CÎRLIGUL Romanian
PRONUNCIATION:	KER-lee-goo The -ul ending, pronounced "-oo" (colloquial) or "-ool" (more formal usage) is a form of the Romanian definite article, the equivalent of English "the;" hence cîrligu = "crochet hook," cîrligul = "the crochet hook."
TRANSLATION:	Crochet hook
SOURCE:	Dick Oakes learned this dance from Sunni Bloland who introduced Cîrligul at the 1969 Balkan/Near-East Festival in Portland, Oregon. She learned the dance during her 1967-68 research trip to Romania from Anca Giurchescu, dance ethnographer at the Institute of Ethnography and Folklore in Bucharest (Bucureşti). The music, specific to the dance, was played by the local musicians.
BACKGROUND:	The dance movements of Cîrligul are typical of dances from Southern Oltenia. This region comprises the flat lands along the river Danube with many compact villages unlike the linear villages of the sub-Carpathians. Many dances come from Goicea and Bârca, which are so close to each other that the edge of one is at the start of the next village. Oltenia, also called Lesser Wallachia, with the alternate Latin names Wallachia Minor, Wallachia Alutana, Wallachia Caesarea in use between 1718 and 1739, is a historical province and geographical region of Romania, in western Wallachia. It is situated between the Danube, the Southern Carpathians and the Olt river (although counties in the east extend beyond the river in Muntenia in some areas).
MUSIC:	Naroc Records (7"EP) NA 1054-EP, Romanian Folk Dances, Side B, Band 5
FORMATION:	Closed cir of M and W with hands joined and held down in "V" pos.
METER/RHYTHM:	2/4
STEPS/STYLE:	PAS-DE-BASQUE: Facing ctr, step R in place (ct 1); step L across in front of R (ct &); step R in place (ct 2); pause (ct &). The repeat is with opp ftwk. Steps are rather flat-footed except in meas 5-6 where wt is taken on the ball of the ft. Notated as PDB.
MEAS	MOVEMENT DESCRIPTION
	INTRODUCTION
1-6	No action.
I.	WALK AND PAS-DE-BASQUE
1	Facing slightly diag R and moving in LOD, step R as arms swing slightly fwd (ct 1); step L across in front of R as arms return naturally to sides (ct 2).
2-4	Dance 3 PDB steps, RLR, ending facing ctr.
II.	SINGLE CROSS AND BACK
1	Facing ctr, step L slightly to L (ct 1); step R across in front of L (ct &); step L in place (ct 2); step R diag bwd to R (ct &);
2	Step L in place (ct 1); step R across in front of L (ct &); step L in place (ct 2); pause (ct &);
3	Moving bwd out of cir, step R (ct 1); step L next to R (ct &); step bwd R (ct 2); pause (ct &).
III.	WALK AND CLICKS
1	Facing slightly diag L and moving in RLOD, step L as arms swing slightly fwd (ct 1); step R across in front of L as arms return naturally to sides (ct 2);
2	Moving slightly diag bwd to L, step L (ct 1); close R to L with a "click," taking wt, which displaces L and causes it to shoot out swd (ct &); step L diag bwd to L (ct 2); close R to L with a "click," taking wt, which displaces L and causes it to shoot out swd (ct &);
3	Step L diag bwd to L (ct 1); close R to L with a "click," taking wt, which displaces L and causes it to shoot out swd (ct &); step L diag bwd to L (ct 2); pause (ct &).
	FIG I, II, III REPEATED
1-10	Turning to face slightly diag R, repeat action of Fig I, II, and III, taking wt on L on final ct &.
IV.	CLICKS TO L
1	Heavy accented step R across in front of L (ct 1); close R to L with a "click," taking wt, which displaces L and causes it to shoot out swd (ct &);
2	Step L diag bwd (ct 1); close R to L with a "click," taking wt, which displaces L and causes it to shoot out swd (ct &); step L diag bwd (ct 2); pause (ct &).
3-12	Repeat action of Fig IV five more times.
	Repeat entire dance from beg.

Copyright © 2012 by Dick Oakes