Meaning in Movement

The recent performance by the 15 member Armenian dance troupe from Nane Show Ballet, at Kamani Audiotirum recently was a sight to marvel at with an eclectic mix of dance traditions- ballet and tap dance blended with Armenian dance- that left the audiences spellbound. (The evening was in keeping with the 15 th Independence celebrations of Armenia and was jointly organized by the ICCR and the Armenian Embassy). However, in same breath, this writer also felt that perhaps the bodies organizing such events should now seriously look into enquiring about the history and tradition of the art forms, they introduce to the Indian audience since what one saw was great dance but sans any information on what it was all about or how it was uniquely Armenian ( when it had distinctive Euro-Arabic stamp on it. And this when the country is a part of Indo-Euro civilization)
Notwithstanding the fact that attempts are made by ICCR to regularly scout and promote newer art forms of different countries in India, there has to be an equally strong effort by the concerned program directors to ensure that proper handouts giving a brief on the historic and contemporary standing of these art forms are also distributed among the audience. That will enable the viewers to contextualise the performance and enjoy it all the more.
Going by the information gathered on the internet, the sequences performed by Nane dance company ( with the young dancer not more than six or seven years old) were dominated by Nazani ( also known as graceful dance- recognized for its swaying movements of hands, necks and legs.) The other Armenian dances include- Kochari, Berd (meaning Fortess or wall, which happens to be the most typical Armenian dance form ) and Suserow Par (Sword Dance). Nazani, which was the flavour of the evening ( which was interspersed with delightful tap dancing by young performers), is a dance form that owes its identity to Ararat valley- beautiful, sensuous and poetic. Similarly, Nazani stands out for - femininity, grace and lyrical beauty.
Extremely graceful and vivacious, the young Armenian women's performance ( On a recorded music- which had an array of songs and intrumental sequences- which one believed had Armenian zurna (wind instrument), dhol (drum), tar, saz, kanon (string instrument) and duduk) had marked movements inspired from belly dancing of West Asia. And dance and dancers have certainly traversed a long path to be recognized as ambassadors of the country, which has had one of the most ancient civilizations and which lost nearly 1.5 million people to genocide around the first world war, orchestrated by Ottaman Turks. That single event metamorphosed the Armenian dance tradition, since it soon became a tool to heal the wounded souls across the world. And so, the usually rugged and masculine dance form, ( as practiced in Berd, which was born while fighting the Turks) became over shadowed by Nazani. Moreover, As Laura Shanon, who created a new dance form Shoror ( inspired from Nazani) while writing on Armenian dance, in Dance Demon says, "Shoror', means `to sway', and linguistically it means to `oror', `to rock or cradle'. The subtle swaying of the hands, tracing the infinity symbol in the space in front of the heart, is a gesture of cradling new life…" . The fact that there is no codification of these dance forms, the current practitioners are able to mould the dance forms around their cultural motifs.
Given the above, it was understandable to see the female dominated dance troupe.As Gayane Abrahamyan, in her article "Meaning in Movement: The Armenian dance has tradition but welcomes interpretation" writes, "According to ethnographer Arusiak Sahakyan, in earlier times a traditional Armenian woman never danced with her face open and never raised her hands higher than her ears."
Times changed and so did Armenian dance!