Cultural Presentation -"Song to Dance: How Do Compound Rhythms Arise?”

(1) The compound dance rhythms found in the central Balkans all obey a simple but restrictive structural rule which is presented and validated using examples of melodic structure, dance structure, and instrumental music practice. This episode is intended to be primarily informative of length about 15 minutes, including 5 minutes for questions.

(2) Some conjectures regarding the processes producing such striking uniformity are presented. The sedenka/sedjanka is offered as a specific locus in which songs (feminine domain) are selectively recruited as instrumental dance melodies (masculine domain). This episode of about 25 minutes is intended to become a discussion after 10 minutes of formal presentation.

Michael Kuharski, the perpetrator of Istanbul Bar, started folk dancing in Madison in 1969 & has been leading & teaching in that community ever since. He speaks Serbo-Croatian & Bulgarian as well as a little Macedonian, Albanian, & Romanian. He has made 14 trips to the Balkans and one to Poland to study folklore, language and culture (particularly of Albanians, Macedonians, & Bulgarians) while collecting dances, music, instruments, costumes, friends, & dance-relevant anecdotes.

Michael is lead organizer of Folk Ball, helps with June Camp, was for twenty-five years Artistic Director of Ensemble Narodno. He teaches weekly at Madison Folkdance Unlimited, annually at Door County Folk Festival, and elsewhere upon invitation. Michael plays Balkan accordion and piano for contra, transcribes folk songs by the score. Beware of his edited versions of favorite folkdance recordings and try to catch him sitting down!