From: young@icad.com (Jonathan H. Young)
Newsgroups: rec.folk-dancing
Subject: International Folk Dancing and "The Macedonian Question"
Date: 18 Nov 92 21:11:45 GMT
Organization: ICAD Inc., Cambridge, MA


I hesitate to open up rec.folk-dancing for a flame fest, but I was
very disturbed by an incident last weekend and wanted to discuss the
issues on the net so other international dance groups are not
surprised if/when similar events happen to them.

[Disclaimer:  I do not speak for or represent the MIT Folk Dance Club.]

Last weekend, the MIT Folk Dance Club was very fortunate to host Pece
Atanasovski, who gave a weekend workshop in Macedonian dances from his
native region (near Skopje).

Unfortunately, some of the publicity for the workshop was
understood by the local Greek community as being political in nature,
and they attended the Saturday workshop and culture corner to protest.
We were able to avoid a major incident largely through the
intervention of the MIT Hellenic Student's Association, although some
dancers were intimidated by the protest.

As you might imagine, the MIT Folk Dance Club was somewhat surprised
by the protest.  Although we promote the dances of all cultures, we
were accused of taking a partisan political position on an issue with
international repercussions.

In conversation with the protesters it was unclear how we could have
avoided take a partisan position.  They argued that "Yugoslav
Macedonia" was a fiction promulgated by Tito in the 1940s with
expansionist intent, and that the only true Macedonia was entirely
contained within Greece.  Furthermore, they stated that there was no
authentic indigenous culture or ethnicity north of Greece, because it
had all been supplanted by slavic pseudo-culture imposed by the
communist regimes over the last 40 years.

International folk dancers routinely distinguish between "showy"
arranged or choreographed dances and the strong, simple character of a
village dance, and we have long lamented the suppression of the
indigenous cultures under communism and other oppressive regimes.  We
try to learn about the culture and history of the regions from which
our dances come, and we try to use terms which bear some relation to
this culture and history.  

In particular, the MIT Folk Dance Club has historically used the term
"Macedonian" to refer an amorphous region of the Balkans with similar
dance and musical styles, not delimited by any national or provincial
boundaries.  In my experience, this usage is consistent with that of
other international folk dance clubs in the United States, and
includes portions of south-western Bulgaria, northern Greece, and the
southern region of the former Yugoslavia (which is now calling itself
the Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia).  In addition to being a useful
distinction in terms of dance styles, it is my understanding that the
term has been used to refer to this region for hundreds of years.
(This does not negate the Greek fear of invasion from the north.)

Of course, we were not unaware of recent political developments in the
Balkans, including the establishment of an independent state calling
itself Macedonia out of the southern portion of Yugoslavia, and the
fact that the Greek government has opposed the use of the name
"Macedonia" for this country.  It is my understanding that the EEC and
the United States have not yet officially recognized Macedonia because
of the name issue that Greece has raised.

How can international folk dancers continue to refer to this region
without causing an international incident?  In general, we defer to
our workshop leaders in choosing the appropriate adjectives to refer
to their dances.  Do we have to resign ourselves to controversy any
time we learn dances from a region of the world whose name is in
dispute?  

				--- Jonathan Young (young@icad.com)