Omorfoula/Ličenoto

Doppelgänger Dance Alert: Well, more like a Sextuplegänger dance. Once again, people were asking for trouble by naming dances for the village or region or naming them the same as the music tune. What we have here is over half a dozen names for the same dance and and at least that number in variations, but it’s not possible to link a name to variation. Because there are two predominate tunes used, I have divided up videos by the tune…unless I can group by variation. The Doppelgänger page is Armensko/Aloniotikos. Please check that out for the same dance done to a different tune.

These dance variations by the names: Aloniotikos, Armensko, Akritikos, Tsotso (Chocho), Omorfoula, Ličenoto, and the gods know by what others, can be distilled into a simple maxim. “A Pousteno/Beranche/Leventikos-type dance in 4/4 time,” (Stephen Kotansky). I call this a Pušteno/Pousteno for beginners, because the real Pušteno is in 9/8 + 7/8 time, and it takes some attention to understand the rhytem . This family of dances from the Flórina region in Greek Macedonia have the following 3-bar basic format:

1. Lift R with a bounce on L; back up and move R LOD.
2. Travel LOD.
3. Lift L with a bounce on R; back up and prepare for lift on R.

I discovered a dance titled “Armensko” first in the collection of YouTube videos of dances to accompany the Xenos album of Flórinan Greek music entitled Florinalia. I liked the simple, catchy tune, and I was excited to find a demo video by Andy Bettis by the same “Armensko” title. However, my luck ran out trying to find any performance or village videos or IFD dance note by that title that matched the dance, except in basic format. But then I searched by the tune used by Andy Bettis, Omorfoula (aka Ličenoto), and got lots of new variations, but nothing with the arm swings. I think the arm swings are probably a later addition to add some zest.

The Dance Names

Omorfoula, aka Ličenoto, is an old Greek Macedonian folk song/tune often featuring a Greek floghera (φλογέρα), a simple bamboo flute, or a more modern flute, clarinet, or trumpet. The simple flute appears in traditional Jewish music as well. The tune Omorfoula reminds me of Mechol Halahat.

Armensko is the former name of the city currently named “Alona,” located in the Florina regional unit of Western Greek Macedonia, near the northern border between Greece & current Republic of North Macedonia, not to far from Albania to the west. A village nearby is Akritas. The true name of the dance may be “Tsotso,” which is the clan name of a family of musicians in the area, with the lineage reaching back to the first clarinet player of the region and his wife, a well-respected dancer (Joe Graziosi, Stockton 2019).

https://folkdancemusings.blogspot.com/2020/07/tsotso-aloniotikos-greece.html
https://www.andybettis.com/dance/steps/Armensko.html
https://socalfolkdance.org/dances/O/Omorfoula.pdf
https://socalfolkdance.org/dances/O/Omorfula_(Akritikos)_A_Greek.pdf
http://www.folkdancecamp.org/s/Aloniotikos-2010SFDC.pdf
Tsotso -Joe Graziosi,- Stockton FDC 2019