FETNO

Folklore is the identity card of a people, but keeping it alive is increasingly difficult nowadays

Ana-Maria Cononovici, 16.01.2024, 14:00

Folklore is the identity card of a people, but keeping it alive is increasingly difficult nowadays, when traditions are known to fewer and fewer people, and global influences are felt in all areas. That’s why any attempt to bring folklore back to attention is welcome, even more so when, along with embracing a tradition, we also enjoy a show, or start a physical activity.

We are talking about the initiative by Anca Niţă, dance instructor and choreographer of the Hora Sânzienelor show, to bring authentic Romanian values to the attention of the young audience:

Hora Sânzienelor is a show of music, dance, and acrobatics, folk dance intertwines with contemporary dance and with other dance styles. Everything is expressed in a unique story, and the music is specially created for this show, it is a mix of several styles. We have a special guest, Costel Enache, who will perform on the panpipes, and Oana Sterie, on the flute and voice. The idea came to me when I realized that we needed something unique, modern, which would attract both the middle-aged audience and the young audience towards Romanian folklore. This is how the authenticity of Romanian folklore is interwoven with the modernity of our days, and it will be a unique show, where we have also added acrobatic dance movements. This is how this show became a modern and original vision.

And because there was another Hora Sânzienelor show a few years ago, Anca Niţă clarified:

Hora Sânzienelor took place in 2019, right before the pandemic, but, unfortunately, right when we started to take off, the pandemic appeared unexpectedly. We decided to resume it now in a much larger form. People were very excited about this news, we were even called to other countries, in the diaspora, but it could not materialize due to the restrictions of that period.

Always in contact with the fitness and aerobics market in our country, Anca Niţă is also the creator of a new style of dance or physical activity: Fetno. What is Fetno and where did he come from?

Fetno is a new approach to Romanian folklore. I thought of combining it with movements from classical aerobics, to give flavor and joy to aerobics classes, and also to succeed in combining the beautiful with health, and the pleasant with something Romanian. Because that’s what I really wanted. I was away in Italy for 7 years and I really missed the country and, working in this field, I thought to change something, to bring something fresh, even internationally. And that’s how Fetno was born, which is ETNO with Aerobic movements, and it caught on very well with the Romanian public, there are over 100 instructors in the country, who interpret this style of aerobics, with many fans – we even held a competition where more than 700 people came – both adults and children. And I think it’s something unique, which promotes Romanian values abroad.

This is an 8-year-old dance form that is growing consistently, as Anca Niţă told us:

Fetno appeared in 2016, so it’s been a while, but it’s still a pretty fresh and modern concept , I would say. Every time we bring something new, we also have some elements that help us make everything more intense, more fun, it’s about the canes from the Morris-like dance, and the twisters, with which we work intensively in the gyms, with both children and adults. In the future we want to continue to develop this branch, both in the aerobic-fitness area and in the dance area, because now we find Fetno in dance competitions, and there are many people who want it, so it is a new branch, Fetno dance .

The show Hora Sânzienelor will take place on January 20 at Sala Dalles showroom in Bucharest, and is almost sold out, being the first show of this kind after the pandemic, in a new format, but we are promised a return in April. And if we have piqued your curiosity, you can look for Fetno classes, where folklore combines with the joy of physical activity!