Pleading for Intangible Heritage - Traditional dances, social practices and associated festive events
Article published on 06-07-2021
UNESCO Subregional Educational Project
Pleading for Intangible Heritage
Traditional dances, social practices and associated festive events on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage
Romania's National Commission for UNESCO organized between June 15-18, 2021 the subregional educational project "Pleading for Intangible Heritage", which aimed at connecting and exchanging experiences, knowledge and good practices between schools, communities and authorities on traditional dances, social practices and associated festive events on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
The aim of the project was to promote and raise awareness of the need to protect authentic traditions related to traditional dances, social practices and associated festive events among students and teachers through informal educational programs. Teams (project coordinator/ teacher and students 12-17 years old - girls and boys) from ASPnet schools in Romania, Bulgaria, Republic of Moldova participated in the events within the project.
A number of activities were included on the agenda of the meeting, among which we mention:
- June 15 - Conference on "Traditional Dances, Social Practices and Associated Festive Events on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage"
- June 16 - 17 - Presentation of the projects made by the participating teams, virtual documentary visits and comics workshops with the themes of the Căluș ritual and lads dances from Transylvania.
- June 18 - Presentation of the comic works made in the two workshops and proposals for the continuation of the project
Presentations at the Opening Conference were given by: associate professor, scientific researcher II Ioana Ruxandra Fruntelată, University of Bucharest and the Institute of Ethnography and Folklore "Constantin Brăiloiu", Romanian Academy, Paul-Alexandru Remeș, research assistant in ethnocoreology, Folklore Archive of the Romanian Academy branch Cluj-Napoca, artistic coordinator, choreographer-Mugurelul Ensemble UBB Cluj, Cocieru Mariana, Institute of Romanian Philology "Bogdan Petriceicu-Hasdeu", Ministry of Education, Culture and Research of the Republic of Moldova, Desislava Radoslavova Vutova, curator, Museum of Traditional Crafts and Applied Arts, Troyan, Bulgaria, Laura Cristina Pumnea, referent, Dolj County Center for Preservation and Promotion of Traditional Culture, Corina Popescu, associate professor, Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest, Andreea Iuliana Olaru, vice president, Pupil Municipal Council in Bucharest, as well as teachers from educational institutions in Romania and abroad involved in the project.
The comics workshops were coordinated by Mr. Mihai I. Grăjdeanu, author and professor of comics who was involved in documenting, translating and adapting the subjects for comics and gave live comics workshops, much appreciated by all participants.
An important part of the project was the involvement of several teams of students and coordinating teachers from Bulgaria, the Republic of Moldova and Romania in the realization and presentation of projects related to traditional dances, social practices and associated festive events.
The representative of Bulgaria carried out a project on wedding wheat - part of the intangible cultural heritage of the Troyan region.
The representative of the Republic of Moldova, Mr. Pavel Popa, Master in Art, gave a communication about the folk dance "Alunelul" - origins, meanings, expressiveness and presented a short film made during the study of this dance with members of the Folk Dance Ensemble "Moldovița”, led by him.
Romania was represented by teams from the following educational institutions:
- “Emil Racoviță” Secondary School - which prepared a project regarding intercultural folk song and dance, with an emphasis on Romanian folklore and the Căluș custom
- German Goethe College - which presented the traditional dances of the German minority in Romania
- “Octav Onicescu” National College - whose team told the story of a Romanian traditional dance - hora and presented the custom of the Căluș as an emblem of Romanian culture
- Theoretical High School "Dante Alighieri" - which presented a modern version of traditional Romanian dances
We thank everyone for their involvement in the subregional educational project "Pleading for Intangible Heritage". A detailed program of the project is available in the document below.
The "Pleading for Intangible Heritage" project is being carried out with the financial support of UNESCO, within the Organization's Participation Programme.
Project coordinator:
Cristina Butescu
NCR UNESCO expert
