Women's Dances of Armenia
The women's solo dances of the Armenia are sometimes sad, sometimes fiery, but always lyrical and express the natural pride of Caucasian women. The dancers exhibit a queenly carriage yet dance with demure shyness. Wonderful hand and arm movements ornament this dance and intensify the atmosphere of melancholy and longing, while the feet of the dancers make tiny little steps under floor length skirts, which create the illusion that the dancer is floating across the floor. Line dances from Anatolia and graceful and sometimes energetic. Armenia was the first Christian state (314 AD) and encompassed a large portion of eastern Anatolia. Due to forced deportations and genocide in 1915, the Armenians disappeared almost completely out of present day Turkey. Armenia today consists of only a small part of its previous territory. Armenian dances are often melancholy and full of longing; perhaps mirroring the tragic history of the country. In this workshop we will learn line and solo dances.