My apologies for having gone two weeks without writing. Not that I think you don't have other things going on and thus have to wait for me to update my blog, I'm just trying to be polite. Anyways, to make up for it, I've got a post planned for tomorrow as well. This post, however, is another episode in my cultural excursions in and around Petrozavodsk.
I owe it to my friend Olga, who's quickly become my link to weekend culture events. She had clued me in to the reenactment, and that was extremely interesting, so naturally I was excited a few weeks ago when she informed me she would be participating in a Karelian folk recital that coming Sunday.
I should probably take a step back and explain that Petrozavodsk is the capital of the Republic of Karelia. In Russia, unlike the United States, there are a number of different administrative subjects below the national level. We have states, while they have krais (territories), oblasts (provinces), autonomous okrugs (districts), federal cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg), and republics (nations, more or less), with a few others mixed in for good measure. Oblasts are the most common, but there are 21 republics in Russia which are officially autonomous and have their own parliaments, elected governors, and constitutions (I know I've basically just described states in the U.S., but other administrative subjects in Russia don't have these per se). In some cases the executive title is actually president.
These 21 republics represent non-Russian ethnic groups, of which the Karelians are included. Since this is getting overly boring as I'm getting bogged down in the minutiae, I'll cut to the chase and say that the Karelians have lived in East Karelia (i.e. the modern-day Republic of Karelia) since the 13th century and have developed a unique ethnic identity that combines Finnish and Slavic traditions.
So to get back to it, my friend Olga is in a group that puts on recitals featuring traditional Karelian music, dance, language, and dress. Obviously, I'm totally in. What didn't really occur to me before I got there, though it certainly should have, was that not many other 22 year-olds in the city were too interested in marching over to Lenin Square in the rain on a Sunday to watch a folk recital. Who was interested? Babushkas. Dozens of them.
Lenin Square, site of the festivities. Lenin is out of frame left, still banging on his podium.
It turned out to be a great time. Despite the fact that the collective age in the audience easily put us into quadruple digits, it was a lively crowd. The music was lively, if not exactly what I was expecting. To be perfectly honest, I always imagined less accordion. I mean, some accordion, just less. First one to identify that reference gets a free matryoshka doll, by the way.
No accordion visible, but trust me, it's there.
It was also quite interactive. They first played a game wherein all the old ladies got out on the dance floor with the peformers and made two concentric circles of partners. They then walked in opposite directions until the accordion stopped, and then had to rush to find their original partner. It's basically musical chairs except nobody gets left hanging. Also, it was downright hilarious, as every time the accordion stopped, all the old ladies yelled out "ooh!" and scrambled around to find each other. I captured it in the video at the bottom, so you can check it out for yourself. I probably left in too much of it to be interesting, but I still laugh every time. I don't have video of most of the other games and dances, as Olga quickly dragged me into the fray. My favorite one was a giant conga line that the leader lead in alternating inward and outward spirals, making it look like one of those optical illusions from above. We also danced the Karelian Waltz, which Olga soon turned into the Viennese Waltz. But you didn't even know I could waltz, did you? Don't worry, I can't.
My friend and sometimes dance partner Olga.
All in all it was a great time, and even more fun than the reenactment (although they get docked some points for a complete lack of explosions). I got some pretty entertaining video, which you can check out below. Plus, as an added bonus, Karelian Folk Overdrive will be a great name for the funk-folk rock fusion group I'm planning on starting while I'm here. I'm the only one in the band so far, so if you'd like an audition just shoot me a message.
We're going to need an accordion.
