Hora (dance)

Hora, also called horo or oro, is a circle dance native to Southeast Europe. Similar circle dances appear in Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, North Macedonia, Greece, and Turkey, as well as among Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardic Jews, and the Roma. Drawing on Eastern European circle dances, the Balkan hora, the Yemenite step, and Hasidic dancing, the hora became a key emblem of early Zionist culture.

The name has different spellings across countries and comes from the Greek *khorós*, meaning "dance," related to the ancient Greek *khoreía*. The original Greek word may have meant "circle." In many Slavic languages, *hora* and *oro* mean "round dance," and the verb *oriti* originally meant "to celebrate" as well as "to speak, sound, or sing." The Greek term is linked to Pontic Greek and gave rise to names in Bulgarian, Macedonian, Romanian, Turkish, and Hebrew. Georgia's *horumi* dance may also connect to the *horon* dance in neighboring Turkish regions, originating in Adjara, where Kartvelian Laz people lived alongside Greek Pontians for centuries.

In Romania and Moldova, the *horă* (plural *hore*) is a folk dance where dancers hold hands and spin the circle counterclockwise, following a pattern of three steps forward and one back. Instruments like the cymbalom, accordion, violin, viola, double bass, saxophone, trumpet, or pan pipes accompany it. The hora is common at weddings, festivals, and rural social events. One famous *horă* is "Hora Unirii" ("Hora of the Union"), a patriotic song that became the hymn when Wallachia and Moldavia united in 1859 to form the Principality of Romania. On New Year's Eve 2006–2007, when Romania and Bulgaria joined the European Union, people danced *Hora Bucuriei* ("Hora of Joy") on Bucharest's boulevards as a tribute to the EU anthem, *Ode to Joy*. Some of the largest hora circles appear in early 20th-century films by the Manaki brothers in Pindus, Greece, performed by local Aromanians.

Bulgaria's *horo* takes many forms. It does not have to be a circle; a curving line works too. Steps vary widely, with forward steps ranging from three to seven or eight and backward steps from one to five or six, depending on the type. Each Bulgarian region has its own *horo*, differing in rhythm and steps, and no two are alike. There are likely over a hundred types in Bulgarian folklore. Historically, the *horo* served social roles—for fun, as a skill contest, or for show—which encouraged its diversity. Some dances are simple enough to learn in five to ten minutes, while others require fluency in many simpler dances.

In North Macedonia, the dance is spelled *oro*. Its origins range from socializing and celebrating to historical dancing before battle. *Teshkoto*, meaning "The difficult one," is danced only by men, with music reflecting the sorrow and mood of war. The *oro* is danced in a circle, with men and women holding hands. It marks weddings, christenings, name-days, national and religious holidays, graduations, and birthdays.

Among the Roma of Southeast Europe, the *horo* is popular and danced much like neighboring ethnicities. Roma *horos* and Roma music are highly valued by non-Roma in the Balkans, as Roma are known as skilled performers of other people's folk music.

In klezmer music, the *horah* is a circle dance with a slow, limping gait in triple meter, often three-eighth time, and usually leads into a faster duple meter dance like a *freylekh* or *bulgar*. Among Yiddish-speaking Jews, the triple-meter *horah* is also called *zhok* (from Romanian *joc*, "dance") or *krumer tants* (Yiddish for "crooked dance").

The *horah* in the Jewish diaspora differs somewhat from Eastern European versions and is widespread, playing a foundational role in modern Israeli folk dancing. It became a symbol of the country's reconstruction by the socialist-agricultural Zionist movement. Although adopted from Southeast Europe, it gained popularity through the *Hora Agadati* dance. In 1924, dancer and choreographer Baruch Agadati created a dance based on the Romanian hora, performed by the Ohel Workers' Theatre in pioneer settlements of the Jezreel Valley. According to Gurit Kadman, the original melody was a Moldavian folk tune, and she asked Uriya Boskovitz to write a new one. Around the same time, Ze’ev Havatselet wrote lyrics to the tune.