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Turkish Folk Dances
by Ercument KILIC
Studying the culture and
folklore of Turks, we can not limit ourselves to the
borders of today's Turkey.
Turks have a proud cultural
history that started out in the steppes of central Asia,
and at the height of the, Ottoman Empire, spread all the
way to Austria; not to mention the Asia Minor" and most
of Arabia.
Therefore: investigating the
Turkish folklore entails an extensive look into the
vast areas of some parts of China; rather a large
portion of which are Turkic speaking Turks - many parts
,of Asia Minor, and almost all of the Balkans..
The regions taken into
consideration here are seventy-one provinces of Turkey,
Azerbaijan, and a small part of the Balkans;
All of these regions can be
divided into eight dance categories:
HORA, ZEYBEK,KASIK,
HALAY,HORON,BAR and AZERI.
Kasik. for instance, which
means "spoon" in Turkey is a widely used rhythm and
dance instrument in Turkey. And Zeybek is the proud
mountaineers" dance style, in which the dancer
immitates the proud and strong wild birds, spreading
arms rather pompously on the sides of the body, with
intricate movements, _recreating scenes of the wild.
Headdress of a folkdancer.
The categories mentioned
above encompass the following regions:
HORA; Edirne, Kirklareli,
Tekirdag,Uskup.
ZEYBEK: Aydin, Balikesir,
Kutahya, Izmir, Mugla, Usak, Manisa, Cankiri, Ankara. .
TEKE:Burdur, Isparta,
Antalya"Mugla, Fethiye
KASIK: Bursa, Bilecik,
Eskisehir, Bolu, Kastamonu, Kirsehir, Konya, Icel_
Silifke. ,
HALAY: Corum, Yozgat, Amasya,
Tokat, Sivas, Malatya, Gumushane Elazig, Bingol, Adana,
Gazi Antep, Sanli Urfa, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Mardin,
Siirt, Bitlis, Mus, Erzincan, Kars (partial), Van,
Tunceli, Bayburt (partial).
HORON:Ordu, Ciresun, Rize,
Artvin, Trabzon,
BAR: Erzurum, Igdir, Baybun
(partial), Erzincan(partial), Agri, Kars (partial).
AZERI: Parts of Kars, Gole,
Ani, Igdir
Since it is rather
impossible, in a short article such as this, to
articulate on all the songs, sayings, dances, costumes
and musical instruments of all ,these regions, I will
give the reader a glimpse of some of these categories. "
HORA REGION:
Out of the four regions
listed under HORA, Uskup.is the one which is most
intriging due to the fact that it does no longer lies
within the borders of Turkey. Known to the westerners as
Skopia, Uskup is a city of 650,000 in Yugoslavia,
majority of residents of which are Turks.
Uskup, with. its culture
havily influenced by, theTurks since 1389, with all of
its music, dances, costumes and local customes display
an all-Turkish city in the heart of the Balkans.
Dances of Uskup can be
performed as line or couple dances. The basic costuming
for the men is: A white, .long_sleeve, button-down shirt
worn under ,a navy blue vest covered with lace and
embroidery of black gilt thread. For pants, they wear
either navy blue or black rather tigh-gitting “potur”.
Besides the white socks and open-front black shoes, the
costume is completed with a white sash and a watch
chain.
Womens' costume consists o a
long-sleeve, white shirt a vest shaped like the mens’
but always in brighter colors, a baggy pair of pants (shalvar),
and a red pair of shoes. Accessories of women. are a
necklace with a"variety of gold coins attached and ahead
scarf, called “yazma”.
ZEYBEK REGION:
Zeybeks are Brave
mountaineers who live in western Turkey area such as
lzmir etc. This type of western folkdance has 9/8 tempo
counted in music:3/4 plus 3/8.
The main instruments of this
type of dance are.: darbuka (hour-glass-shaped drum),
clarinet, kanun ( a flat string instrument,
finger-picked on one's lap), and rills. This type of
dance is a slow motion dance, portraying the man as a
brave, heroic and freemountain eagle.
The Zeybek dancer is
instantly recognized by the odd-looking costume he
wears, which consists of short, loose trousers leaving
the knees bare, heavy boots with spat-like attachments,
,and colorful flannel shirts that have. bat-like
sleeves, signifying the eagle.
In western Turkey, this
dance is still very popular and is important part of the
cultural and social life of the, people. The difficult
part of this dance is ,taught and handed down from
generation to generation.
TEKE
REGION:
Some of the musical
instruments
Widely used in this area are
sipsi, vulum (bagpipe) and Kabak kemane.
Sipsi: This, in some other
regions is called "coban dudugu" (a shephard's whistle).
Its length is approximately is six to eight inches, and
is made from bamboo of quarter-inch diameter.
Tulum: This Turkish bagpipe
is basically a half of a goat skin. The remainder of
the goat skin, consists of one-half of the body and the
two legs.
 
Certain other regions of
Turkey recognizes tulum as culum zurna, gayda, Kayda.
Gayda and Kayda, both of which meaning the same
depending on the Turkish, dialect, is derived from th
eowrd “kaide;” meaning the rule-in music; the tuning or
the tune.
Kabak Kemane:This Iklig of
central Asian Turks, and kemenche of Azerbaijani-Turks,
is constructed with a stem with four pegs, and a trunk
which basically is a gourd. Kabak kemane can have three
or four strings and the bow is made from horse hair;
KASIK REGION:
As stated earlier kasiks
(spoons) are the integral part of the styling of this
region. Men and women click the rhythm of the dance with
.a pair of wooden spoons in each hand. This type of
dance symbolizes the every-day. life of the people of
Anatolia and is danced to the accompaniment of clarinet
and davul, a very large double-headed drum, although in
other regions played with sticks, played in this region
with the snappy movements of fingers.
Some of the most famous
dances from here are named: "Silifke’nin Yogurdu" and "keklik:"
"Yogurt of Silifke" and "Partridge," respectively.
In Silifke'nin Yogurdu, the
dancers immitate the acts involved in yogurt making, and
in Keklik, they skip and hop with the footwork and .sway
arms wildly on sides, come to a sudden stop and seeds
and then suddenly start flying again.
HALAY REGION:
Some commonly used Costume
parts' in the Halay region:
Village Socks: This is, one
of the most common hand crafts of Anatolia. They are
made in all corners of the land and each region can be
recognized by the special motives attributed only to
them. As a matter of fact these elaborate socks are
named according to the type of pattern of the motive on
them. They are made out of wool for the winter and of
cotton for the summer.
Yazma:
This is the head scarf used
by all women in all the rural areas. Just like the
socks, they are an ancient art from of the Turks. What
distinguishes one yazma from the other is not really the
material, but rather the “oya” sewn around the edges.
Long winter nights are the
times when many hours of careful knitting of “oya”.
and socks take place. Such a
significant art form is “oya” that many scientific books
have been written on them, mostly in an attempt to
preserve this art form.
Kese: These are little bags,
usually tied down from one's sash, used for variety of
purposes. They can be made out of leather or
cloth. They were mostly used
to carry money, tobacco or men's watches.
Guvercin Oyunu: This Elazig
dance is one of the animal imitation dances. The, name
translates as the Dance of the Pigeon.
Pigeons, as well as in many
other parts of eastern Turkey, are in E1azig too are
known as holy animals. This is due to the commonly known
story that when Prophet Mohammed was running away from
his enemies, with a few of his men, had hidden in a cave
(Hira). A spider instantly formed a web and then a
pigeon laid an egg just in 'front of the cave, leading
the searchers to think that' no 'One could have recently
been in the cave and Mohammed's life was Saved.
Not only in Elazig, but in
many other areas of Turkey it is possible to see dances
by the same name.
HORON REGION:
 
The two main regions under
this category are Artvin and Trabzon. Both regions
dances are characterized with the sharp footwork that
the dancers-both men and women-display imitating the
turbulent waters of Black Sea to which they live next.
With the slow footwork, shimmies, and sometimes arms
being raised with straight elbow, fingers pointing
down, the dancers imitates :the fish that the fisherman
have just caught.
A famous dance from Artvin
is called Atabari, meaning the dance of Ataturk father
of Turks, the founder of the modern Turkish Republic,
in which the lyrics are
Bahcesi var bagi var
.,
(It has gardens, it has a
vineyards)
Ayvasi var nari var
(It has quince, it has
pomegranate)
Ata'mizdan yadigar
(A souvenjr from our Ataturk)
Bizde Ata bari var.
(We have the Ata Dance.)
When a dance group from
Artvin, during a festival of the Balkan countries in
Istanbul, before Ataturk , demonstrates this dance in
1937. Ataturk became so enthesuastic that he got up and
did the dance with the group. And ever since then the
dance, which was originally called Artvin Bari has been
called Atabari. The types of musical instruments used
for Artvin dances are mostly the accordion, tulum (the
bagpipe), and the drums. In Trabzon region, the
instruments used for Horon dance are zurna, drum and
kemence.
Zurna : This indispensable
accompaniment of the davul ( big, double-headed drum)
traces back to the early days of Turks in Central Asia.
Kemence : This is the
instrument of the Black Sea region and is used in no
other region. The origins of both the kemence and the
kabak kemane is the old, central Asian Turkish
instrument, the iklig.
Zurna
Iklig was brought out of
central Asia by Gokturks and was further expanded into
the Azerbaijan and Anatolian areas by the Seljuk Turks.
Kemence has only three
strings, and its bow is the horse hair. The horse hair
is normally very loose, but is tightened by the player
during playing, often tightened and released, allowing
loudness or softness of the sound.
Horon dances of Black Sea
are often performed to cura zurna. However especially
indoors, kemaenche is a must. Total length of this
instrument is about 20 inches.
AZERI REGION
:
Azerbaijani music is
characterized by liberal melodic embellishment and
improvisational passages. Both indigenous folk
instruments such as the, saz, zurna and Western
instruments such as the accordion and clarinet are used.
The Azerbaijani woman’s
costume consists of a full floor-length skirt; a fitted
jacket -and a long gossamer veil. The man's costume. is
characterized by a special fitted jacket, soft leather
boots and a fur hat. Azerbaijani women's dances are
noted for their gliding "movement and the graceful use
of hands. Men's dances are characterized by proud
posture
About the Author:
Ercument Kilic was born in
Ankara, Turkey in 1958.
He began his dance and music
career at an age of four and was eventually admitted, as
culture specialist/ artist, to the Turkish National
Ensemble with which he remained until coming to the U.S.
in 1977.
Since that time, Ercument
has given lectures on Turkish Culture for dance
companies and universities in various countries as he
traveled extensively numerous times to Canada, Great
Britain, West Germany, Netherlands, Turkey, Switzerland,
Republic of China, Hong Kong, Japan as well as 50 states
in the U.S. |
