I literally cried rivers dancing to this. There are beautiful voices — and then there are voices that reach somewhere beneath language. Maria Tănase’s voice is visceral. „Foaie verde mărăcine, frică mi-e că mor ca mâine…” “Green leaf of the bramble, I fear I may die as soon as tomorrow…” Maria Tănase was one of the greatest voices of Romanian music, an artist who became a symbol of Romanian traditional culture. This song is a doină de dragoste — a doina of love. The doina is one of the most deeply emotional forms of Romanian traditional music: a place for love, longing, sorrow, loneliness, fate and death. And this one sings about the fear of Death. The singer imagines their own burial: „Și m-or duce la mănăstire, și-or pune pământ pe mine…” “And they will carry me to the monastery, and they will lay earth over me…” There is no metaphor left. Death becomes physical: the body carried away, the earth falling over it. And perhaps the deepest fear beneath it all is that Death may come before you have finished loving. Before you are ready to leave. There is an eerie story attached to Maria Tănase and this song, too. It is said that in 1963, while dying of cancer at Fundeni Hospital, Maria heard this very song playing in the hospital courtyard and quietly said: „Da, da, ca mâine mor și eu…” “Yes, yes… as soon as tomorrow, I too will die.” She died on 22 June 1963. For this dance, I combined elements inspired by traditional Romanian clothing with my tribal bellydance aesthetic — my own movement language meeting the culture I come from. And somewhere during it, Maria’s voice broke through me. I cried. Because beneath all the poetry, folklore and ritual imagery lies perhaps the simplest and most human truth: We love being alive. We love people. And we are afraid to leave them. #witchcraft #witch #folklore #tribalbellydance #bellydance - @ruxandramocean