Transnationality, Transculturality and Ethnicity: A Look at Balkan Fest, San Diego, California

Year 2019, Volume: 3 Issue: 1, 1 - 36, 30.06.2019

Daniela Ivanova-nyberg

https://doi.org/10.33906/musicologist.563206

Abstract

This text is the result of an ethnochoreological and anthropological
investigation of folk dance practices at Balkan Fest in San Diego, California
(2013 et seq.), in which the Bulgarian community plays a central role. Although
Balkan Fest has already been approached in one of my earlier works, and the
California Bulgarian community has been addressed in a paper discussing the
‘re-discovery’ of Bulgarian folk dance, there was no focus on transnational and
transcultural approaches (and experiences) in these works, which are addressed
in the present text; these approaches are adopted here for setting the context
and supporting my analysis. Balkan Fest reveals “ways of belonging”, in which
Bulgarian music and dance play an important role. This article proposes that,
to many of the festival’s attendees, the festival’s campground became a space
(a ‘village,’ a ‘home’) where one is physically absent, but spiritually and
emotionally present in one’s country of origin. Besides being a playground –
both metaphorically and literally – the festival offers various activities for
children to retain their Bulgarian ethnic identity (although raised as
Bulgarian-Americans). Simultaneously, this is a California ‘Balkan Fest,’ in
which people of different backgrounds meet, and where the dance floor becomes a
venue for the convergence of various dance traditions.

Keywords

Music, Dance, Festival, Bulgarian community, USA

Thanks

PCHELA Bulgarian Cultural and Educational Society; Californian Bulgarian community; Trabzon University State Conservatory – for providing a forum to present this research (3rd International Music and Dance Studies Symposium, Trabzon, Turkey, October 17-20, 2018)

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