The 'living' legend of Osman Taka and his dance

Have you seen or heard about the dance of Osman Taka? Well the dance is so popular until noways while the protagonist Osman Taka and his story become a legend now, passing to all generations.
Osman Taka was a real person, lived in Konispol in the border between Albania and Greece and belong to "çam community" and he was a warrior fighting ottomans in the years 1848-1887. Osman Taka was arrested during that time and sent to be executed in front of Vali of Ioannina. Before he being executed, he was asked to say his final wish. And Osman Taka's final wish was to dance.

He was with some other companions and asked them to dance together. It was a short dance, but so intense and touching, full of pride and melancholy, of power and grace, which left everyone speechless. It was the wife of Vali who first broke the silence, and protested that such a good dancer should not be hanged. So finally the governor, who, like the others, had admired in his heart that dance never seen before, publicly declared that the young man deserved to live, so that he could continue to dance, in that way, with those steps, in that inimitable way. Then, availing himself of his powers, he canceled the sentence, and sent Osman Taka alive, with his companions, to Konispol.


This dance is still so popular, and last almost 3 minutes..
During this dance the protagonist, supported by a hand by one of his companions, kneels and it slowly folds backwards, until it touches the ground with the nape of the neck, thus arching the chest upwards. On that chest, then, another dancer rests his foot, and rises above it with all his weight. But here, just when the dance seems over, another companions do the same. It is an amazing dance, a fantastic intangible heritage for Albanians.


See the original article for Osman Taka here 
See the famous dance below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=29&v=Mzu_cmXTfNc

18 foreigners dance to the Gjirokastra Folk Festival in Albania. Best closure ever!

There is no better closure for Gjirokastra Festival than 18 foreigners dancing professionally our folk dances and the crowd join them. It is so touching when you see foreigners to dance so beautifully and passionately our folk dances. 

"The last day of the Gjirokaster festival in Albania last week, the group of 18 foreigners I was in was asked to do a short performance on the main festival stage. Genci  Katsrati and Cees Hillebrand arranged costumes, we danced ... and later watched ourselves on Albanian television! At the end of the performance we went down from the stage and danced with the audience... this is how Lee Otterholt, one of the dancers from California comments the video on his Facebook Page.  

The initiator of all this is Cees Hillebrand the founder of  albanian-folklore.com designed to make Albanian folklore in all its aspects accessible for everyone who takes interest in Albanian folklore. The website, as Cees describes it  was named in respect to the Albanian people, living in Albania and neighboring countries like Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and Greece. The folklore of the Albanians who left their country to Italy from the 16th century onwards, called Arbëresh, has evolved in a different way through the centuries and is not taken into account in this project for the moment, although it will be very interesting to see the similarities and differences.

Cees Hillebrand in cooperation with  Albania Holidays and  professional dancers from Albanian National Folk Ensemble  is running seminar and tours to Albania  since 2010. Many tourists from different countries who share the passion for Albanian folk music and dances come to visit Albania and combine their tour with dance seminars. Cees is doing a great job also in documenting this with photos and videos.

It is so touching when you see foreigners to dance so beautifully and passionately our folk dances. We have shared previously another video when they sing the famous song :Janines c'i pane syte" with a very professional "iso" and combination of voices.

About Cees Hillebrand

Cees was born  in the Netherlands and took interest in Albanian folklore during one of his visits to western Macedonia, at that time a republic of the Yugoslav federation, many years ago. As Albania was closed at that time for foreigners it was difficult to get reliable information.
Albania remained a mystery to him and he started to study the Albanian folklore from whatever kind of information source he could get and finally in 2004 he was able to visit the Gjirokastër festival and experience with  own eyes and ears the richness of the Albanian folklore.

He cooperates with people from the National Ensemble of Folk Songs and Dances (AKKVP) in Tirana, scientists from the Academy of Science, ethnology department, and the Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana, people from the Centre for Immaterial folk culture, the Institute for Albanology at the University of Kosovo in Pristine and many others.(source: albanian-folklore.com)

If you would like to take the tour, see description here http://www.albania-holidays.com/tours-to-albania/albania-folk-tour