Turkish Folk Dance

The Turkish Folk Dance Group at UF has been participating in festivals and celebrations throughout Florida for years. They have been dancing in front of large audiences and introducing Turkish folk dancing to those who have not been exposed to the culture of Turkey before. The names of the dancers in the group continuously change as graduating students leave town and new students replace them. The experienced help the newcomers master the moves and in doing so assure the continuation of a tradition here at UF.Turkish folk dances and folk music create one of our traditions which, for centuries, was the most effective means of national feelings and culture.

As a geographical, historical and cultural phenomenon, our folk dances and our music work, emerging in a variety of forms and of very rich character in different regions, are considered to be a cultural treasure. The number of our folk dances performed and folk songs sung reaches almost ten thousand that are observed in weddings, gatherings, festivals, friendship meetings, association meetings, seymenlik (performance of young men armed in national costume who take part in a wedding procession/festivals) ceremonies, various seasonal recreations, holidays and in many other traditional activities. It is necessary to regard the Turkish folk music and folk dances always as a whole completing each other. Including a many small kinds, our main folk dances are Bar's (performed in East Anatolia), Halay's (in Anatolia), Zeybek's (on the Aegean coast), Hora's (cyclic dance), Horon's (round dance) and Samah's (folk dance of villager Alevis or Mevlevi dervish dance).

Our folk dances, spread over all of these regions, have very rich figures and melody structure and they are in general, classified into woman dances, man dances, woman/man dances, one person dances, two people dances and group dances.

Horon from the Black Sea Region

Horon comes from the word “horom” which refers to a line of six or seven corn stalks tied together to form a lattice. From a distance it appears like a line of people joining hands with their arms raised. The most renowned dance style of the Black Sea region, the Horon suggests the action of fishermen as well as the movements of the fish and the sea of this ancient fishing district. It is characterized by alert and tense shivering movements and sudden squatting. The Horon is generally danced by a chain of either men or women who form a line or semi-circle. The few Horons in which women and men dance together are called “rahat horon” or “comfortable horon”; the music is slower and the figures are simpler. Horons are often danced to the music of these instruments: Cura zurna, cura davul, tulum, kemence, koltuk davulu and more recently, accordian.

Silifke Dances from Southern Turkey

Dances from this region, Türkmenkizi, Yayla Yollari, Silifkenin Yogurdu, Keklik depict daily lives and chores of men and women.

Kars Dances from Eastern Turkey

The dances being performed are eastern Anatolian dances of Artvin and Kars. The folk dances of this region are generally performed at celebratory events such as marriages or as men depart for war or military service.  The first, “Elmas”, depicts couples dancing. The women are in red and white dresses with chiffon scarves hanging from their heads. The men wear military style uniforms representative of the military strife throughout their history and especially during the early twentieth century.  “Atabari”, the second dance, was first performed in Artvin when Kemal Atatürk visited there after the liberation of Turkey and the founding of the Turkish Republic. The third dance, “Aysat”, is from Kars, one of the easternmost cities of Turkey. Aysat is also performed in couples. It is a romantic dance of classical nature. “Seyh Samil” is the final dance performed by the Turkish group. Seyh Samil is a folk hero of the early twentieth century from the northern Adzarbaijan/Chechnia region. He gained fame for his battles against the Czar’s army. 

Gaziantep Dances  

This motionful and very famous dance is from the southeastern part of Turkey. The costumes are colorful and the dances are very attractive. The instruments are “Zurna”  and the drum The well-known dances are: Oguzlu, dokuzlu, sirinnar, cepikli, mani, meryem and his hisi hancer.

Elazig Dances  

The  instruments for this dance are the clarinet and the drum. The names of the dances are: Cayda cira which is a special kind of dance where the dancers hold burning candles on their hands, fatmali halay (only men), buyukceviz  (only women) and delilo.

Adiyaman Dances 

Adiyaman is located between the upper Euphrates of eastern and the middle Euphrates of southeastern Turkey.

Folk dances of Adiyaman usually depict daily life or cultivation of the land. The music for the dances is usually provided by a drum and a Turkish oboe, called Zurna. There are several dances of the Adiyaman region. Every dance has a story. Here is the story of our dance called Galuc:

This dance is from the Hallun village of Kahta and depicts the struggle of the villagers fighting a poisonous weed called Geliç. Village men get up early in the mornings before planting season to eradicate the weed from the fields. At noon, the women bring their lunch in buckets and water in gourds. After lunch is consumed, men get back to work. When finally the field is cleared of the weed, men celebrate the occasion by performing the dance. Women join them, too. Women carry the gourds on their shoulders during the dance and men go through symbolic motion of chopping the weed with their sickles.