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Had the chance thurs and fri to see Lee Otterholt teaching. Discovered several of my favorite dances are ones he's responsible for teaching/spreading/bringing/making. His style points out stylistic detail, but in such a good-humored way that you want to do it. I just really like the teaching style. If you get a chance to take a class he's teaching go for it. Increases the chance I might sometime go on a tour that has him along as a teacher (Jim Gold & Mel Mann both have him do that).

here's some video's of him teaching in Sacto a couple years ago

Valle Kosovare - from Kosovo yumminess the combo of the music and the feel of the steps it just never feels long enough

Mia Kori - Thracian Greek :) ! the music starts about half way through (well besides him singing the instructions). Another one I instantly fell in love with. Not all his comments on styling are in this video.

Koritsa (Albanian) this video is cute because it shows how the woman who ends up on the end never quite gets it, but she manages to keep up enough - moving in the right direction

Can't find a video of Krivatvorena, not that it necessarily is a favorite, but I've finally got the outline instead of refiguring it out each time, and the pace is so manic it would be a serious contrast to the above.

(and no I'm not in any of the above videos, wasn't at the events these were taped at)

before the season quite ends, some Kukeri for you

Embedding Disabled for this one, just go! Especially if you want a taste of bells in unison

the 'chasing bad spirits' thing is so definitely an over-simplification.

John Filcich's 'Culture Corner' presentation at Kolo Festival this year he was talking about (and showing video and pics of) his Croatian villages version of this. He mentioned that they were supposed to walk 'bovinely' and crash into each other on purpose. Which you could tell the boys really liked doing. In the Bulgarian ones they generally are presenting much more rhythmically and orderly, but this may be a side effect of the stagifying (these videos are festivals involving groups from different villages) last year I had found clips of some kukeri street mayhem.