traditional dances    /    nonstylized dances    /    trio dances

ogrodnik

nonstylized dancesmap

The culture of Pieniny (Szczawnica) highlanders exhibits influences and shared elements of highlander cultures of the Podhale, Spisz and Nowy Sącz regions. It is distinguished by distinctive folk costumes, profession (rafting) and local dialect. The region is situated at the intersection of important trade routes, so local culture was influenced by contacts with Silesia and Austria-Hungary. This is reflected also in the local dances.

> Read more
 

The name of this dance is derived from zagrodnik (trojak in Silesia). It is performed by three dancers – a man and two women on his sides. The dance consists of alternating parts in slow (3/4 metre) and fast tempo (2/4 metre). The first part features an accompanying song (przyśpiewka):

Kiej ześ do domu owiecki gnała,

cemuś ty na mnie nie zawołała?

Jo was wołała, nie słyseliście,

muzycka grała, tańcowaliście.

In the past, the first verse was sung by men, and the second by women. The dance preserves the basic position from Silesian trojak (zagrodnik), but features highlander melody and dance steps. In the slow part, dancers in groups of three stand in place and perform half-turns to the right and to the left, with short steps. When the music picks up tempo, the man revolves for a few times with each woman, in elbow handhold. The man begins the turns by accentuating them with two stamps in place. Later, while alternating the slow and fast parts of the dance, the trios create several figures, forming a cross or a star, and rotating against the sun (counterclockwise) with short running steps. The outside women leave, make a turn (practically in place), and join the partners from the trio behind them. The cross or the star keeps revolving until the women return to their original trios.

In the following part, the trios connect and form circles (basket handhold) and rotate in place in both directions with obyrtany step. Next, they return to trios in elbow handhold and perform full turns in trios (around a common axis), alternatingly to the right and to the left, with gentle stamping (cupkanie) when changing the direction.

 

Dudek, Aleksandra. Pienińskie tańce ludowe. “Prace Pienińskie”, 2004, no. 14, pp. 45-61, Szczawnica.

Kotoński, Władysław. Piosenki z Pienin. Kraków: PWM, 1956.

Kultura ludowa Górali Pienińskich. Ed. Katarzyna Ceklarz, Urszula Janicka-Krzywda. Kraków: Oficyna Wydawnicza “Wierchy”, 2014.