28TH SYMPOSIUM ICTM STUDY GROUP ON ETHNOCHOREOLOGY: KORČULA, CROATIA 2014

Vesna BAJIĆ Stojiljković

Serbia / Slovenia

STAGED FOLK DANCE IN THEATRICAL NARRATIVES1

This paper discusses how folk dance choreographers create a dramaturgical flow in Folk
Dance Choreography (FDC) and, consequently, how these choreographic procedures create
"theatrical narratives" that are influenced by the specific socio-cultural context of their
creation. Beside the most widespread choreographic structure of the suite, which I
conceptualized through the choreographic genre medley, the involvement of different
theatrical elements opened the possibility of the conceptualisation of another choreographic
genre – dramatization. This is shown through two examples of FDC from Serbia.

Keywords: Serbia; choreography; narrative; dramatization

This paper begins with the words of a Serbian composer and musicologist Nadežda
Mosusova: "Audiences all over the world love to attend a dance presentation with a story"
[Mosusova 2008:163]. Many would agree that involving a story in the dance composition
intensifies the meaning and the interest for the dance composition itself. Although the
explanation of Mosusova was based on analytical and theoretical observation of ballet, these
words gave me the initial thought when considering the presence of the story in folk dance
choreographies in Serbia, their popularity, on one hand, and their complex structure in which
dance, music and narrative2 are interwoven, on the other.
However, the story in a dance composition is not something that is prominent. When
ballet appeared in the fifteenth century the story was not in the forefront, but it was the
movement. Guided probably by the same idea that the audience enjoys dances that represent a
story more than those without it, Jean-Georges Noverre (1727–1810), in his Lettres sur la
danse et sur les ballets (1760), focused on developing the ballet d'action, in which the
movements of dancers are designed to express character and assist in the narrative [Nover
2011:11]. He was looking for a creative interplay between actions, expressive gesture, and
dance.
When we speak about folk dance on stage and dance revival in Serbia, as well as in ex-
Yugoslavia, the involvement of the story in the stage presentational form of Folk dance
choreography (abbreviated FDC),3 is also not primary. The production of FDC started after
the Second World War with the foundation of many urban folk dance ensembles, as an
integral part of cultural-artistic societies (kulturno-umetničko društvo, abbreviated KUD), and
the professional folk dance ensemble "Kolo" from Belgrade [Bajić 2006:12,14]. The essential
framework was to present the diversity of folk dances, steps, patterns, spatial formation and
other elements of the entire dance from local rural practice [Skovran 1965:438]. In this way,
by connecting more dances in one dance composition, selected according to their music,
tempo, dynamics, the suite of dances was created, as the dominant form of FDC in Serbia
[Bajić Stojiljković 2014:406].4
The suite is the term that many researchers and ethnochoreologists use to denote such a
dance composition or choreography, referring primarily to its form. This term, taken from
music, is widely applied in ethnochoreological narratives written in English. In the
methodology I use to establish the genre categories of FDC, the term suite, is not a sufficient
signifier. One argument is that FDC with or without a narrative (a story) may have the same,
suite form.
Instead of the suite, in Serbian language, the term splet igara, or only splet,5 has been
used for many years (at least since 1934) in a vernacular context, which in English should be

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 28TH SYMPOSIUM ICTM STUDY GROUP ON ETHNOCHOREOLOGY: KORČULA, CROATIA 2014

translated as medley of dances or only, medley. According to the most frequent method of
making folk dance composition, medley has proved to be the dominant model of presenting
Serbian folk dance on the stage.6 I conceptualise medley as the first genre category of FDC.
According to my research of the choreographic art based on folk dance in Serbia, I
observed that all the choreographies couldn't belong to the genre of medley. On the analytical
level, the involvement of narrative and acting in FDC opened the possibility of observing
these choreographies not only on the ethnochoreological and ethnomusicological level, but
also through the ethnotheatrological discourse and performance studies. Through this
interdisciplinary approach, which in many ways extends the frameworks of ethnochoreology,
I have conceptualised FDC as a genre category and, singled out the second choreographic
genre, which consists of a narrative. The scope of this paper does not allow me to focus on the
methodology of the genre, but to discuss the possibilities of how folk dance choreographers
create a dramaturgical flow in FDC, and, consequently, how these choreographic procedures
create "theatrical narratives"7 that are influenced by the specific socio-cultural context of their
creation.

Folk dance choreographies with a narrative in ethnochoreological narratives

Considering FDC that contain narratives, the popular and effective format for a
presentation of traditional dance is by using the context of ritual or customary events or
popular events such as a wedding or a national festival. As Anthony Shay concludes jokingly,
"every state dance company portrays a wedding, or aspects of it, for all the world loves a
wedding!" [Shay 1999:47]. Other effective narratives are work scenes, daily activities, love
stories, and also narratives of songs. In this way the choreographer can weave customs,
special songs, dances, dance music and a wider variety of festive clothing into his/her work.
Involving a story in a dance composition based on folk dance is very widespread. Many
ethnochoreologists and choreographers indicate the existence of a narrative in FDC,
performed in professional and amateur folklore ensembles [Chudnovsky 1959:20, Dunin;
Višinski 1995:14, Shay 2002:45, Öztürkmen 2002:136, Ivanova-Nyberg 2011:160–161,
Abrašev 1989:194–195, Nahachewsky 2012:167, Mellish 2012:150, Stavělová 2012:251].
However, except the indication of the existence of a narrative in FDC, authors do not discuss
or analyse the position of the narrative in FDC, or its structure, as well as the way the
narrative is combined with dance and dance music as the basic structural elements in FDC.
Within this paper I elaborate precisely on this topic, but deeper analysis will be presented in
my PhD thesis.
Due to the limited scope of this article, I am not able also to present the phenomena of
"folk theatre" in the Balkans, since there are many important contributions that are directly
connected with the scenic presentation. I focus on the theatrological term dramatization that
the Serbian theatrologist Borivoje Stojković used in the theatrological analysis of traditional
dances and customs [Stojković 1977:20–23]. I conceptualise dramatization as the second
genre category of FDC and involve it in ethnochoreological discourse.
Dramatization of FDC
The term dramatization is used very often in connection with the story or narrative in
theatrical and film literature. One common definition is that a dramatization is a particular
creative process by which a literary text (novel or epic, short story or poetry) is transposed to
the stage text with the aim for this to be theatrically portrayed [Misailović 2000:263]. Applied
to FDC, dramatization could be defined as a creative process in which the main elements and
points of different texts (written, spoken, melodic and/or kinetic) of a ritual, custom, song are
transformed, combined and "put in action" in the form of FDC (I coin the phrase narrative in
action).

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 28TH SYMPOSIUM ICTM STUDY GROUP ON ETHNOCHOREOLOGY: KORČULA, CROATIA 2014

In FDC in Serbia, from the period after World War Two until today, I indicate, at least,
five ways of dramatizations of FDC from the analysis of FDC of well-known choreographers.
The analysis is presented with a "compositional" or "dramaturgical plan" which I use for the
structural analysis of FDC to perceive the composition as a whole (Bajić Stojiljković
2012:96,99,103). According to the limited scope of this paper, I present two of them.

Example 1: Motives from Banat, wedding on the corner in the village

(Banatski motivi, svadba na roglju), Choreographer: Branko Marković. Music arranger:
Dušan Šaponja. Performed by: Academic KUD "Krsmanović" from Belgrade, Serbia.
Created 1955-1960. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilnUopFdgyY>
In this choreography the narrative of the wedding is portrayed through important
moments or points of this custom. They are all set linearly. Dance and music (songs and
instrumentals) are networked with the narrative. It can be said that music and dance are in the
service of the narrative. This is evident from the dance and music motifs – which are a tool to
express a narrative. For every segment of the narrative there is exactly the right dance and
music. Therefore, it is not possible to extract dance and music out of this complex and perform
them independently. The story is in the forefront. Its structuring and interweaving with dance
and music could be seen from the following compositional or/and dramaturgical plan.

Table 1: Compositional plan of FDC Motifs from Banat, wedding on the corner in the village,
by Branko Marković

Example 2: Koledari from Leskovac, dances from around Leskovac (Leskovački koledari,
igre iz okoline Leskovca). Choreographer: Slavica Mihailović. Music arrangement: Zoran
Isailović. Performed by: SKC "Vuk S. Karadžić," Bačka Palanka, Serbia. Created in
1994/1995. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgfBn8yxo28>
In the presented choreography, the narrative is performed only at the beginning with
some acting points through the further course of the choreography. The narrative is based on
the reconstruction of the very typical custom for this region, called koledari (male
procession), and specifically the moment when they come to one house, congratulate and
wish the household abundant crops. The narrative is dramatized using different theatrical
elements: speech elements, songs, acting and different roles [see Bajić Stojiljković 2012:99].
In the further course of the choreography only the acting parts are shown through the
role of three protagonists, but not the narrative. That is why these two parts – narrative and

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 28TH SYMPOSIUM ICTM STUDY GROUP ON ETHNOCHOREOLOGY: KORČULA, CROATIA 2014

acting – are shown separately (see Table 2). Because of the connection between them from
the aspect of the narrative presented at the beginning, two acting moments from the middle of
the choreography are marked with dashed arrows in the row of the narrative.

Table 2: Compositional plan of FDC Koledari from Leskovac, dances from around Leskovac,
by Slavica Mihailović
Final remarks
In a broader sense, every FDC is a dramatization in some way because of the use of many
theatrical elements, especially, the posture of dancers, their attitude on the stage, behaviour (for
example, smiles), and use of the stage space. In my conceptualisation, these theatrical elements
are not of importance in determining the genre category of dramatization of FDC. In it,
essential theatrical elements are, above all, the special roles (this is evident also according to
costume, special dances, songs), and acting, with the aim to express the story kinetically.
As the analysis of the examples show, it was necessary to differentiate levels of
narrative and acting parts. In some choreographies acting parts are not connected essentially
with the narrative portrayed at the beginning of the FDC or do not include a narrative, at all.
Within the narrative is understood a dramatized situation, event or a story with a narrative
structure. Acting parts, on the other hand, are dramatizations which are, in a way, isolated or
unconnected with the primary narrative or other acting parts and do not include linearity in
time that consists a narrative. Both, narrative and acting parts fall under the broader concept,
dramatization of FDC, because of its dramatized and dramaturgically shaped content.
Within the genre dramatization we can speak about choreographies that contain a
narrative, so-called "narrative choreography,"8 and choreographies that contain only acting
parts for which I will use the term "divertissement."9 Their elements might combine, in a way
so that acting parts are included in the choreographies with the narrative and their semantics
might be more or less tight (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Dramatization of FDC

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 28TH SYMPOSIUM ICTM STUDY GROUP ON ETHNOCHOREOLOGY: KORČULA, CROATIA 2014

At the very end, the involvement of the narrative in FDC shows that the structure is
more complex, especially when there is also a dramatic structure. In the case of Serbia, FDC
with narratives are not so numerous, but they are present on the stage almost from the
beginning of FDC productions. Medleys of FDC are theatrical pieces and dramatizations of
FDC are "theatrical narratives" – one step further in expressing folk dance on stage. I finish
with a quotation from Daniela Stavělová who lucidly notes: "What is important here is the
fact that staging the traditional dance culture is not perceived only as an arrangement of
movement patterns for the stage but also as a performance of the sense and meaning of
traditional products – texts seen in their context" [Stavělová 2012:255].

Endnotes
1. I give thanks to the Public Fund of the Republic of Slovenia for the Cultural Activities (Javni sklad Republike
Slovenije za kulturne dejavnosti), which supported my participation in this Symposium.
2. I use the term narrative in FDC in the sense of a story or any account of connected play-acts presented to a
viewer and listener in a sequence of dance movement. A narrative could be every "text" which is expressed
verbally, visually, or kinetically.
3. The concept of folk dance choreography (FDC) in my current doctoral dissertation is defined as the "art of
composing, creation and assembling dances, structuring them with the music in a harmonious artistic whole"
[Bajić Stojiljković 2012:95].
4. In Ukrainian stage folk tradition the suite was not the dominant form of FDC, but it was only one dance
(2014: personal communication with Andriy Nahachewsky; see also Nahachewsky 2012:184).
5. The term splet has been used from the third decade of twentieth century (Janković 1934: 14, Skovran 1965:
434) and is still used today [Bajić 2006:69].
6. This confirms also Bulgarian ethnochoreologist and choreographer Daniela Ivanova – Nyberg, saying that the
"suite-form became the most popular stage pattern" [Ivanova-Nyberg 2012:125–126].
7. Within the concept of "theatrical narrative" I include a network of various theatrical procedures that are
primarily focused on dramaturgical principles, performance and perception of FDC. Hence, FDC consists of a
narrative, but at the same time it enters into theatrical discourse becoming a "theatrical narrative" with all the
qualities that describe every theatrical piece. Thus, a narrative is a very flexible and changeable category
encompassing multiple meanings.
8. The phrase "narrative choreography" I coined according to narrative photography, narrative art, narrative
performance, narrative film, narrative video, narrative text of an artist [Šuvaković 1999: 202] used in
postmodern terminology of art.
9. The term "divertissement," beside its musical meaning and the usage in other dance genres (e.g. ballet), it is
very much used in Russian and Bulgarian terminology about stage folk dance. Its name denotes the comic and
cheerful character, and entertainment, which could be related with (comic) acting parts in stage folk dance,
whether it is connected with ballet technique or not.

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