Miziisko (Bulgaria)

Alternative Names	'Miziisko' is an English transcription by Delyan. 'Miziisko Horo' is an English transcription of an extended name (with 'Dance' appended) by Delyan. 'Mizijsko' is a Latin transcription by Delyan.
Formation	Open circle, leader on the right end. W-hold.
Dance Structure	((((A x 8) + (B x 4)) x 2) + ((C x 3) + D + (E x 2)) x 2) + (F x 6) + (G x 10) + (F x 4)) repeated until the end of the music.
Music Structure	4 counts/bar, 4 bar phrases.
Music Speed	170 counts/min.
Choreographer	Delyan Demirev
Source	Maureen Felton (who learnt it from Delyan Demirev) in Witnesham near Ipswich, UK. Checked against Delyan Demirev's video from the Eastbourne International Folkdance Festival 2008.

Disclaimer: Mistakes are quite likely in the notes and no guarantees are made as to accuracy. There may be other versions of the same dance or other dances with the same name. Music may differ, particularly in speed, introduction and duration, between performers. The division into parts, bars & counts might not be standard. These notes of the dance are freely distributable (under GPL or CC-by-sa) in so much as the note's author's contribution but the choreography and/or collection were by other people and so their copyright might apply to the dance itself. Better than using notes, go to a dance class where it is taught by Delyan Demirev.

A jolly energetic bouncy Bulgarian dance with lots of parts & dramatic looking arm movements but not as difficult as it looks as it is mostly followable. Done to music with some funky brass sounds and done with a partyish atmosphere.

Despite the number of different parts (which might be exaggerated here as I have divided the dance into many parts based on the small repeating units), the dance does not take a very long time to teach as most are quite easily followable and change when the music changes. In two places (at the end of the Part E repeats and just before the dance goes back to the beginning) it feels as if the music is starting to change part during the last repeat of the steps of that part; for those just complete the part one is doing before changing to the next part (the premature musical change is actually helpful as it gives forewarning & is dramatically effective as it gives a feeling of anticipation).

The trickiest part is the arms in Part B & Part F (however Part F is similar enough to Part B that once Part B is got, Part F is relatively easy). Although arm motions are explicitly described for Part A & Part E below, they are essentially just natural small bounces of the arms up & down in time with the music. The place where it is most tempting to go wrong is to do step-hop-step-hop-step-step-step-hop in Part B instead of simply step-hop-step-hop-step-step-step-step after getting used to the former in Part F.

Style: Lively, jolly & bouncy. Covering a lot of ground in the travelling parts (almost running Part B). Big dramatic arm movements in Part B & Part F. High stepping in Part G. Big grin.

Introduction

Summary: One bar.

There is just one bar (4 counts) of introductory music. However it does not matter if the a few steps of the follow Part A x 8 are omitted as it consists of lots of identical steps.

Part A

Summary: R side, L across behind, repeat.

Start

Facing the centre of the circle. W-hold. Weight on L foot.

Feet	R step to the side onto heel. Slight bob down by flexing knees a little.
Arms	Elbows bob down a little (a few cm) keeping the forearms at the same angle.

Feet	L step across behind onto flat foot. Bob back up again by straightening knees again.
Arms	Bob back up again.

3-4

Repeat bars 1-2 (R side, L across behind with bobbing arms).

Part B

Summary: Around the circle acw starting R foot in step-hop x 2 & step x 4 while arms go up, (V behind, V infront) x 2 & W.

Start

Facing acw around the circle. W-hold. Weight on L foot.

Feet

1	R step forwards.
2	R hop.
3	L step forwards.
4	L hop.

Arms

1-2	Up into a high V-hold in a dramatic thrust reaching the top on the hop. The resulting high V-hold is about 30 deg infront of the vertical as a result of a comfortable W-hold being infront of, not in line with, the coronal plane of the body and the thrusting motion moving almost in the line of the forearms.
3-4	Swing down infront with elbows remaining straight into a low V-hold slightly behind the coronal plane of the body reaching the end point on the hop.

Feet

1	R step forwards.
2	L step forwards.
3-4	Repeat counts 1-2 (step forwards R & L).

Arms

1	Swing forwards with straight elbows into a low V-hold slightly infront of the coronal plane of the body.
2	Swing backwards with straight elbows back to where they at the end of bar 1.
3	Repeat count 1 (swing forwards).
4	Up infront back into a W-hold.

Part C

Summary: Clap with R stamp, repeat. Step R & L in place.

Start

Facing the centre of the circle. No hold. Feet together. Weight on L foot.

Hands	Clap infront of chest.
Feet	R stamp flat footed in place with no weight transfer.

Repeat count 1 (clap & stamp R in place).

Feet	R step in place.
Hands	Go down to on lumbar region with backs of hands touching the body.

L step in place.

Part D

Summary: Run forwards 4 steps starting R foot.

Start

Facing the centre of the circle. W-hold. Feet together. Weight on L foot.

1	R running step forwards towards the centre of the circle.
2	R running step forwards towards the centre of the circle.
3-4	Repeat counts 1-2 (run forwards R & L).

Unless the circle is large the running in must be done without travelling far (and may even need to be done on the spot) in order for dancers not to be too crushed together for Part E. There are no explicit steps for getting back out again afterwards so the leader has to drag the circle larger in the subsequent fast moving around Part F, Part A or Part B.

Part E

Summary: Side, across behind, side, lift to the R. Mirror.

Start

Facing the centre of the circle. W-hold. Weight on L foot.

Feet

1	Facing the centre of the circle, R step to the side.
2	L step across behind forwards.
3	Repeat counts 1 (R step to the side).
4	Hop on R foot lifting the L foot into digging type kick infront.

Arms

As Part A bar 1 (bobbing down, up, down, up)

Repeat bar 1 in left-right mirror image (L to the side, R across behind, L to the side, L hop with bobbing arms throughout).

Part F

Summary: As Part B but do bar 2 to the side ending with a hop & mirror that bar to the L (without raising arms in-between).

Start

Facing acw around the circle. W-hold. Weight on L foot.

As Part B bar 1 (R step-hop forwards with arms going up into high V-hold, L step-hop forwards with arms swinging down infront into low behind V-hold).

Feet

1	Facing the centre of the circle, R step to the side.
2	L close.
3	Repeat counts 1 (R step to the side).
4	Hop on R foot.

Arms

1	Swing forwards with straight elbows into a low V-hold slightly infront of the coronal plane of the body.
2	Swing backwards with straight elbows back to where they at the end of bar 1.
3-4	Repeat counts 1-2 (swing forwards & backwards).

Repeat bar 2 in left-right mirror image but return arms to W-hold during the hop (L to the side with arms going forwards, R close with arms going back, L to the side with arms going forwards, L hop with arms going back up into W-hold).

Part G

Summary: High stepping Grapevine to the R starting R side & L across infront.

Start

Facing the centre of the circle. W-hold. Weight on L foot.

1	R step to the side. The step is done bouncily with a brisk high lift (upper leg reaching the horizontal with lower leg vertically down at midpoint of the step).
2	L across infront likewise.
3	R step to the side likewise.
4	L across behind likewise (combined with the previous 3 steps this comprises a Grapevine done with high stepping).

Ending

Summary: At end of Part E.

The whole sequence goes through less than twice (pedantically, it goes through 1 6/11 times but that is not very helpful to know) in the music. The dance ends on at the end of the last Part E of the 2nd time through the dance sequence. There was no special ending specified but I think replacing the last lift with feet coming together and a clap fits nicely.