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Turkish folk dances are thefolk dances ofTurkey. Facing three seas, straddling important trade routes, Turkey has a complex, sophisticated culture, reflected in the variety of its dances. The dominant dance forms are types ofline dance. There are many different types of folk dances performed in various ways in Turkey.Zeybek,Teke Zortlatması inAegean region,Bar inErzurum province,Halay in the central, southern, eastern, and southeastern parts of the country,Hora inThrace,Horon in the easternBlack Sea region,Spoon dances in and aroundKonya, andLezginka inKars andArdahan are some of the best known examples of these.[1]
With their structure and formation, they are the dances performed by groups in the open. They are spread, in general, over the eastern part ofAnatolia (Erzurum,Bayburt,Ağrı,Kars,Artvin andErzincan provinces). The characteristic of their formation is that they are performed side-by-side, hand, shoulder and arm-in-arm. Woman and man bars are different from one another. The principal instruments of bar dances aredavul andzurna (shrill pipe). Later, clarinet has been added to women's bar dances. The dominant measures in bars are5
8 and9
8. Occasionally, measures of6
8 and12
8 are used.Aksak9
8 measures which are also the most characteristic measures, in particular, of the Turkish folk music are applied with extremely different and interesting structures in this dance. They normally wear costumes as they dance. They always dance with pride and they turn their hands as they hop dance.[1]
Halay is a term used for some of the folk dances found in Turkey and is performed to a large extent in Eastern, South-central, Central, and Southeastern Turkey. The rhythmic and choreographic elements of these dances are very diverse. These dances are mostly performed withdavul andzurna combination as well as withkaval (shepherd's pipe),sipsi (reed),çığırtma (fife) orbağlama (an instrument with three double strings played with a plectrum) or performed when folk songs are sung.[1]
The horon (Greek: horos [masculine noun, singular form, nominative]), which derives from the Greek word: choros (Greek:(ο) χορός) meaning dance in bothancient and modernGreek, Turkish: Horon, is a dance style found in the Black Sea region, now modern Turkey. The dances called Horon derived from theLaz culture of the area and are circular in nature, each characterized by distinct short steps. Horon was originally a Laz pagan dance.[citation needed] Horon or the round dance is a typical folk dance of the Black Sea coastal area and its interior parts. Horons appear very different from the folk dances in other parts of the country with their formation of tempo, rhythm and measure. Horons are performed, in general, by groups and their characteristic measure is7
16 For their melodies are rendered very fast, it is very difficult to render them with every instrument. For this reason, rendering with a drum and zurna becomes practical. Melodies of horon are performed with the small type of zurna which is called 'cura'. In addition, in the interior parts blowing instruments such as bagpipe mey (again, a small zurna) etc. The other measures used are2
4,5
8 and9
16.[1]
Zeybeks are, in general, the widespread folk dances of the Western Anatolia. Zeybek dance originated from theZeybeks of the Aegean region. The dance is rendered by one person or two or by a group of people and its name changes for example as 'seymen' in the central parts of Anatolia. Zeybek dances are formed, in general, of9
8 measures and have a variety of tempos such as very slow, slow, fast and very fast. Very slow zeybek dances have the measure of9
2, slow ones9
4 and some others9
8. Very fast dances, for instance, teke (goat) dance seen in Burdur – Fethiye region can be regarded as dances of zeybek character, they have the traditional measure of9
16. There is another folk dance named as bengi in the zeybek region. It is performed more differently from the zeybek and has got a different musical feature and the most characteristic measure of bengi dance is9
8. Particularly in slow zeybeks, the traditional instruments is drum and zurna combination. The use of 2 drums and 2 zurnas in combination is a tradition, function of one of the zurnas is accompaniment, in other words, it accompanies the melody with a second constant tune. Apart from drum-zurna, a three-double string instrument bağlama, reed, marrow bow etc. are used for fast zeybek dances. In particular, the traditional instrument of the teke (goat) dance region is reed.[1]
