Evening of the Rehearsal
A cold November evening is descending upon Congaz. This evening brings young boys and girls to the local Community Center, which has preserved its appearance since Soviet times. Decorated with blue mosaics it looks like a starry sky. Young men and women gather there together to do something very important both for themselves and for the place where they live – for Gagauzia. They do folk art: dancing and music.
The hall of the Community Center echoes with the sounds of musical instruments. An ensemble rehearses behind the wall. Rhythmic beats of drums seem to shake the windows and even the wooden floor of the assembly hall transmits vibrations of the music. In that assembly hall, young people are preparing for a rehearsal of folk dances. All of them are participants of the ensemble ‘Diuz Ava’. In the recent past, it was an almost dead group, which two years ago rose like a Phoenix from ashes thanks to just one person.
Folk dancing is an important part of any culture. It tells the story of the people: what they went through, what they absorbed and what they have now become. Language of dancing is not verbal but it can tell a lot. Specialists can analyse each movement of dance into its constituent parts, as if a text is broken down to paragraphs and sentences. Ordinary people feel all that intuitively. In addition, the dance breathes with energy of those people who dance it.
The young people, girls and boys, are of different ages and places of residence. Their ages from 15 to 32. Most of them reside in Comrat, but there are also locals from Congaz. They gather in this very hall because the main House of Culture of Gagauzia (in Comrat) is undergoing restoration. For the last several months those who live in Comrat have to take mini-trips three times a week for rehearsals: on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
When half of those people who gathered there managed to change into their rehearsal clothes, which do not look like folk clothes at all – ordinary T-shirts, comfortable pants or shorts, a man enters the hall, without whom all this would not have happened. His name is Constantin Afanasievich Ghermec and he is a professional ballet-master. Young people greet him. Some of them approach him and shake hands. Others shout words of greeting. He greets everyone with a smile and takes a place just below the stage.
Those young people who do not dance today help with equipment: connect acoustic systems, adjust the light, set the music. While waiting for his turn, the accordionist takes his place on the right flank of the stage. Dancers go upstairs and the chaos begins. Very loud music begins, some that you do not expect to hear at a rehearsal of folk dances. Rap and hip-hop music hits of youth. Listening to familiar tracks young people dance vigorously, each as he or she wants, out of sync. It all lasts for 15 minutes. To start the rehearsal, they need a warm-up and that is exactly what they are doing.
Later the music has subsided. Constantin rises to the stage. All the dancers form a semicircle like a crescent around him. Very slowly and carefully, he shows dance movements, asks some dancers to repeat them, and he does not give up until they succeed in doing it as it should be. Then he demonstrates gliding movements of his body and absolutely all dancers, as if in unison, repeat them.
After this little training, dancers leave the stage in order to change into folk costumes. Gagauzians have very different costumes – black, blue and red. In the case of ‘Diuz-Ava’ they are of two colors – beige top and green bottom. It takes fifteen minutes to change. When everything is ready, the group splits in two. Guys on the right, girls on the left, looking from the audience.
The guys are the first to go on stage. To the beat of the drums and melody of the accordion they demonstrate their temper – brutally, energetically, aggressively make sharp dance movements, bouncing almost to their full height, yelling very loudly. When the guys have ‘blown off steam’, very delicately and gracefully the girls come from the left flank. With their hands up they ‘float’, thus emphasizing their exquisiteness and daintiness. Another moment and they blend in one common dance and then begin to hand over the baton to each other in movements.
When you are in the front row, the energy coming from the stage makes you lose your breath. The rhythms of music and loud stomping send vibrations through your whole boy. One cannot remain indifferent to all that. The dance itself with its integrity and narrative touches something very subtle in your soul. You believe it. These young boys and girls who listened to hip-hop only half an hour ago, all of a sudden have turned into a single living organism, moving synchronously, step-by-step, movement after movement. They have come to something much deeper than just a dance. It seems that during these ten minutes the whole Gagauzian temperament was demonstrated to spectators.
Constantin, leaning on the edge of the stage, looks at his disciples without interruption. At certain moments, you can see admiration in his eyes. These girls and boys are his inheritors.
Our Life is Like That – We are Deprived of Having Many Children
He began his career in choreography at the age of 11, when as a boy he saw for the first time in his life live performance of Ukrainian folk dance in the community center of the town of Vulcanesti. He fell in love – he wanted to try it, and he decided to enroll in the ballet group in the House of Pioneers. At the age of 16, despite unwillingness of his father, he went to study in Kishinev – to the ballet studio of the Ministry of Culture of the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic. The courses were tough, and the requirements for students were high, but he managed to stay in the group program. The teacher saw potential in him. His group did not manage to finish the two-year course. They were transferred to the new program of the ‘Fluieras’ ensemble, and they – young girls and boys – went on a tour: To Riga, Moscow and then Yugoslavia, India and other countries.
He was taken to the army and served in the military ensemble in Kiev. At the beginning of his service, he was an ordinary dancer, but closer to the end he became a soloist: “It might seem that we Moldovans, came there as professionals, but we were inferior to Ukrainians and Russians, because of different training of dancers. We had weak feet. We sat down and could not get up. But over time we caught up with everyone, due to the fact that we had deeper training, we came out with the first roles, even though there were just three of us.”
When he returned from the army to Kishinev, he started to work at the Kishinev Philharmonic. In Kishinev, he met his wife to be who was also a dancer. A couple of years later they went to work in Moscow. There were six of them and they organized a small group. They worked in Rosconcert and later travelled all over the Soviet Union with performances. They once had a tour in Sochi. They arrived there late at night. It was winter. In the morning, upon waking up in the hotel Constantin looked out of the window and saw something amazing – Palm trees covered with snow. Fairytale! I told them: “Guys, we will probably stay here to work further. I will do everything for that.”
Constantin held the position of the manager of the ensemble. Together with his wife, they lived in Sochi for 13 years. Their son was born in Sochi. In 1988, they came to Kishinev – In that 13 years they had come back for just one tour. Then the Soviet Union began to break down. “We faced a dilemma: Return to Sochi or stay at home? The fact that our son was 7 and had to go to school weighed us down. If he goes to school there (in Sochi) and in a year we will need to leave Russia again… It was better to stay here, especially since our parents were already sick. We decided to stay in Kishinev.”
After the breakdown of the USSR, all borders were opened to them and they started touring the whole world, from Canada to Asia. In the 1990’s together with his wife he decided to go on vacation to the seaside in Romania. And there, while already in Romania, he got an offer to perform in the ski resort Poiana Brașov. They intended to spend three months in Romania but worked there for 7 years.
In 1991, Ian Raiburg (Honoured Artist of Moldova) immigrated to New York and owned there a restaurant of Moldovan cuisine “Transylvania” in Queens-New York borough. He offered Constantin an opportunity to make a Gypsy dance show in his restaurant. Constantin agreed and left for New York. Very close to that place, such artists as Kirkorov and Pugacheva performed at that time. Nevertheless, New York was a ‘grey city’ for him, since his wife and his son worked in Paris. Half a year later, he left New York and went to join his family to France.
His son left for Ireland and quit dancing for financial reasons. At first, he worked at a theater and had a stable salary. Then the theater started paying only for performances and he changed his occupation which was not related to dancing anymore. After France, his wife became ill and passed away. Constantin stayed in Kishinev for some time and then his son invited him to Ireland. He left his homeland and went to Ireland.
An artist’s life cannot be called quiet. It means constant movements around the globe.
On the one hand, you have glory, money and adrenalin from performances and feeling of self-realization. On the other hand, there is lack of normal family life, difficulties with children, lack of the sense of home.
“If my wife is not a dancer and if she is not at my side, then it is not a family. From the very beginning, we know that if you want to create a family, you need to find a girl that would be at your side. The first ten years are luxurious – you work, you have tours, you enjoy, live your normal life with your wife, everything is great. Then our first child was born – my wife’s routine got completely upset. Then you need to raise him and it is good if you have grandparents. And since our grandparents lived in a village where you had to walk 3 kilometers to get some water we did not want to leave him there.”
“Our life is like that – we are deprived of an opportunity to have many children. It is unaffordable – the wife has to quit working, so she could deal with kindergartens and school. For the first time when you work, you could not even dream (about your home). There is certain drive in that, for sure, for the first ten years. Then you’ve got children and you think – there could be a different life, the family could be at home, you get up in the morning at home, then you go to work at a factory. You already start thinking differently. Although it comes out on top (lifestyle of a touring artist), you start thinking about it already.”
After his wife passed away and his son immigrated to Ireland, Constantin remained alone. At that time, the family outweighed the life balance and soon he left to join his son. In Ireland, he opened his own dance school at the Russian embassy. He taught people to dance; he lived in the same house as his son, with his wife and four grandchildren. His son was also a choreographer and they frequently discussed choreography when they saw it on TV.
Whatever I Have I Must Give to My People, Who Gave Me Life – I Took My First Breath Here
“At one point I was watching (on TV) a festival in Turkey. They announced “Ensemble from Gagauzia”. So I tell my son: “Son, this is our Gagauzian ensemble!” So we sat at the TV set and started watching: We heard Gypsy music, and the dance is poor – a Bulgarian one. “And what country is it, Gagauzia, “Does it not have its own choreography? What are we going to dance, whatever crosses one’s mind? I was immediately taken aback. Then a festival in Belarus and the same story there. And I was always invited there, always. I have expertise. Semenova told me: “Ensemble Diuz-Ava fell apart – Our choreographer left, there are no dancers. Please come to us.” I cannot come, because if I do something, then I will leave, I would not be able to live alone, I am not 20 and not 40, I have to return to my son. Only in one case I could return – to stage dances and to leave.”
“I immediately called Victor Petrovich with whom I worked before, and say: Vitya, if you come to dance to Diuz-Ava, I can return from Ireland and stage dances, but I will come only if you return as a performer and then remain its [the ensemble’s] leader. I persuaded him. Who will stage the Gagauz dance if not us? Or will we break up like that and when we go to festivals and ensembles come from the Caucasus or Tatarstan, etc. they would laugh at us? Of course not. I did not come back here to end my days. I came back to raise the Gagauz choreography. Tomorrow new people will come – God help them to appear – to augment our efforts considerably. But they are not here right now.”
“At first, when I had just come to the ensemble, there were just a couple of dancers. They danced something… to the extent they could, they danced. I will not say it was extremely bad. They danced normally. My goal was to stage exactly a Gagauz dance. I staged 8 dances and adapted two. With all that happening, half a year passed. My appetite grew: there was Celebration of Wine. A new dance was needed, Hederlez – a New Dance. I was fascinated by all that. I said: “Son, I cannot return because it has already become my life. I cannot leave it all here. I will stay here until the end. I am not staying here at gunpoint, I am staying with love. I do not want leave but the years are taking their toll. I have to leave. And that is what I came back for.”
“I feel responsible for it. This, first and foremost. Especially when it depends on you. If 20-30 people were doing one job – then if not me, then someone else. And when you feel that if you miss it today, you should do what you know how to do. Today I work for it. I did not come here to earn money – I have my own dance school in Ireland. I worked at the Russian embassy. I earned 20 times more money there than I earn here. My goal here is not money. But rather what I have, I have to give it to my people, that gave life to me. I took my first breath here. I have to do that! God help every person to realize it. He should give away whatever he has.”
Dance is the Universal Language of the World
“The very culture is the face of the nation. And what is a dance? One of the cultural elements. We cannot lose it, it is like chopping off a finger. Music, dance, theater – all that together creates the core of a nation. Dance is the universal language of the world. When looking at it, you can read it. I can read the grammar of the dance construction, can read elements of the choreography’s plastique, movement development, technique. This is the grammar of a dance. It applies to all dances in the whole world. Dance is universal.”
“When I was still a young man, a lot of folk festivals were held. And all these dances people danced were familiar to everyone – young and old. I was familiar with them as well. The nature of those dances. Very rich Gagauz folklore. We had 6 to 7 music time-signatures. With passing years, when you work as a performer, you accumulate certain knowledge. Knowing just one movement you can develop a whole creation, an academic one, of course.”
“An academic dance is a properly staged dance that is comprised of several correct things, it is a parabola. I will repeat the words of eminent people: Take 5 to 6 great singers and you will not get a choir. Doesn’t it seem so? For that reason, features? (dance elements) are adapted to become academic. Spectators stand up – you touch their souls. Nothing remains to be done but applaud. You should bring spectators to ecstasy. The dance remains. Whatever is done differently – today it is born, tomorrow it dies. But that remains.”
Dance is a similar piece of art as is a symphony, as music, a performance that lasts for two hours, it is arranged in a similar manner. It is a science.
“The dance emphasizes the nature of the nomadic people. Gagauzian means a warrior, Oguz, the one who was constantly attacked and the attacker. It is emphasized – why do we have swords, swings – they defended their right to exist. There are abrupt movements here – that is the warrior. How delicately do girls move? It is like a deer – they emphasize it. They pick up flowers, fruit. It is all from there. The East.”
“Why is the folklore so rich? Because of the Turk origin, because of very strong Balkan influence, and the Moldovan one. All that merges together. We cannot get away from it in any way. Even though there are people who say: ‘The Balkans, Moldova all that is extraneous for us, we do not need it, we need to create something new!’ It is impossible. A person lives; he has to demonstrate how he lives. We cannot get away from the Balkans, why? We moved there – Serbs, Greeks all originate from there. Bulgaria is close by. Naturally, you listen to the Balkan music and Moldovan harsh rhythms. Folklore is enriched. And thank God that we have it, it is good.”
It is Impossible to Find Gagauz Dances on YouTube, They Are Not Anywhere in the World – I Make Them Up
When all ensemble dancers slowly left the Congaz Community Center and silence returned, he remembered the most triumphant case in his career. It happened in France.
“There is a circus Medrano, a French one. I knew the impresario there, I worked with him. He called me and said they had a problem. They were preparing a Russian show. Ballet was to come from Saint Petersburg, but they refused at the last moment. It was one month before the first run. Nobody can substitute Saint Petersburg within one month. It is a leading city and the leading school of choreography in the world. I set up a deal; I came here, to Comrat, and on the basis of the local ensemble selected three couples and prepared six dances. We came to France, it was a little scary, but during the first performance the audience applauded and stood up. I was standing in the hall and had goosebumps. It was as if I was flying in the clouds – euphoria. Because the dances were accepted, the French were applauding the dances that I staged, but even not because of that. But because when they announce “Le Ballet de Saint-Pétersbourg” and we get onto the stage, and we perform, and they applaud us, and out of six persons five are Gagauz.”
“I was a performer back then. At that time I was responsible for myself. I cried when it was bad and I smiled when it was good. I digested it all inside. Here I have the right to make mistakes. I mean you have to shine here. The culture of the people who gave birth to me is presented and I exist here today. It is its face. Of course, it is different. There I am a performer. Whether my dance has passed or not ‘Bravo Constantin’. But here – the people. Not just a single person, but the whole nation. Right here on the stage.”
“There are supporters who say: “Well now, you set classic movements”. I can even set a hand in such a way that it would emphasize it. I can emphasize steps that my people took. That is what matters. Of course, this is more important.”
There are no Gagauz movements, Moldovan or Russian movements. There is character – and everything else is experience of a ballet-master who can stage whatever you can imagine.
“I always see the negative side, what is missing. And that I will correct it tomorrow. These are my dances – it is impossible to find Gagauzian dances on YouTube, they are nowhere in the world. I compose them”.
- Subtitles in English are available.
