Dances of the Caucasus

Andrew Carnie

Part 5: Dances of Anatolia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East

16 Dances of the Caucasus

1. Geography and History

The Caucasus^[1] is the strip of land between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea that lies between Turkey and Iran to the south and Russia to the north. The former Soviet republics and regions of Abkhazia, Azerbaijan, Karachay-Cherkessia, Ossetia, Chechnya, Dagestan, and Georgia are part of the Caucasus. The languages of this region are mostly Kartvelian languages, which are unrelated to the Indo-European languages of Armenia and Iran. The Caucasus has been part of the Persian Empire, the Russian Empire, and the Soviet Union. In recent times, there have been bloody ethnic conflicts in Armenia, Georgia, Chechnya, Ossetia, Azerbaijan, and Abkhazia.

2. Armenia (Հայաստան)

2.1. History and Geography

The current boundaries of the Republic of Armenia (Hayastan or Հայաստան in Armenian) are those of a landlocked country tucked into the strip of land between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. It is bordered on the south by Iran, in the east by Azerbaijan, in the north by Georgia, and in the west by Türkiye. Armenia is unique in the region as both a majority-Christian country and one that speaks an Indo-European rather than a Caucasian or Turkic language. The borders of modern Armenia are much smaller than those that were historically considered the Armenian homeland. A large part of historical Armenia is now part of Türkiye. As mentioned above, there is a controversy over the Armenian genocide, which is recognized by most nations but vehemently denied by the Turkish government. This event (1915-1917) created a massive diaspora of Armenians in the USA because thousands of Armenian refugees fled to large US cities such as Fresno in California, Watertown in Massachusetts, and Detroit in Michigan. Much of what we know about Western Armenian dances actually comes from these diasporic communities. In fact, there are even dances called “Fresno” and “Detroit”.

Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as a state religion in the 4th century CE. Today, it maintains its own unique branch of the religion, known as the Armenian Apostolic Church. Although Eastern Armenia is now an independent country, with its capital in Yerevan, Armenia as a whole has been ruled by many of its neighbors. The Persians, the Byzantines, the Ottomans, and the Soviets have all controlled the country. Since 2020, the Republic of Armenia has been in an on-again, off-again war with Azerbaijan over the contested border region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

2.2. Armenian Music

Armenian traditional ensembles play many of the same musical instruments as Turkish musicians. In addition, Armenian music is often dominated by the haunting sounds of a clarinet-like instrument called the duduk (դուդուկ). Another commonly heard instrument is the harp-like kanun (քանոն). The music is often accompanied by the oud, which is found throughout the region, and percussion instruments such as frame drums (called ghaval), the larger dhol (դհոլ), and the dumbek.

Duduk, reed instrument. — Figure 16.3: Duduk

2.3. Armenian Traditional Dress

Armenian traditional dress is typically made of red velvet or white silk. The women wear long, floor-length skirts, pillbox hats with flimsy veils, and blouses with very long, flowing sleeves. The men wear short jackets, usually with wide vertical embroidered banding.

2.4. Armenian Dance

Armenian dancing is called Bar or Par (բար) in Armenia. The dancers often hold each other’s pinky (little) fingers, and their arms tend to sway from side to side like windshield wipers. Common Armenian dances include the Kochari (Քոչարի), commonly a men’s dance, which is supposed to imitate the movements rams make when they fight. The women perform a graceful dance called Shoror (Շորոր), which features sweeping arm movements and flowing footwork. There is a family of related dances (Ambee Dageets (Ամպի Տակից), Sirun Aghcheek (Սիռուն Աղջիկ), Ooska Gookas (Ուսկէ կու գաս), and others) which are characterized by the “Armenian two-step”, a syncopated step where the dancers step on counts 1, 3, and 4 of a 6-count measure. Two other characteristic dances are the Govand (Գովնդ) and the Mom Bar (մոմ բար), both of which are often danced holding candles at the end of a party or evening of dancing.

3. Georgia (საქართველო)

3.1. History and Geography

On the northern border of Armenia, we find the Republic of Georgia (also known as Sakartvelo, საქართველო) with its capital in Tbilisi (თბილისი). Like the Armenians, the Georgians are predominantly Christian, but they speak a completely different, non-Indo-European language belonging to the Kartvelian group. Georgia is bordered on the west by the Black Sea, on the north by the Caucasus Mountains, and on the east by Russia. The area has been ruled over the years by many different empires, including the Persians, the Ottomans, the Russians, and the Mongols. During the Soviet era, it was part of the USSR, even serving as the birthplace of one of that nation’s most famous dictators: Joseph Stalin (იოსებ სტალინი, Ioseb Jughashvili). Georgia left the USSR in 1991 and has been a Western ally in the region since the early 2000s. There are three autonomous regions in Georgia: Adjara, South Ossetia (where they speak a Persian language), and Abkhazia. These regions are linguistically distinct but share much with Georgian dance and music.

3.2. Traditional Dress

Georgian men’s costumes are quite martial in appearance. The men wear long coats, often with bandoliers of rifle bullets across their chests. They wear fuzzy woolen hats known as papakha (ფაფახი) and shiny black boots. The women’s costumes are similar to those in Armenia, except they have even longer sleeves that extend well past the wrists.

3.3. Georgian Music and Dance

The most prominent instruments in Georgian music are the davul or drum and the very unique-sounding garmoni accordion (გარმონი):

გარმონი (ოსტატი კ.ბაღდასაროვი); Garmoni Accordion — Figure 16.9: Garmoni accordion

Georgian dances (ცეკვა) are perhaps among the most spectacular in all of Europe. The women take advantage of their long flowing skirts and do dances that make them appear to float or skate across the floor in the dance called Nanari (ნარნარი). When combined with flourishes of their long sleeves, these dances can be incredibly beautiful. The couple dance Kartuli (ქართული) builds upon the elegant movements of the women’s dance but adds in show-off figures for the men. In contrast, when dancing solo, the men perform incredibly acrobatic dances. They leap in the air, land on their knees, and spin around the room on their knees. And, most incredibly, they dance on the knuckles of their toes in soft boots. This unique dance step reportedly stems from their need, as goatherders, to navigate the labyrinth of narrow goat trails through Georgia’s rugged mountains.^[2] Like their costuming, the men’s dances are also martial. These war dances are called Khorumi (ხორუმი). Georgian men are best known for performing fighting dances with real swords and shields.

4. Other Countries in the Caucasus

The remaining countries/regions in the Caucasus are all largely Muslim. These include the following republics within Russia: Adygea, Karachay-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia, Ingushetia, Chechnya, and Dagestan. These countries are all part of Russia but have varying degrees of independence from Moscow. Some republics, such as Chechnya, fought brutal wars of independence, often with Islamic fundamentalism as a pretext.

Azerbaijan is a fully independent republic located south of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea. It is bordered on the west by Armenia. Sadly, Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought a number of brutal wars, including over the recent invasion of Nagorno-Karabakh, which was an Armenian enclave surrounded by Azerbaijan. In Azerbaijan, people speak a Turkic language, and there are deep connections between the Turks and Azeris.

The most famous dance in Azerbaijan and the Russian Caucasian republics is the Lezginka. It is closely related to the Georgian Kartuli. One also finds several different Halay dances. The instrumentation and costumes are similar to those found in Georgia and Armenia.

Some Suggested Dances for Teaching

The following links take you to descriptions and instructions from my website, Folk Dance Musings, for dances appropriate for teaching to new dancers.

Armenian Dances:

Georgian and Laz Dances:

Azeri and Dagestani Dances:

Discussion Question

In each of the ethnicities discussed in this chapter, there are often quite radical differences between women’s dances (which are often floating and elegant) and men’s dances (which are martial and acrobatic). We know women can be fantastic acrobats and men can dance slowly and elegantly, so speculate on why there may be this gender difference.

Media Attributions

Figure 16.1: Map of the Caucasus © John W. W. Powell. Additional geospatial data cited in map. Used here with permission.
Figure 16.2: Map of Historical Armenia © John W. W. Powell. Additional geospatial data cited in map. Used here with permission.
Figure 16.4: Kanun © The Cosby Brown Collection fo Musical Instruments, Metropolitan Museum of Art is licensed under a CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) license

License

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European and Middle Eastern Folk Dance Copyright © 2025 by Andrew Carnie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.