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20 foreigners became a part of "The merriest horo in Sofia"
27 October 2011

The international youth group, part of a project by AEGEE – Sofia, participated in an open class of the School for Bulgarian national horo dances “Eremia”. The program "Mix the cultures! Cross the Borders!" introduced citizens of Romania, Sweden, Holland, Spain, France, etc. to “the merriest horo in Sofia” – what Eremia is most famous for.
For over an hour they were educated in Bulgarian folklore and despite the widespread belief that foreigners are extremely hard to capture the rhythm of our folk music, all of them finished the class doing the horo dance. The renowned accordion player and General Manager of Eremia – Ivaylo Georgiev entertained the group with some of the widest spread traditional dances such as: the easiest one – Pravo horo, one of the most popular in Bulgaria – Samokovsko horo and the "New Year" one – Dunavsko horo. In order to fully experience the Bulgarian tradition in folklore dancing the tutor of Eremia – Iskra Stoyanova taught the foreigners the wedding ratchenitsa dance.
During the short rest the foreigners were amused by a performance of several high profile shopski horà by the Eremia dancers. After the show the young fellows caught each other by the hand one more time confident that what they are being taught is actually not as complex in terms of the variety of Bulgarian folklore as they thought before.
In the end of the open class of Bulgarian national horo dance school Eremia the twenty some foreigners couldn`t stop dancing the merriest horo in Sofia. For an hour they enjoyed an exercise-lecture for our traditions and customs. The Bulgarian national horo dance school Eremia showed the foreigners that the Balkans and Bulgaria in particular have a special place in Europe, with its own beat, a different culture and music.

The "Mix the cultures! Cross the Borders!" project is developed by AEGEE-Sofia with the support of “Culture Action Days" team and “Higher Education Days" team. The event is part of the preparations for the General Assembly of AEGEE, called Agora, which for the first time in the history of the organization will take place in Bulgaria.
For more information about Eremia Dance School please log on to http://www.eremia.bg/ , and the facebook fanpage >www.facebook.com/hora.eremia.bg