Dancing Bears

By: Witold Szabłowski, Antonia Lloyd-Jones - translator, Claire Bloom - director

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

For hundreds of years, Bulgarian Gypsies trained bears to dance, welcoming them into their families and taking them on the road to perform. In the early 2000s, with the fall of Communism, they were forced to release the bears into a wildlife refuge. But even today, whenever the bears see a human, they still get up on their hind legs to dance.

In the tradition of Ryszard Kapuściński, award-winning Polish journalist, Witold Szabłowski uncovers remarkable stories of people throughout Eastern Europe and in Cuba who, like Bulgaria’s dancing bears, are now free but who seem nostalgic for the time when they were not. His on-the-ground accounts provide a fascinating portrait of social and economic upheaval and a lesson in the challenges of freedom and the seductions of authoritarian rule.

©2018 Witold Szabłowski, Antonia Lloyd-Jones (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

How the past effects our future

Relevant to today and helpful to understanding how and why people believe what they do. The bureaucracy that bogs down the lives of real people.

Excellent

This is a gem. The writing style and stories are unforgettable. The author really brings his subjects to life. I was sad to have it end.

Intelligent, entertaining, & insightful

This collection of stories made me realize how little I know about the Soviet era. The narrator was a perfect fit for this incredibly well-written book. Highly recommend.

Mind blowing

you can read the story of the bears and apply this to any area of your life and create a deep analogy of what freedom means to you.

Unique

The first part of the book was about the relocation of dancing bears, what happened to the bears and their owners. This part of the book was unique and very very interesting. After that the book fell off a bit. Not enough real depth, although I loved hearing about the bunkers in Albania. Greek names of places and people were badly mispronounced by the reader.