News
Kaerajaan to Europe and to the World
01.06.2010
Tallinn will be the culture capital of Europe in 2011. To promote Estonian folkdances we present Estonian folkdance Kaerajaan as a gift to Europe and to the world. Estonians are not only a singing nation but also a dancing nation!
As of today, there are 16 000 people who have joined the movement - this is 100 dancers per day since the beginning of the campaign. In addition to Estonia, Kaerajaan has been danced in USA, Belgium, Great Britain, Italy, Canada, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxemburg, Portugal, Germany and Turkey. Various different nationalities who have danced so far include Estonians, Americans, Aserbaijans, Belgians, Georgians, Britains, Italians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Norwegians, Pakistanis, Poles, Portuguese, Swedes, Romanians, Germans, Slovenians, Finns, Turkish, Hungarians, and Russians...
The Three I's to move the Kaerajaan campaign forward:
- Invite! Invite people to dance Kaerajaan. Ask party organisers and music groups to play Kaerajaan music and teach this dance.
- Interprete! Rework the dance the way you want - it is a folkdance after all! Dance it upright and laying down, on the ground and in the water, not to mention the air! Make new lyrics for Kaerajaan song. Invite musicians to inteprete the music from classic to punk, rap and hard rock...
- Inform! Tell to everyone you meet about Kaerajaan.
Inform ERRS about dancing by emailing to kadri@errs.ee. Let Kadri know about who, where, and when Kaerajaan was danced and also list the nationalities of people who danced. Attach photos/videos if possible.
You can see how well the campaign is doing here: http://www.errs.ee/index.php?id=11746
Music, dance description and other related info is found here: www.errs.ee
Kaerajaan fanclub on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=361689294380&ref=ts
55 different ways to dance Kaerajaan: http://www.youtube.com/user/ERRSKJ
Kaerajaan Award letter: http://www.errs.ee/public/2010_wordid/Kaerajaan_kiidukiri_1.0.pdf
Kaerajaan story briefly: Kaerjaan was born in 19th century. The legend speaks of the village boy whose name was Jaan Kaer (John Oat). Jaan hid himself in the Manor's washroom to peek at girls doing laundry. Due to the heat in the room, the girls had minimum clothes on... Jaan was caught peeking and the girls came up with a teasing song about him. The song starts with the words: Kaera Jaan, Kaera Jaan get out and take a look! The contemporary explanation of Kaerajaan is that jumping up and down and clapping hands is the way the people in Nordic countries warm themselves up during cold winters.