For many
generations simple dolls, usually made from sticks wrapped in rags, have been a favorite
toy of Bulgarian village children. They would be given names and personalities, and the
children would act out stories, drawing their inspiration from everyday village life, folk
tales, and even Bulgarian history. A dance group from the village of Kozicheno performed a
dance at several festivals in the 1930's where the dancers moved stiffly, like dolls.
Choreographer Margarita Dikova has taken this primitive dance and used it to enact a story
of Bulgarian village life: an arrogant beauty, her dowdy neighbor, the sly sergeant major
who can't choose between them, and the kaval player who sets them all to dancing.
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