Dance of the Calusari

Summary:

A young girl makes the mistake of crossing funeral gounds on witsuntide eve, and olny the dance of the Calusari may save her from the Iele's posession.

Principle:

In the Romanian folklore there are creature called the Iele, a spirit most likely descended for the Rus Rusali. These spirits inhabit the rivers and cemetaries of Romania. around the time of Witsuntide (Catholic pentacost), these Iele become particularly energized and often take possession of young girls, making them behave in rash an unpredictable ways.
To mediate this possession, a the finest dancers of the land make a pact and follow ancient rituals of ecstatic dance. These dancers are called Calusari.
In our Story, a young girl is tempted to challenge the stigma of traveling into a cemetary at night. At the tempting of her friends, she enters into the cemetary and climbs a haunted tree. This of course results in a direct encounter with a iele, and a possession begins.
Reurning to her village, the young girl begins to exhibit strange behavior, and finally become catatonic, terrifying the villagers. They call for a doctor, who can do nothing but complicate the matter with ineffective science.
Finally, the grandmother takes matters into her own hands and call to a traveling band of Clusari, who are out on their quest to find Iele. She appeals to the Vataf, the leader of the Calusair and he accept her offer, as he must and the travle to the village. The dance begins, and true to the legends a iele does indeed have possession of the girl. Using all of their skill, the Clusari mesmerise the iele with the rapid dancing and pull the spirit from the girl.

Retrospective:

Working with Radost was an incredible experience, and the source material has drawn or interest to book 4 of Herodotus and the very strange mysteries that occupied the area we refer to as the scythian steppes of eurasia.

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