Dance

Capra

Capra is the name of a traditional Romanian dance, performed around New Year. It's executed by a young man with a goat mask and a sheep skin on his back.

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Quick guide to Capra

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Capra is the name of a traditional Romanian dance, performed around New Year.

01 · What it is
Dance

Live movement, rhythm, costume, or staged dramatic performance passed between generations.

02 · Where & name
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03 · How it is doing
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Documented in open cultural records, but no cited field assessment of its current vitality has been added here yet.

04 · Proof & reuse
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Common Questions Answered on Record
What is Capra in plain words?

Capra is the name of a traditional Romanian dance, performed around New Year.

Where is Capra practised or documented?

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What is the current condition of Capra today?

□□□□ (Not yet assessed): Documented in open cultural records, but no cited field assessment of its current vitality has been added here yet.

How do I cite or share this Capra entry?

Cite as: "Capra." folkroom, https://folkroom.org/art-forms/capra, text CC BY-SA, with attribution.

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The tradition & historical record

1 min read · 1 source

Capra is the name of a traditional Romanian dance, performed around New Year. It's executed by a young man with a goat mask and a sheep skin on his back. The 'goat' and his companions go from house to house, dancing at each door on New Year's Eve. This custom was first mentioned in 1656, when the Swedish ambassador to Moldavia visited Iași and described the custom in which the dancing ended when the goat was shot by an arrow. In his 1796 book, Descriptio Moldaviae, Dimitrie Cantemir devoted a paragraph to this custom. During the 19th century, Romanians believed goats could predict the year's weather, and the Capra dance, considered a pagan dance, became a ritual to bring fertility. It has become a component of folklore culture.

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Capra (goat dance)”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.

Capra is Moldavian and Romanian rite with a goat dance, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. 1

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