Kostursko [Macedonian from Northern Greece] dance history & background
John Filcich learned and adapted Kostursko Oro from the mother of Dimitri Valkanov who first presented it in the 1950’s. Dimitri, a well-known Macedonian clarinet player from San Francisco, originally comes from the Kastoria (Kostur) region in northern Greece.
Since the original music was not available in those days, the dance was put to the tune of “Dodek je moma pri majka”. John also tried using “Bisero ќerko” for the dance.
Many years later, the dance was corrected by Bob Liebman, who filmed a group of refugee women from the Kastoria region dancing it at a festival in Skoplje, Yugoslavia. The correct melody and dance styling were now, for the first time, available to us.
To continue to make matters confusing, members of the Macedonian Dance Ensemble “Tanec” and the well known Skopje singing group “Bapčorki” converted the tune from the original 5/8 meter to the more popular 7/8 “Lesnoto” meter, publishing it as “Mori Čupi Kosturčanki” (The Girls of Kastoria).
Here are the lyrics to Kostursko Oro, and here are the lyrics to Mori Odajo Sarena.