The Photo Collection of Edith Durham

Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo, 1903 - 1913

ED024_RAI 400.13258 Montenegro. Durmitor. Montenegrin falcon dance; the photo was probably taken in Durmitor in the mountains of northern Montenegro (Photo: Edith Durham, March 1905). “The Montenegrins have a dance which seems to be unknown in Serbia. A pair or two pair of dancers stand opposite each other and dance at each other, retiring, advancing and performing various steps and finally leaping as high as possible into the air, flapping their arms and uttering wild yells. The leaping, flapping, yelling dancer is said to represent a falcon or eagle. When danced at night by a big bonfire it is extraordinarily picturesque. I once saw this danced by a North Albanian tribesman, and was told it was Albanian. But the Albanian tribesmen very rarely dance, whereas the Montenegrins seldom lost a chance of doing so.” (Edith Durham, A Bird Tradition in the West of the Balkan Peninsula, 1923).