Za pojas translates as “By the Belt”, the way people (used to) hold on while doing this family of dances. It’s a rather large family, covering dances from Eastern North Macedonia, West Bulgaria, South Serbia, extreme southwest Romania, and bits of East Kosovo.
Za pojas structure
What the family has in common is a 10-measure (20 count) structure, consisting of 2 measures of one kind of step, plus 3 measures of another kind of step, (5 measures) then the whole 5 measures repeated starting on the other foot (10 measures total).
At 2:51 you begin seeing a group of Macedonian men from the village of Pijanec, (Delčevo), in the East of the Republic of Macedonia dancing the Macedonian men’s dance “Za pojas” or “Kopačka“, using a belt hold. By 3:15 the whole village joins in (za pojas used to be a men-only dance) holding hands down. Basic pattern – 2 pairs of walking steps followed by 3 step-hops; first starting to the right on the right foot, then to the left on the left foot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sG7jKdOWgk
Bugarkafrom Surdulica, Serbia, 2017. At 0:10 watch the tail end woman in high heels to get a good view of the basic step. This time it’s a pair of hop-step-steps, followed by 3 sets of two-steps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT11bj7RpZU
The two dances above move back-and-forth, though with bigger steps to the right than to the left, thus slightly progressing overall. However, the same 10-measure pattern could be used to progress even more in one direction than the other, (especially if the 5 measures in one direction are not quite the same footwork as the 5 measures in the other direction,) as in Šopsko horo, also known as Šopsko za pojas.
Šopsko horo(“V” handhold) First 5 measures – 2 pairs of walking steps (backwards), followed by 3 step-hops; Second 5 measures – 2 pairs of walking steps followed by a step-hop and two 2-steps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7z8PKJVKvw
Folkdance Footnotes 