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The
Bosilek Bulgarian Folk Dance Ensemble, the only exclusively
women's Bulgarian folk dance performing ensemble in the USA, is
celebrating its 21st anniversary this year. The ensemble has performed
in a wide variety of venues ranging from Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln
Center in New York to the garden of the White House in Washington,
D.C., at festivals, in libraries, schools and other venues throughout
the northeast United States, and has been featured in festivals
and on television in Bulgaria.
Although
most members of the ensemble are native-born Americans of mixed
ethnic background, the group has a self-appointed mission--that
of bringing the beauty of the rich treasure that is Bulgarian folklore
to its American audiences. This mission is reinforced by the group's
affiliation with the Center for Bulgarian Culture in America, a
New York based cultural organization. Bosilek's performances
are often the first and/or only information many people have about
Bulgaria.
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Cathie
Springer, Director of Bosilek, has this to
say about the ensemble's hopes of preserving for future generations
the incredible vitality of the folk traditions which are sadly
fast disappearing in modern Bulgaria:
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"With
the bright colors of our costumes and flowers, the variety of
rituals and dances of celebration, our music, which is created
specially for us on the basis of the old traditional melodies,
and in what we tell to the audience about our material, we are
able to bring to diverse American audiences a glimpse of the
magical landscape of Bulgaria: the mountains and valleys, the
fertile fields, the sparking streams and springs; with our calls,
our songs, the sound of our shoes or bells, we can evoke sounds
scarcely heard even in Bulgaria today".
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