About the Dance: History & Styles

UZBEKISTAN

(continued from part I)

Entertainment dances include koshuk and kairak-ufari, each distincitve to a particular area and featuring the playing of kairok, or castanets made from smooth, flat river stones or metal. Lapar is a duet to sung couplets; yalla is a solo dance accompanied by song. Gul Ufari (jocular rhythms) or khaivonlar-ufari (animal rhythms) are sometimes obvious pantomimes illustrating the habits of animals, birds, or fish; at other times they are sophisticated dances representing the stylized images of wild or domesticated animals.

Uzbek dance is characterized by intricate arm and hand movements, a variety of spins and turns, backbends, shoulder isolations and animated facial expressions. Often portions of the dance are performed while kneeling on the floor. Footwork is relatively simple; high leaps and pelvic isolations are absent from the dance. The primary dancing is done by women and girls.

Musical accompaniment takes many forms, varying from purely rhythmic structures and melodies of a narrow tonal range perfomed by a single percussion instrument or two-stringed instruments, to classical maqom (complex compositions of many parts), to works performed by a large orchestra of folk instruments with singers.

The professional dance tradition falls into three categories. The first includes raqs, oyin, and ufari, technically sophisticated dances performed by virtuousos who may improvise on their patterns. The second group is gul ufari, the humorous, imitative form developed by dancers of the Uzbek theatre of Maskharaboz. The third category consists of dances preformed by traditional circus artists that include various acrobatic stunts.

Three regional styles of Uzbek dance, each of which has clearly defined forms and systems of training, developed in the separtate political entitites which existed in the Turkestan prior to its incorporation into the Soviet Union. The Khanate of Kokand in the Ferghana Valley, the Khanate of Khiva in the Khorezm region, and the Emirate of Bukhara produced Ferghana, Khorezm, and Bukharan styles respectively. The most lyrical of the three schools, Ferghana dance is characterized by intricate wrist circles and undulations of the hands and arms with pliant use of the spine and a shy, yet playful, demeanor. Khorezm dances often feature trembling of the hands and torso, frequent head slides and comic elements. The most popular of Khorezm dances, lazgi, was originally a healing dance, traditionally performed in place with the dancer standing on a large platter. Dances from Bukhara feature a proud carriage and the juxtaposition of soft, undualting movements with crisp, staccato motions. The Bukharan style is the most acrobatic of the three, requiring fast spins, sudden drops to the floor, and deep backbends. In all three schools, the dancermay sometimes were wrist bells to add a percussive element to their movements. Traditionally, both folk and professional forms of Uzbek dance were of a solo nature with group dances being virtually non-existent.

Tamara Khanum

Although Russia conquered Turkestan in the mid-nineteenth century, local traditions went largely undisturbed until 1924 when the region became incorporated into the USSR. The Bolshevik campaign to elimate the custom of veiling soon lead to public performances of dance by women. Born in Margillan in 1906, Tamara Khanum was one of the first women to defy tradition and perform unveiled, often courting death at the hands of reactionaries. In 1924, she performed Uzbek dance at the World Exposition in Paris, marking the first time in modern history that Central Asian dance had been seen in the West. One of Tamara Khanum’s colleagues, a young dancer named Nurkhon, was murdered by her own brother for dishonoring the family by dancing in public. Nurkhon later became the subject of a muscial drama by Kamil Yashin.

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