Photo credit: (c) Mircea ROSCA / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

Three years ago international star Jay-Z even incorporated several bars of the Capalna Girls’ Walking Line Dance tune in his Murder to Excellence. Jay-Z sampled the Walking Dance tune he actually took over from the folklore-inspired song of Indiggo twins Mihaela and Gabriela Modorcea who are mentioned in the credits among the artists who helped make his piece.

Each village on the Tarnava Mica river has its specific Walking Line Dance and the best known of them is the dance of the Capalna de Jos — Jidvei commune, a village where Veta Biris, one of the most acclaimed folklore performers lives. Veta Biris also helped promote this dance at national level.

One can say this Walking Line Dance took Capalna de Jos — a village attested as early as in 1332 and inhabited exclusively by Romanian families, out of anonymity.

The origin and age of this dance are unknown, but definitely they go back to the Middle Ages; the lyrics are passed down orally from one generation to another and the girls learn the jerky rhythm steps from their mothers at the tender age of 4 or 5, says ethnographer Petruta Pop.

Proof of the age of this dance is also given by the fact that it has no instrumental accompaniment: the girls make their own melody line, Petruta Pop told AGERPRES.

“The Girls’ Walking Line Dance seems meant to demonstrate how, by means so simple, one can get strong effects, the dance creates a special atmosphere. The secret seems to rely in those unexpectedly eloquent breaks that suppress the monotony of an informal walk and also in the cry-out verses sung in chorus,” says Petruta Pop.

The dance performed on counterpoint was discovered a few decades ago by a primary school teacher named Stana, who had come from the south of the Carpathians, from the so-called Old Kingdom, having married headmaster of the Capalna school, Teodor Biris. She organized the village girls by age groups.

“Us, the gentry, as the village folks called those who had pursued higher education in various universities, had not noticed its beauty, although we participated regularly in the entertainment activities of the young people on Sundays and on holidays. Stana Biris, a woman with an artist’s sensitivity, had to come from some remote part of the country to discover and to show this dance to the world, as it is performed, with its special distinction,” notes a son of the village, Dr. Vasile Marcu in the monograph of the Jidvei commune published several years ago. Born in 1910, he mentioned that his grandmother too used to dance this line step.

Amazed by the beauty and purity of the interpretation, Stana Biris set the basis of the local folk dance ensemble and brought the Capalna girls out into the world, with this dance garnering a host of awards and distinctions at various festivals and competitions.

Now aged 71, Istina Purcel was also a member of the ensemble, just like her sisters and then her daughter, right from their teens. “I performed with the ensemble for ten years, until I got married,” she said.

She remembers the girls doing the dance every Sunday at the socializing venue in the barn in the village center where the young folks would gather.

“We had a teacher who had come here from near Bucharest, named Stana; she married in Capalna with Teodor Biris — grandparents of actor Silviu Biris. I invited her to come see the girls dance on Sundays in the barn. The mothers came too, they would not let the lasses go alone to the venue. First they danced the spinning dance — ‘Invartita’ and the ‘Hategana’. Both very brisk dances. During break time, while the boys would rest and chat, us girls would perform the ‘Purtata’. We would join hands and step on it. The barn had a wooden floor and one danced just as if on stage. There were other girls-only dances: ‘Drambolicul’ and ‘Purceii’. Mrs. Stana told us: If you can dance so beautifully and accurately, let’s show our performance to the world. Wherever we’ve been we have always landed the first spot,” the woman recalled for AGERPRES.

At first, the girls wore embroidered skirts. “In the beginning the suit was white and black. Then it was blue. When we started to travel outside the country, to add some pep, we sewed our skirts blue with metal thread,” Istina Purcel related.

She says that the school teacher also decided that the girls should wear during the dance a blue-embroidered hat. “When we danced in the barn it was hot and we didn’t have the hats on, we just hung them on the peg. Stana Biris made us wear the hat. Underneath one wears the kerchief tied tightly with a knot at the back of the head to keep the hair hidden. It must be black with blue, green or yellow flower prints. Not red. The hat sits on your head so that you can see the brim. That’s what Mrs. Biris used to tell us,” explained the woman.

Also Stana Biris decided that the length of the skirts should be mid-calf and the girls should wear heeled, embroidered shoes, which were custom-made in Sibiu and Tarnaveni.

“First one adjusts the step. It goes three steps back and then you start right foot first. You must always start the dance with the right foot. If you weren’t on the correct foot, you couldn’t follow the other girls, you would misstep and end up out of the group. At one point, the row breaks. When they separate, the first and the last girl put their hands on their hips. The other girls keep their right hand under the left hand of the girl in front,” said Istina Purcel.

Recruiting the girls starts in the second grade. The girls in the young age group have red-embroidered skirts, the middle-aged group from 10 to 15 have their costume embroidered with black, and the senior group — with blue.

According to Istina Purcel, Stana Biris managed the ensemble until around 1968, when she moved to Bucharest, after her children were admitted to college. Biology teacher Veronica Dan took over, followed by Cicuta Ignat — an offspring of the village, and then school teacher Maria Florea. The current instructor is Angela Fodor.

The group includes on average 30 unmarried girls; they proudly wear the skirt and blue apron, the blouse with zigzag seam stitching, the vest sewn with metal thread, a kerchief and hat adorned with a blue ribbon. On their feet they wear high-heeled shoes with decorative holes.

At the first glance, the Capalna Girls’ Walking Line Dance seems very simple. The girls just move daintily in choreographed spirals, lines and circles. Side by side, they keep tight to one another, with arms intertwined and walk in precise cadence singing their songs along.

The dance — rather a procession — goes smoothly, or changes quickly from left to right, forward or backward, swaying or tightly upheld, with often uneven phrases.

The first girl has a great responsibility. She is the one who sets the tone of the song and leads the string of girls. This position cannot be filled by just any girl, it must be someone who knows both the choreographic movements and the tune, says Petruta Pop.

Photo credit: (c) Mircea ROSCA / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The lyrics of the ‘Purtata’ speak mainly about love.

Petruta Pop considers that this dance of the Capalna girls should be placed in direct relationship with the mystery of fertility. “The dance has elements that refer to a fertility rite. We could even consider this Girls’ Walking Line as a collective dance marking in archaic societies the end of the initiation period of a group of girls,” concludes Petruta Pop. AGERPRES