During the days between the 18th and 23rd of November 2009, we were invited by the Balkan Folk dance Society DUNAV from Jerusalem, to teach Romanian traditional dances at a seminar dedicated to Romanian choreographic folklore.

It was an extraordinary experience thanks to which we had the opportunity to meet some great people and also some great dancers, who amazed us through their love and respect for the Romanian folklore, a thing that the majority if native Romanians do not have.

There were about 80 participants from Israel at the seminar to whom we wanted, from the first second we met them, to teach a few from the most beautiful and traditional dances we have, especially from Transylvania and from a few other Romanian regions. We believe that we have achieved our goal because of the long applauses that we received at the end of the seminar, from the most of the participants.

What is very important to be mentioned is the fact that people from abroad that love Romanian folklore, actually know very few things about Transylvanian traditional dances. The problem is that the majority of the so called "traditional dances" which these Israeli people know about (especially the ones from Transylvania), are modified and stylized by the choreographers (from abroad and even from Romania), and turned into very easy to learn steps, in other words, a commercial product. This is very sad because the authenticity of the traditional Romanian choreographic folklore had and will unfortunately have very much to suffer.

We also want to thank the organizers of the seminar for the respect that they have given us and for the fact that they have offered us the opportunity to visit and to know the history and the traditions of Israel.

תודה

Camelia si Nelutu