Ukraine: Hutsulka in Kosmach, Part II

Hutsulka as danced in Kosmach, Ukraine. Filmed September, 2009 in the Narodnyj Dim in Kosmach, Ukraine. Hutsulka is a traditional couple’s dance of the Hutsuls of the Carpathian Mountains. It is in many ways similar to traditional couple’s dances of other groups of the Carpathian Mountain region (Ukrainian-speaking or not).* As people are fond of saying in Hutsulshchyna (the Hutsul-inhabited region of Ukraine), there are as many different ways to dance Hutsulka as there are ways to make borshch. Once upon a time, each village or cluster of villages had its own unique style. Also, once upon a time there was no name such as “Hutsulka“ for this form of couple dancing; traditionally it was referred to simply as tanets/danets (dance), depending on regional pronunciation. Hutsulka is a term invented by non-Hutsuls (mostly ethnographers, folklorists, journalists, i.e., by the intelligentsia) to name the dance--a name that has been adopted fully by Hutsuls themselves.