Pamporea: Emergence of a New Vernacular. Dance and Identity Performing with Aromanians (Vlachs) from Romania

In the mid-1980s, a new type of dance performed by young men emerged in a rural Aromanian community in the Dobrogea region, south-eastern Romania. Later adopted by a folk dance ensemble and adapted for stage performance in the early 2000s, “Pamporea” (Aromanian for “ship”) quickly gained popularity in the community contexts and received media exposure far beyond them. Its staged, visual expression was emulated and aesthetically reinterpreted, making it one of the most popular Aromanian dances—and, in fact, one of the best-known Aromanian cultural exports to this day. As it moved across various stages and online platforms, the dance often retained the contested “traditional” emblem of an Aromanian identity marker, while much of its cultural metadata is, in fact, getting lost. Performed live, recorded on video, shared on social media, and taught via digital platforms by actors both inside and outside of the community, the creation and cultural evolution of “Pamporea” testify to the transformations of the living heritage of a declining ethnic group at risk of cultural absorption. “Pamporea” offers a lens to inquire into the propagation and consumption of vernacular dances and folk-derived elements of a minority culture on the internet, where various processes reshape how the dance endures and is transmitted. I write from a situated perspective, as a member of the Aromanian community.