Joc de Leagăne

Joc de Leagăne is a folk dance from the Maramureş region of Romania. Theodor Vasilescu learned the dance from a village performing group, and Nicolaas Hilferink learned it from Vasilescu and taught it widely throughout the recreational folk dance community of USA and abroad. However, just as with Hora Miresii, Vasilescu would later observe the dance being done and said something to the effect, “You are doing it all wrong!” To the recreational folk dancer, the differences are minor, and the prospect that this artifact is merely a performance adaptation of a simpler ancient dance, done long ago, puts those concerns into perspective.

There are multiple interpretations of what this dance actually represents. For a very good breakdown of those, visit Don’s page for the dance on Folkdance Footnotes. The common interpretation is that this represents a ceremonial dance for mothers to honor their midwives and show off their healthy children when they have survived twelve to eighteen months since birth. Some notes list it as a celebration of the midwife’s birthday, and the mothers bring food and gifts and ask forgiveness for the burden they have caused her, but she says it was no burden. It makes sense that one would use the birthday of the midwife rather than birthdays of the children. It’s easier to make a one-year-plus-six-month child birth window for participants, but what happens for the births that more than six months out from that of the midwife? The midwife’s birthday celebration version and the 12-18 months since birth version of the story seem incompatible. Don discovered an additional interpretation closely following the story of a celebration for the midwife, but the timing is on the 2nd or 3rd day of Easter rather than on the midwife’s birthday.

There is debate on whether a dancers would actually have a child strapped to her chest when doing the dance or merely have the child inside the circle in a cradle (leagăne). In a simpler village version of the dance rather than a performance version, carrying a child without the use of any sort of sling is possible, as you can see demonstrated in the video of the women’s singing group below.

I recommend that you watch Theodor Vasilescu’s video. If you are just learning the dance, this is the one to follow. If your folk dance village already has a version established, just stick to it. You could certainly try to change to the original hand hold, if nothing else. Notable in Vasilescu’s version is hard heel stamps rather than brushes in the last section. Also, when the arms swing, there is little body movement, and any movement is as a whole with the arms (his wife does much more swaying).