On wednesday night, Birthright held a forum where we learned about the history of Armenian traditional dances, and then got to learn how to do some of these dance moves. Unlike in America where people dance to have fun, celebrate, or to entertain others, the dancing in Armenia traditionally has very ritualistic and symbolic purposes to it. There are dances for many types of occasions, some of which may sound unusual to one who is not brought up in that culture. There are dances that are done for weddings, as well as ones for funerals, dances done by soldiers to prepare for battle, dances done after battle, as well as dances for the whole community to participate in.
Also, there are several taboos on who is allowed to dance certain dances. Only soldiers are allowed to dance military dances; while at weddings, the guests who are divorced or widowed are not allowed to dance. Only the "community" dances are everyone allowed to dance.
Also, according to the guy giving the lecture, there has been a historic correlation between dancing before battles, and victories at the battles. The Roman and Greek empires declined when music and dance lost their meaning and turned towards entertainment purposes. The soviet union introduced ballet into the Armenian repetoir to break the fighting spirit of the fighting dances.
Completely ignoring the taboos of the dances that he had just given us about who was allowed to dance what sorts of dances, the instructor taught us how to do a military dance, a wedding dance, and a community dance. Let's see, I don't think there were any soldier among us, so I don't think any of us were supposed to be allowed to dance that dance, but he had us learn it anyways. I don't think there were any among us who are divorced or widowed in our group (this group consists of people who are mostly in our early to mid 20's), so nobody that I know of would have been excluded from that dance. ANd the community dance, of course, everyone was allowed to dance that anyways.
Also, there are several taboos on who is allowed to dance certain dances. Only soldiers are allowed to dance military dances; while at weddings, the guests who are divorced or widowed are not allowed to dance. Only the "community" dances are everyone allowed to dance.
Also, according to the guy giving the lecture, there has been a historic correlation between dancing before battles, and victories at the battles. The Roman and Greek empires declined when music and dance lost their meaning and turned towards entertainment purposes. The soviet union introduced ballet into the Armenian repetoir to break the fighting spirit of the fighting dances.
Completely ignoring the taboos of the dances that he had just given us about who was allowed to dance what sorts of dances, the instructor taught us how to do a military dance, a wedding dance, and a community dance. Let's see, I don't think there were any soldier among us, so I don't think any of us were supposed to be allowed to dance that dance, but he had us learn it anyways. I don't think there were any among us who are divorced or widowed in our group (this group consists of people who are mostly in our early to mid 20's), so nobody that I know of would have been excluded from that dance. ANd the community dance, of course, everyone was allowed to dance that anyways.
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