Milking The Moon: Becoming The Renewal

Milking The Moon: Becoming The Renewal is an upcoming live performance of Bulgarian folk dances & songs as part of the 7th GORANA International Dance festival.

Ancient Bulgarian culture paved the way for the festivals and traditions that are still alive in Bulgaria today. Life, health, love and joy are represented by water, wheat, greenery, flowers and more in ritual dancing. In the spring, seeds are planted in the ground to sustain the renewal of life. Rich in beauty, cheerfulness, mysteries and fiery dances with beautiful costumes, Bulgarian folklore must be seen, heard and experienced!

There are many Bulgarian holidays and traditions dedicated to the spring and summer. A few of them are:

Lazarovden is celebrated on the Saturday before Easter. It is the "coming of age" celebration for young girls known as "lazarki". The maidens are dressed in colorful costumes with wreaths of flowers in their hair, and sing and dance with handkerchieves as they go from home to home to cleanse the spaces.

Tsvetnitsa is "The Flower's Day". On the Sunday one week before Easter, Bulgarians bring home twigs from willow trees and use them to decorate gates, doors and windows as a sign of faith.

Velikden is Easter, the main holiday for all Orthodox Christians. It is connected to the first full moon after the spring solstice day.

Saint George's Day is on May 6th. On this day, unmarried young women are invited onto decorated swings, as it is believed that the swinging will help them get married. Along with that, everyone with the name Georgi or Gergana celebrates their name day.

Nestinarstvo is an ancient ritual where fire dancers known as "nestinari" walk and dance on live embers. It originates from Thracian sun worship asking the Sun God for health, prosperity and fertility in the new year.

 

 

A note from Elissaveta

Artistic Director, Producer & Choreographer

Each performer in Milking The Moon: Becoming The Renewal holds a passion, in his or her own way, for exploring the new meanings and relevance of traditional practices in our contemporary world thousands of miles away from Bulgaria.

On a professional level, we look for interdisciplinary links. On a personal level, we see our engagement in Bulgarian folk art not only as vital sharing of our artistic expression, but also as a way to connect our roots with our new home in the US, helping young Bulgarian-Americans born here build a relationship with their origins.