Bosilek
History (by Micki Long)
In the summer
of 1979, Cathie, Micki,
and Cynthia (Semmler) Vakareliyska
went to Bulgaria
on a tour with Yves Moreau and Karl Finger. We loved the music
and dancing and decided to have a class just for Bulgarian dances
that Fall. It was held at Cathie's (now Micki's) loft on Worth
Street in Manhattan. Liliana Zafirova Budy was the teacher.
She was from Sofia, a graduate of the Sofia Choreographic School,
and lived for awhile in Montreal and then moved to New York
and was part of Martin Koenig's Balkan Arts Center. In October,
Marty was asked to perform for some travel agents who were promoting
tourism for Bulgaria. He asked Liliana to take over that project
and she mentioned it to the group she was teaching … and thus
began Bosilek. There were 3 American women--Cathie Springer,
Micki Long and Cynthia Semmler (Vakareliyska), one man--Roger
Kramer, and Liliana. Our first performance was at the Warwick
Hotel for the travel agents. We did Shope Ruchenitsa and Kopanitsa,
Kameno Polsko and a few other dances.
Then we
performed at the Loft for the reunion of Karl Finger's tour
group on November 19. The next show was for Jim Gold in New
Jersey the same year.
Bosilek
has been going strong for 21 years now.
Our first
on-stage performance was at Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center
in May of 1980. By the time of that performance Fran Wetzstein
had joined the group. Over the years, we have performed on the
White House Lawn, a Bulgarian Festival in Pittsburgh, many street
fairs, Slavic festivals held at Hunter College, Alice Tully
Hall and the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.
Karl Finger
invited us to perform at his folk dance sessions in Manhattan
and Brooklyn many times. This gave us the opportunity to show
our repertoire to the folk dance community.
We even
got to perform in Bulgaria in 1983. We traveled for two weeks
as the mascots of 350 "Bulgarians living abroad" and performed
to an audience of thousands in the open air festival celebrating
the Ilidensko Vustanie at a place between the Pirin and Rhodope
Mountains called Predela. We were featured on Bulgarian TV.
The local government was so appreciative they gave us a set
of Pirin costumes.
The group
has grown--but we are like an accordion--getting larger and
smaller and larger again. Liliana left the group in August of
1980 to return to Hungary with her husband. Rhoda Sidney and
Kate Kogut, Cynthia Loewy, Kathie Abrams joined the group. Then
we were deeply saddened when Kate left us in March of '87. We
have had many women that joined the group over the years and
many left for various reasons--expanding families, jobs in different
parts of the world--but we continue to keep the group moving
on and upwards, adding new choreographies and also reviving
some favorite dances from the past.
Some memorable
performances were in Pittsburgh, where Cathie and Micki were
the only two performers from our group doing the exciting Bulgarian
dances. Other Bulgarian groups from the US and Montreal had
troupes of 20 or more. We didn't receive any prizes, but were
given credit for our endurance.
Then there
was the time we danced on a stage outdoors that was made of
tables--but the tables moved apart, leaving a big split in the
"stage."
We dance
in the rain, not like Gene Kelly.
We danced
to a Paidushko that was taped at a very slow speed. From then
on we have checked all tapes first.
We have
had the usual problems like costume pieces falling off and tapes
not coming on at the right time, tape recorders that didn't
work. It is not easy dancing to silent music. There was the
time Miriam Milgram pitched in and sang for 3 minutes straight
with hardly a breath so we could finish one number. And the
time they turned off our music right in the middle of our last
suite because they figured our time was up (they'd kept us waiting
while another group took an extra half hour)--we kept on dancing
right straight through to the end. We have had the good fortune
of having Iliana Bozhanova come
to the US many times to work with us and teach us some wonderful
suites she has choreographed especially for us -- with music
adapted just for us by Lyuben Dossev. In 1981 Cathie went to
the School for Teachers of Amateur Activities in Plovdiv, Bulgaria,
to learn the tools of the trade. There she met Iliana and they
have been friends ever since. Iliana has become everyone's sweetheart
… with Bosilek and the rest of America.
Besides
Micki Long and Cathie
Springer, who are the originals, now we have in the group
Virginia Berlin, Cipora
Blitz, Joyce de Saussure,
Connie Hassberg, Eniko
Horvath, Monica Ravinet,
Jill Sakowitz, Ruth
Viera, and Jean Zurn.
We are open
to new blood--women who have some dance experience and who love
to do Bulgarian dancing!
