Inna (b. Elena Alexandra Apostoleanu, 16 October 1986 in Mangalia, România) is a Romanian dance singer.
She graduated the high school in Mangalia, then she attempted a degree in Political Sciences at the University of Constanţa. At the end of 2007 she met the members of Play & Win Project and she started the recording of her debut album. She released in 2008 the single Hot, that became an instant hit and was remastered at the end of the year; it also became an airplay success worldwide.
Inna - Hot (Play and Win Club Remix)
A second single, entitled Love, was released in 2009 and peaked at number four on the Romanian Hot 100 in April 2009, surpassing the achievements of Hot. The song Deja Vu became yet another top ten hit on the Romanian Top 100, peaking at number seven in July 2009. It also was a major hit in Moldova, Bulgaria, Russia and Hungary.
Inna - Love
In the end of June, Inna won a Romanian Top Hits Award, the special one given by the Jury, for her top five hit Love. Later that summer, the song Hot hit the first position of the Spanish Singles Chart, being certified Platinum by ProMusicae. The song sold over 40,000 copies during that summer.
Inna - Amazing
In France, she has four consecutive top-10 singles, Hot, Deja Vu, Amazing, 10 Minutes and Sun Is Up, and her debut album "Hot" became a top-10 in France, In the United Kingdom, she has two songs charted within the top-20 of the The Official Charts Company's UK Singles Chart, with a top-10 (Hot) and another top-20 (Amazing).
Inna - 10 Minutes (Club Remix)
Her latest single Sun Is Up became a number-one hit in Bulgaria and a top three in France, Romania, Russia and Switzerland. For 2011, Inna is preparing a new record, entitled "I Am The Club Rocker!". Along with this record, Inna encourages her fan base to affirm themselves as CLUB ROCKER. Inna is currently on her European concert tour "INNA en Concert".
Sârba (meaning Serbian [dance] in Romanian) is a lively Romanian folk dance. Musically the term Sârba is usually applied to a lively 2/3 or 2/4 melody with triplet grouping, giving a 6/8 feel. It can be danced in a circle, line, or couple formations and was historically popular not only among Romanians, but also Ukrainians, Hungarians, East European Jews, and the Poles of the Tatra Mountains, or in dances such as the Serbian Čačak and the Bulgarian fast Pravo Horo. It is fast-paced and triplets are usually emphasized in the melody. The Sârba is still popular in Romanian traditional music and in Klezmer music.
In dance, the Sârba mostly refers to a lively 3-measure structured social dance, this is generally referred to as 'common Sârba'. The similar slower Brâul bătrân with Sârba belongs to a very ancient and widespread dance form throughout the Balkans.
Sârba is found in the same areas as Hora with the highest variety of variants being found along the sub-Carpathians. Unlike Hora, an open circle formation is the norm, apart from south Oltenia where it is generally danced in a closed circle.
The common Sârba alternates between traveling or resting phrases and phrases for improvisation or more complex steps. The dancers at each end are the leaders, with other dancers joining into the middle of line during the dance. In some areas there are Sârbe with a number of figures where the change of figure is indicated by commands from the leader. The other main type of Sârbe have a fixed choreography and are possibly newer. Ciuleandra is a specific type of Sârba from north Oltenia and Muntenia. It is danced in small circles, which change places with other small circles in the dance area.
Fixed form dances to Sârba music are also generally known as Sârba.
Dances with commands (the leader uses commands to determine the sequence) to Sârba type music, often with a 3-measure motif, have many names other than Sârba but are classified as Sârbe.
Căpâlna (German: Kapellendorf, Kapolna; Magyar: Sebeskápolna, Alsókápolna, Kápolna) is a village in Săsciori commune, Alba County, Transylvania, Romania. The village has an absolute Romanian majority.
In 1948, Stana Biriş, a teacher from Galaţi (Eastern Romania), established here due to marriage with a local. She 'discovered' in Căpâlna a remarkable dance and, charmed by its uniqueness, amazed by the beauty and purity of interpretation, she organized the ensemble and became its leader.
"Purtata fetelor" is a Romanian traditional girls' processional walking dance from Căpâlna. The dance dates from the Middle Ages, or maybe earlier. It is performed on Sundays and holidays, only by girls and unmarried women; when a woman became engaged, she has to leave the ensemble. Young girls learn the dance and the song from their mothers when they are 4-5 years old, and are invited to join the ensemble at 7 yo. The participants are grouped by age: 7-11, 12-18 and over 19. Over time, the number of participants varied from 20 to 80; today, the ensemble has 50 dancers.
The girls wear traditional folkloric costumes and perform the dance in a row, each with one hand on the shoulder of hers predecessor, and singing. The steps are in the rhythm of the heartbeat, and the row describes circles, spirals, waves and the infinite sign. Its uniqueness derives from the fact that is the only contretemps dance: the performers stop unexpectedly, and starts unexpectedly forward or backward. Also, the song is not synchronized with the steps of the dance, with a stunning effect on the viewer. The researchers resembled the row of dancers with a snake, associated with the deities of the earth, with the fertility, healing, rowing, and with seduction. The stances are a hymn for the loved one; although it seems simple, the dance dance express sensuality, display of female beauty, and greatness.
Cultural heritage is not limited to material manifestations, such as monuments and objects that have been preserved over time. This notion also encompasses living expressions and the traditions that countless groups and communities worldwide have inherited from their ancestors and transmit to their descendants, in most cases orally.
A Romanian folkloric dance included in UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage is Căluşarii. The căluşari (Romanian pronunciation: [kəluˈʃarʲ]) is the Romanian word for participants in a traditional folk dance, the căluş, nowadays mainly found in Southern Romania. The word may also be found spelt as căluşarii (Romanian for "the căluşari"), căluşeri, căluş, căluşel, and also (due to the lack of diacritics in the English alphabet) calusari, calushari, caluseri, calusheri, etc. The tradition is also played by the Vlachs (Romanians) of Serbia and Bulgaria, and hence was introduced into the folklore of Bulgaria under the same name, spelled Kalushar/Kalushari.
The dance is thought to be derived from a pre-Christian fertility ritual and spring rite, and is said to bring luck, health and happiness to the villages in which it is danced. Others maintain that it is rooted in the ancient Indo-European worship of horse. It is quite possible that various traditions became mixed in the course of history. For example, căluşari are also supposed to have healing powers.
The oldest records are the musical notations of Ioan Căianu (17th century), and its mentioning in Dimitrie Cantemir`s Descriptio Moldaviae (1714). A Căluşari group is active for only a ritually defined period of time during the spring, and begins with a ceremony called "raising the flag", which is performed secretly and includes the members swearing oaths to the group and its leader. During the period of Căluş, the members are bound by a taboo against any sexual contact with women, and married members must live apart from their wives. There is always an odd number of men in a group. In addition to the dancing, the group also does skits very much like the folk theater.
The most important part, of what they do is the ritual curing of delirium or paralysis caused by possession by wood or water nymphs, or fairies. Before performing this ritual, one of the members draws a magic circle around the group with his sword. The space inside is considered sacred space, and no one else is permitted to enter except the person being cured. The leader would divine the specific taboo that had been violated by the victim, and pick the dance appropriate to it. After the dance, the cure culminated in the breaking of an earthenware jar next to the sick person, destroying the evil spirits. Sometimes one of the Căluşari would then become possessed as the victim recovers. He would then be revived by one of the many types of death and resurrection skits that are a large part of the folk theater. Again, many of these have humorous and bawdy aspects. The leader of the group is the one responsible for choosing and training any new members, and is also the keeper of the mysteries, passing the secrets orally to his successor. One retired leader would not reveal any of the secrets even though there was no longer a group in his village, but indicated that he still had to pass on the knowledge.
Căluşarii
Now days, the Căluşari, often accompanied by a masked personage (the mute or the fool) carry clubs and are performing dances of great virtuosity. The unexpected developments of the dance are accompanied by "strigături" (humorous or satirical verse chanted during the dance) and the tunes sung by the groups of interpreters. Dancers wear white trousers and white tunics, with brightly coloured ribbons streaming from their hats. Bells are attached to their ankles, and dances include the use of sticks held upright whilst dancing, or pointing at the ground as a prop. The dance includes the following elements: - The starting figure of walking (plimbări), or a basic step, in a circle moving counter clockwise. - More complex figures (mişcare) performed in place between walking steps. - Figures are formed from combinations of elements, often have a beginning-middle-end structure.
In Slatina (a town in Southern Romania), every year opens the Festival of Căluşari, presenting the distinct style of each separate team of dancers. Thrilling competitions of virtuosity are interrupted by solo dancers, some of whom are very old men, and even children who have inherited their parent's talent.
This blog represents the work of a team of students and teachers from Secondary School no. 1 Luduş, Romania. Join us to an imaginary trip through people, facts, and places from Romania...
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