Tag Archives | Russia

Our Kalinka is Kickin’

If you know one traditional Russian folk dance, you probably know the Preesyadka.

We recently met “Kalinka,” the iconic Russian folk song that is usually accompanied by “Preesyadka,” an acrobatic squat and bouncing dance. The little kiddos reeeeeeally enjoy dancing to Kalinka in class, singing about the pine tree and the snowberry and kicking our legs up in the air. Maybe we’re not technically impressive, but what we lack in all skill we make up in the unnatural ability to look silly without feeling embarrassed.

Kalinka thanks the Red Army

“Kalinka,” the most famous Russian folk song, may hav eexisted well before the Soviet Union’s Red Army Choir, for generations of those who lived under Soviet rule they may as well have been one and the same.

Let’s start our time in Russia with an icon. Kalinka is a mid-19th century Russian song that has had multiple lives: as a pre-Soviet standard, an officially sanctioned autocratic Soviet-era folk anthem, a post-Soviet elctro-pop hit and, not at all least, the soundtrack for “Tetris.” It has also become an internationally popular folk dance that you may recognize from a wedding, bar mitzvah or random late night college party. This version, by the ensemble formerly-known-as the Red Army Choir, is the mother lode.

It’s Not ALL Russia…But it’s a lot Russia.

We’re HERE! Russia. Russia is massive in every respect and has always known it. Russia has never been shy about exerting its influence, never timid about being a dominant power; every country we’re going to explore this session has spent decades, if not centuries, under Russian rule. Sure, Russia is not the world power it was just two decades ago, but a nation so essential to the global power structure, one with a thousand years of hard-fought, heartfelt history…Russia is always going to be huge and its influence, especially in Eastern Europe, is everything.

Iva Nova takes us to the Future

Is Iva Nova a band of the future?

Today, Russia’s musical future! Russia’s musical future may well be one of super-electronic mega-music full of all the modern bells and whistles, which Russia has a lot of to be sure. Still, let’s imagine a future where musical ensembles like “the coolest female Russian Band,” Iva Nova embrace the best parts of the nation’s Slavic culture while still being empowering, forward-thinking and, in the best sense of the word, fierce. Let’s go forth from Russia this week with Iva Nova and with HOPE!

Darida, da da Darida, da da Darida, da da Darida!

Our version of the Ingush/Chechen folk song “Darida” gives us a chance to a song using all the kids names, pretend to “run” by patting our knees, and of course learn all the intricacies of the intertwined histories of Chechyna, North Ossetia and Ingushetia.

I’m Going to Catch You Darida

What is your favorite Ingush song? I’d bet $5 it’s soon going to be this one.

“Darida” is a traditional Ingush love song that, in its original form, is a conversation between a man and a woman he loves (and is “chasing.”) “Darida” means “la la la” in Chechen. In class we sing it with just as much bravado as you see in this video, albeit not with our best friends on a concrete platform in the middle of the mountains.

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Tag Archives | Russia