Filip Petkovski

This research explores the role of cultural heritage in post-Yugoslav states, specifically focusing on dance heritage as a means of emphasizing national and cultural identity while also generating cultural and economic capital. By analyzing three social dances from Macedonia, Serbia, and Croatia recognized by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage, this study examines the gradual process of heritagization and recontextualization that these dances underwent before receiving recognition. The research highlights the politics of safeguarding local or national culture, as formal recognition by UNESCO transforms these dances from local traditions into subjects of global culture that can be marketed internationally. The study further demonstrates the crucial role that choreographers play in making dance heritage accessible to wider audiences and how heritage appreciation and safeguarding can be viewed as attempts to reintroduce and adapt heritage practices into modern societies. Ultimately, this research contributes to our understanding of the politics of choreographing and performing dance as intangible cultural heritage and the ways in which it is used to legitimize national cultures and identities.

During the existence of Yugoslavia (1945–1991), the leading political ideology of “brotherhood
and unity” had to be manifested in all forms of cultural life. Promoting the physically capable
body as part of a larger cultural movement, Yugoslavia witnessed the transformation of physical daily
regimens into mass bodily spectacles performed at stadiums, called sletovi, demonstrating the power
of mass-choreographed discipline. Similarly, Yugoslav choreographers were encouraged to develop a
distinct performance aesthetic based on stylization as a rhetoric for modernization, using folk dance
as a medium to showcase and promote the collective body of the people through choreographed
folklore spectacles. Focusing on these two case studies that exemplify how mass choreography was
used as a strategy to choreograph the Yugoslav society, this paper analyzes how political ideologies
and their constructions through physicality supported the Yugoslav state project, thereby pointing to
the present-day remnants of these aesthetics in the post-Yugoslav republics, evident in mass protests.
By utilizing archival and choreographic analysis, I demonstrate how movement and dance impacted
the public understanding of unity and helped the creation of a Yugoslav socialist society, drawing
from Andrew Hewitt’s thesis on “social choreography”.

This research focuses on the process of heritagization and
how it functions to both legitimize a dance practice and generate
a new set of values for the practice. More specifically, I
explore how the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) inscribed Modern Dance in
Germany as Humanity’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) on
its Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of
Humanity in 2022. I argue that this designation is a gradual
recontextualization, that impacts both the practice itself and
its status among global communities. Ultimately, this discursive
change puts into question the categorization of German
Modern Dance as “modern” in the midst of other “traditional”
dances inscribed as heritage on the same list, and sparks
questions about the influence of labels and categories on
dance practices. I illustrate how the creation of dance as ICH
enhances comprehension of national agendas linked to heritage
appreciation, illuminates institutional participation in the
formation of “national heritage,” and significantly contributes
to the necessary definition and codification process for inscription,
while also acknowledging the evolving and mutable
nature of Modern Dance in Germany.

In this article I discuss the process of choreographing “traditional” and “folk” dances in the former Yugoslavia, aligned with Yugoslav socialist ideologies that glorified the collective cultural authorship of the people, which allowed for these dances to adopt a new dimension as they took the form of a choreographed spectacle. I explain how Yugoslav choreographers utilized archival research to create a repertoire of choreographic representations of Yugoslav identity in constructing what I theorize as heritage choreography. Reflecting on how ideology moved the collective body of the Yugoslav people through choreographed works deemed as heritage, I broaden the understanding of choreographing that differs from Western concert dance practices. Furthermore, I provide alternative examples of dance making that are rooted in local understandings of spectacle, thereby enriching the conversation about what the act of choreographing entails.

Since the 1930s, Yugoslav "folk" or "traditional" dances have gained the attention of many scholars who were interested not only in studying their form, but their attachments to nationalism and prevailing political ideologies. Such cultural expressions, which were later labeled as "folklore," developed with Romantic nationalism in the Yugoslav area. In this paper, I argue that through their quest for collecting peasant music and dance expressions for the purpose of creating an archive, folklorists and dance researchers were invested in creating discourses that were directly dependent on the emergence and the politicization of terms such as narodna kultura (folk culture), "folklore," and "tradition." This series of shifts allowed for social dances to assume greater import and provide a source of pride and appreciation for the communities associated with their performance. Finally, I trace the creation and the development of the fields of folklore and ethnochoreology. In order to do so, I analyze the work of dance researchers in Yugoslavia and in independent Macedonia, Serbia, and Croatia, who collected and archived this body of knowledge and published some of the first texts that represent peasant dance as folklore.

In this paper, I explore the chronological development of Macedonian identity as expressed through the dance repertoire of the National Ensemble of Folk Dances and Songs of Macedonia Tanec. In its seventy years of existence, the ensemble has been governed by several directors and dance leaders, who created repertoire through which they represented Macedonian musical and dance heritage and identity, each influenced by ideologies of the current political party. I identify three phases: 1949-1989 and the creation of a national Macedonian and Yugoslav repertoire; 1991-2006 and the inclusion of the repertoire of Macedonians in the diaspora as a means of strengthening Macedonian identity, the switch to a leftist government, and attempts to incorporate the repertoire of the minorities living in Macedonia and; 2006-2017 and direct involvement with the governing political party, increased use of narrow national symbols, and performances during political meetings and protests. In each of these three different phases, the politics of Macedonian identity were reshaped and re-established, while the national ensemble was used directly or indirectly as a tool for a political propaganda. This paper problematizes the concept of representation of identity through dance.

I focus on the performances of the most prominent and internationally known Macedonian dances, Lesnoto, Teshkoto, and Kopachkata during the protests of the citizen initiative entitled “Za Zaednichka Makedonija” [For a Common Macedonia]1 or “Ilinden 4”. Many Macedonian artists and institutions who openly supported the protests, including several amateur folk dance ensembles as well as The National Ensemble of Folk Dances and Songs of Macedonia “Tanec”, were the target of harsh criticism, mostly due to the question of whether their participation was voluntary or paid. My crucial point in this discussion, however, is that dance was used as a symbolic political strategy in the form of staged display, where through a patriotic gaze based on emotional response, the audience was engaged in the performance of the nation, one that is often emblematic of the past. Through my concern with the production of identity and how identity can be negotiated through dance, I argue that these “folk” and “national” dances were decontextualized from social to spectacular in order to express a distinctive Macedonian identity and to assume pride of place. The dances that I mention in this text are not only “folk” or “traditional” as they are often labeled. They come from the idea that they represent what Theresa Buckland frames as dances “in the field,” (Buckland 1999) where the “folk” were usually peasant societies that performed the dances in a social context, as part of their everyday lives. However, along with several processes of recontextualization, these dances were often globally exported as a popular medium through which the state could express a form of national perception, and today they exist as “national heritage” as well.

The topic I have chosen is the Nijemo Kolo- a silent folk dance from the Dalmatian Hinterland in Croatia. In this essay, my inspiration is the concept of folk dance, where I focus on dance in text, while later I write about the experience of witnessing folk dance and I focus on dance performance. My main argument in this paper is that in the Balkans, during folk dance performances, the general audience is often only informed, therefore interested in the idea of the concept of the dance instead of its actual and physical performance. I will use Egil Bakka's and Gediminas Karoblis'24 theory of "concept and realization" when talking about the dance, as a starting point to demonstrate this phenomenon. Finally, I am testing my own different personas as a dancer, ethnochoreologist and as a tourist by approaching a performance of the Nijemo Kolo through three different, what Lena Hammergren 25 calls personas. Starting with this question, I present three different explanations of experiencing the Nijemo Kolo as performed by "Lado" - the Croatian National Folk Dance Ensemble.

This paper will acknowledge the contribution of Trajko Popov and the folk dance group from the village of Rashtak though a historical and cultural prism. In
the 1930s, the folk dance group from Rashtak is the first group in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes that toured internationally and presented the Macedonian traditional music and dance. Because of these and similar happenings, an ideology is created for the formation of the cultural- artistic societies and later the creation of the national ensemble of folk music and dance. Because of the positive rating of the group and the international success, dance researchers such as the sisters Jankovic and Maud Karpeles mention the Macedonian folk dance for the first time in the ethnochoreological milieu, that is being developed around the same time. Later, through the formation of the ensemble Tanec in 1949, Emanuel Chuchkov the first director presents Macedonia for the first time through an academic paper in the field of the ethnochoreology at the fourth symposium of the International Council of Traditional Music. If we take into consideration the political and the cultural state of Macedonia at that time, we can notice that for the first time in the Macedonian history the question of the Macedonian identity is posed through the folk dance that is later posed as a political propaganda.

This paper draws a parallel between the three of the most popular folk dances practiced on social occasions in Macedonia: Chuchuk from the Skopje Blatiya region, Chachak, derived from the repertoire of the Serbs and Chochek, a dance with oriental background, mostly popular within the Roma communities. All of these dances are tied to certain ethnic groups, and throughout time, they witness their structural changes in their social practice and their stage adaptations. Since the literature for these dances is scarce, one can only imagine the factors that were used as inspiration for their creation. Even though the roots of the dances can be traced to foreign countries, over the time, they merged into the practice of the folk dance repertoire of the Macedonians and today they are one of the most famous and largely practiced dances on social occasions and the stage.

CRNOGORKA – A FOLK DANCE THAT DOES NOT EXIST

Summary
The subject of this research is one of the most famous Macedonian dances called Crnogorka. The dance has a rich yet confusing history because of its name and of its form. According to the discussion in Macedonia, which is often aside from the academia, there are two forms of a dance: authentic dance and stylized dance. I proceed with a brief history of the research of this dance, mentioning early folklorists that mention this dance in their research as well as the sisters Ljubica and Danica Jankovic who mention a similar dance under the name Lisa.
Later, few authors start to look at the dance in its choreographed form as part of the repertoire of the ensemble “Tanec”. The Macedonian ethnochoreologist Mihajlo Dimovski makes a structural analysis of the choreographed version of the dance, as well as Elsie Dunin who analyses the dance in its first form in the early years of Tanec. On the other hand, Blaze Palčevski and Kiril Todevski analyze the choreographed version of the dance, while ethnochoreologist Elena Stevkovska compares the field versions of the dances Lisa and Crnogorka for the first time.
I have combined this research, along with various video recordings of the authentic and the staged form of the dance as well as the Laban scores from the mentioned researchers. Ethnochoreologicaly, it appears that the dance Lisa and Crnogorka carry the same structure and might be the same dance after all. The problem was the name of the dance, as well its concept and realization, according to Georgiana Gore and Egil Bakka. The dance Crnogorka today exists in a world of “parallel traditions”, both on the stage and on the field, which creates additional confusion regarding its name, form and concept in general.

The professional dance ensembles in Eastern Europe, which are often the national
folk ensembles of their countries, have been the target of many critics regarding their
method of work, their popularised representation of traditional music and dance. These
are the institutions that 'professionally' present the cultural heritage of their countries,
and differ from any of the other similar institutions because of their well-practiced
theatrical presentations. But is professionalism only presented through the unified
performances on stage? Who decides what makes these ensembles more professional
than the village groups that have presented their own cultural heritage for much
longer? This paper will reflect on the practice of the Eastern European folk ensemble
and their effort towards building professionalism through presenting folk dance on
stage. This text focuses on the creation of folk dance ensembles and their artistic
mission, as well as the creation of choreographed works and the manipulation of folk
dance.