Rezija

The Resia valley (Val Resia, Rezija in Slovene) is geographically enclosed in the middle of the western Julian Alps. This is where the most archaic traditional music in the Slovene-speaking territory has been preserved among the Slovenes living there until today. In comparison with the folk dances of other Slovenes, the dances from Resia reveal a characteristic aspect of their own. In Resia, they know and dance the one and only folk dance “Resijanka” – the dance of Resia. This is a dance in pairs in which the two dancers never touch each other, but only exchange their basic facing positions while dancing. The step is not always fixed: the dancers like to improvise and dance in threes or “in a crossed formation”, where the path of one pair crosses that of another. The instrumental accompaniment is played with the violin and the violoncello.