Horo is Unity! Original Artwork With an Introduction to the Round Dance
I present to you my graphic "Horo is Unity" with dimensions 29.x23,5cm.
It took me more than a month to finish it and it was fully made by hand. It is one of my first dot work graphics and was done two years ago. This is the image reference used for inspiration. I took it five years ago in my hometown.
What is Horo?
It is a traditional round dance with uncountable variations. Each region has its specific music and moves, which sometime overlap with each other. Even though it is so widely practiced and everybody know at least one horo, not many are familiar with its roots. This is what I was able to find on the Internet:
Apart from uniting people, the dance has esoteric roots. Sometimes, in the center of the circle a bagpiper plays and the others surrounding him dance. They duplicate the Cosmic, creating an energetic model of the Solar System; thus, the musician is the Sun and the dancers are the planets. This is a powerful generator of mental, physical, biological and spiritual might for those who dance the horo.
I find it really cool that even in modern days each city had at least one of groups who learn different horo variations and gather regularly.
Personally, I am part of a beginner group and try to attend it twice a week. It is extremely exhausting! Sometimes I get so tired my soul wants to leave the body and escape the agony; however, in the same time it is empowering. Especially once I learn the steps it is pure ecstasy. To give you a better idea of what I talk about, here is one of my favorite horo dances. It is called "Chichovoto horo" which literally means "Uncles' horo".
While learning it, the first couple of times I had to let go of the dance to take a breath, as it is too tiring. Now, I can't wait to play it and get it all through. Definitely it is a test for endurance and trains it.
Does your culture have a round dance?
If it does, do you have any information about its meaning? If you do, please share it with me. I am not the kind of person who takes pride in nationality, but rather look in the common roots with other cultures, to find a crossing point for unification.
Letting you all go with a picture of me dancing a horo with a traditional costume.
These are one of my best moments, when smile does not leave my face and the connection to my roots is strongest. The reason is mostly the unification with other people who feel the same.
A horo is meaningless if played by one person only.
There is an Irish song where the chorus is,
"Fhir an bháta 'sna hóró éile
Fhir an bháta 'sna hóró éile
Fhir an bháta 'sna hóró éile
Mo shoraid slán leat gach áit a dtéid thú"
...which means "O, Boatman, and another, 'horo'
My safe blessing with you everywhere you go"
...so when your post said there was a bagpiper, I thought it was going to be about an Irish or Scottish dance. :D Although I'm not very sure what the "horo" in the song means, because "hóró" in Irish means "gold," lol.
Probably they ment gold :D Dancing the horo on a boat would have been hard. The Irish/Scottish dances are pretty similar and in the same time very different :)
I loved it when I took a Highland dance class in college. It was, as you say your dancing is, very hard at first! It's all hopping and almost squatting. After the first class (three hours long), I couldn't climb stairs the next day. LOL
Hallo girl, nice to see you back! Not that I am also here as I used to be :) Nice story again in your unique way.
Hello, dear. I am kinda moving away to whaleshares.io along with many other steemit users. Will love to see you there. As I am taking the time to write posts there, why not post them here as well. Payouts have been ridiculously low here lately and things look better there both only with the payouts but also there are no robots and annoying stuff like that. I am sure you will be highly appreciated there, so come along :)
Thank you for invitation, but not sure I know what you are talking about :) My knowledge of those ''other'' things is not so good, so if there is any link to things you are suggesting, please put it in comment.
I see now. I will look into it, this is so new to me :)
It is pretty similar to steemit :)
Hello @gabchik, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!