TRADITIONAL ROMANIAN FOLK COSTUMES AND DANCE
Romanian folklore is the best preserved, most varied and traditional in Europe.The tasteful beauty of the regional costumes can be seen throughout Romania. The costumes reflects ethnic identity and documents the historical and artistic values of the Romanian people.
The structure of Romanian traditional clothing has remained unchanged throughout history and can be traced back to the earliest times. The basic garment for both men and women is a shirt or chemise, which is made from hemp, linen or woollen fabric. This was tied round the waist using a fabric belt, narrow for women and wider for men. The cut of this basic chemise is similar for men and women. In the past those worn by women usually reached to the ankles while men's shirts were shorter and worn over trousers or leggings made from strips of fabric. Women always wear an apron over the chemise. This was initially a single piece of cloth wrapped round the lower part of their bodies and secured by a belt at the waist, as is still seen in the east and south east of Romania. In Transylvania and the south west of Romania this became two separate aprons, one worn at the back and one at the front.
Men's traditional clothing throughout Romania comprises a white shirt (cămasă), white trousers, hat, belt, waistcoat and or overcoat. Local differences are indicated by shirt length, type of embroidery, trouser cut, hat shape, or waistcoat decoration. In most areas shirts are worn outside trousers, which is the older style. This is a basic Balkan man's costume largely uninfluenced by fashions from west or east. Hungarian and Saxon men living in Romania wear trousers with a more modern cut often made of dark material rather than white. This reflects their closer ties, and more frequent communication, with the west.
The outer garments worn by both men and women are similar, the main differences being in cut and decoration which depend mainly on the region of provenance. These garments are usually made of sheepskin, or felted woollen fabric, and decorated with leather appliqué and silk embroidery.
Choreographic form, motifs, & music
The selection of dances performed in each village is often done in a fixed order, the slowest dances first, then sometimes men's showing off dances, ending with the fastest dances. These are known as dance cycles and exist in all regions to some extent, but are possibly most developed in Transylvania.
Many Romanian dances are accompanied by loud shouts and calls known as Strigături which are called rhythmically, but often across the musical melody and rhythm. Such calls seem to be specific to Romania, and are only otherwise found in the Hungarian minorities of Transylvania.
Individuality and improvisation is found both in couple and line dances with men demonstrating their agility and dance ability
