engleski

Intangible culture as heritage: Linđo, the Kolo Dance from the Dubrovnik Littoral

The first version of the text was written in the Croatian language as an expanded report at the International Interdisciplinary Scholarly Conference in Dubrovnik (Zebec 2013). English text went through the process of two peer review readings. The initial idea for the text was to provid an opportunity for the local public in the Dubrovnik area to become better acquainted with the issues associated with registration of cultural properties at the national level as well as within international frameworks. The city of Dubrovnik was inscribed on UNESCO's List of World Heritage, while the Festivity of Saint Blaise [Vlaho], the patron saint of Dubrovnik and the broader area of the historical Republic of Dubrovnik, was inscribed on the Representative List of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The traditional linđo – the kolo dance of the Dubrovnik Littoral [Primorje] – from the immediate surroundings of the City of Dubrovnik, is a specific traditional dance for which the city is recognised worldwide. The city Folklore Ensemble Linđo took its name from the dance linđo when it was founded in 1964 and performs stylised, authored choreographies of Croatian folklore dances as well as songs. In the City's older tradition, the linđo was performed only when the Littoral villagers, whose tradition it belonged to, came into the city for celebrations, mainly for the festival of St Blaise. More attention came to be paid by the Croatian public to intangible culture when further was learned from the media about the success of inscription on UNESCO's list of its cultural properties and implementation of its Convention. Since then, several critical scholarly texts devoted to this issue have been published (Ceribašić 2009 ; Zebec 2013a). In this area, Dubrovnik was more intensively engaged than other Croatian cities since it became a member of the international non- governmental organisation Inter-City Intangible Cultural Cooperation Network (ICCN) with its seat in the Republic of Korea. During 2013, Dubrovnik hosted the international conference of the organisation (with workshops, a festival and youth forum). On this occasion, the performance with the highest number of linđo participants ever (234 of them) took place on the Stradun – the main street in Dubrovnik – and the event was nominated for registration in the Guinness Book of Records (Večernji list newspaper 2013). The backdrop to this undertaking was the efforts of the linđo performers, standard- bearers of the tradition from various villages in the surroundings of Dubrovnik and from the city itself, to come together with the same objective: to perform the linđo.

linđo; intangible culture; heritage; Dubrovnik Littoral

Originally published as “Nematerijalna kultura kao baština: Linđo, kolo Dubrovačkog primorja.” In Međunarodni znanstveni interdisciplinarni simpozij “Hrvatska folklorna i etnografska baština u svjetlu dubrovačke, svjetske i turističke sadašnjosti”, edited by Mira Muhoberac, 584–591. Dubrovnik: Folklorni ansambl Linđo, 2013. Draft translation: Nina Helen Antoljak, copy-editing: Kristen Wolf, Jessica Sloan- Leitner.