultural informative and entertaining ensemble; member of African Heritage Ambassadors. Some philanthropic Nigerians support the troupe for the sole purpose of promoting Nigeria arts and culture in particular and the ideas of the African trade culture in general. The troupe holds professional offspring of talented artistes both men and women well able to perform not only a wide variety of Nigerian dances and drama but have mastered a variety of other poignant African dances and drama with a reputation for making consistent and significant artistic, cultural and historic statements. The company has received favorable reviews and acclaim in Nigeria and other places it has performed in.The troupe has performed extensively in Nigeria, Africa, Europe and America. In Europe they performed during the Festival International in France and embarked on a performance tour of Germany in 1988. They also performed in the Plovdiv International Trade fair in Bulgaria in 1986 amongst other international performances.
The troupe toured the United States of America in 1987 and received critical acclaim from the American press.
   
         
"GEHEM", Ankara, Turkey
  
BEKESCSABA BALASSI FOLK DANCE ENSEMBLE, Hungary
  
FOLK ENSEMBLE CARSIUM, Romania


 
 


FOLK ENSEMBLE "BILJANA", Japan


The group has 6 musicians and 18 female and 20 male dancers which participated in countless International Folk Dance Festivals:
The Foundation date from 1965. Dancers are between 16-25 years old. The director of group is Enver Keskin.
GEHEM generally comes from university students who making a program about one hour.
The troupe performs folk dances from Turkey's different regions:
GAZANTEP :Dance from south part of Turkey. The dancers are full of excitement and movements. SILIFKE :The most representative dancers of this town in the Mediteranean region of Southern Anatolia, are the 'Spoon' dancers.AKCAABAT :Black Sea Dances. Dances from north part of Turkey.
BURSA :Swords and shield dance.
INSTRUMENTS :The troupe has 6 musicians. Traditional instruments are Zurna,Davul, Kemence, Darbuka, Saz, Kanun.
  
The Bekescsaba Balassi Folk Dance Ensemble was founded in 1947. The group has already performed in neartly all countries of Europe, and also been to Africa and Asia. It won many prizes on different festivals in abroad, one of the leading folk dance ensembles of Hungary. Its repertoire collects all the areas of the Hungarian dance dialects. The group likely use a kaleidoscope kind of dances program, also the dances of the different minorities of Hungary.
The Balassi Folk Dance Ensemble performs folk-dances in handmade, authentic traditional customs, made with excellent folklore knowledge. The dancers always wear the right customs according to the dances of the area they like to introduce. It is also valid at performing the dances and traditions of other nations. The musicians of the Bekes Banda accompany the dancers. They play traditional folk music by traditional instruments - fiddle, viola, cimbalom, double bass-but sometimes in the interest of original sound they use special instruments from the old days, like bagpipes, flute, "tarogato", kobsa, gardon.
 
         
FOLKLORE ENSEMBLE "DIMUM", Belene, Bulgaria
  
MANOL RADICHEV FOLKLORE ENSEMBLE
from the village of Gela, Bulgaria
  
FOLKLORE ENSEMBLE 'SIDER VOIVODA', Gorna Oryahovitsa, Bulgaria
 
 
The folklore troupe "Dimum" was founded 25 years ago in the town of Belene. The troupe has taken part in festivals in Russia, Syria, Romania and Czechoslovakia.
In 1997 it was named "Dimum". Over 100 dancers take part in the ensemble's dances. These are boys and girls from 5 to 20 years old.
  
From its very inception the ensemble has been performing original folk music and dances from the Rhodope Mountains. The Ensemble has taken part in all the stages of the seven Bulgarian Festivals, in the Varna Summer Review, in all five contests of folk art in the town of Koprivshtitsa, in the folk festival in Rozhen, etc. The Folklore Ensemble from the village of Gela has traced, studied and presented 15 folk chain dances from the Rhodopes, as well as many folk songs and customs.
  
The Folklore Ensemble "Sider Voivoda" was founded in 1953 in the town of Gorna Oriachovitza. It consists of an orchestra of folk instruments, a choir and a dance group. During its 40 years existence the Ensemble "Sider Voivoda" has performed over 2200 concerts of more than 2 100 000 spectators.
         
FOLKLORE ENSEMBLE ZAGORE - Stara Zagora, Bulgaria
  
Folk Ensemble "Gergiovden", Radnevo, Bulgaria
    
 
Over 4,000 concerts attended by millions, tours in Greece, Turkey, Russia, France, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Italy and Spain. The ensemble has been awarded the Order of Cyril and Methodius - First Degree, the Golden Lyre prize, awards from Bulgarian and international competitions, all of them owing to the work of many performers who have made their modest contribution to the treasure house of folklore.
Founded in 1986 as a Dance group to the Municipality center for culture and existed in this way until 1998 , Folk Ensemble "Gergiovden" has made glad and keep on making glad until nowadays with its numerous performances in the country and abroad people, who appreciate the unique Bulgarian dance and music art.
The ensemble has performed in:
Serbia, Taiwan, Macedonia and Turkey, from where it came back with a lot of prestigious awards.
The multicolor repertoire of the ensemble includes songs and dances almost from all ethnographic districts of Bulgaria.