A shot from one of the YouTube links provided by Larry Weiner on Dec. 13 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS9ziH7oZGY).
It all started with a question from Judy Stafford on December 9 about a dance that has long been popular among international folk dancers:
I always thought Godečki Čačak was a Serbian dance, but found out recently that it is named for a town in Bulgaria, near the Serbian border. It appears that Dick Crum introduced the dance to the IFD community. Is it a dance that is/was actually done in Bulgaria and/or Serbia? If it's a border dance, then is the "standard" IFD music for the dance (as in the below YouTube link) Serbian, Bulgarian, or does it also cross the border? I can't find any credits for the standard recording—is it Serbian or Bulgarian?
Judy’s question sparked a lively, weeklong discussion spanning almost 40 posts and yielding historical and folkloric insights from some of the EEFC's best-known dance teachers and scholars. Comments address the musical structure, the dance steps, regional variations in the number of measures, changes in the dance among emigrants to the U.S., and more.
Our listserv is wonderful, but it can be cumbersome to search and retrieve all the related individual posts. Laura Blumenthal volunteered to assemble the entire (as of press time) thread into a 26-page document that is available here as a PDF download: Godecki_Cacak_thread_EEFC_listserv_12.2014.