Circassian heritage on display at dance performance

By Hana Namrouqa

AMMAN - The rich symbolism of Circassian folkways took center stage this week at the Highlanders Circassian dance show.

At Wednesday night's performance at the International Academy-Amman theater, 95 young dancers performed 10 traditional dances that depicted the history of the Circassian people and told stories drawn from their literature and myths.

Inaugurated by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Khalid Karaki, deputizing for Her Majesty Queen Rania, the dance concert opened with Qafa, a fast-paced dance set against a quick, lively tune that celebrates life and liberty.

Next, a group of girls dressed in pink costumes danced gracefully on their tip-toes in Thapa Qash, a dance symbolizing the warrior women who mastered the arts of fighting and horsemanship.

In Abzakh Widg, men and women danced in circles around a man wearing a long white coat made of fur, called a Tshaquah, and holding a decorated wooden object with his right hand, called a Dah Paah, which is usually carried by the eldest man in a Circassian dance gathering. The dance is one of the oldest Circassian dances and symbolizes love and joy.

Another dance, Bjadough Yislamay, imitated the movements of birds as girls floated like swans and men surrounded them like eagles.

In the Circassian tradition, a good dancer is a good fighter. The Oshehamafa dance displayed this linkage as a group of young men combined athletic dance moves with martial arts to the energetic rhythms of the baraban (a Circassian drum).

The dance show, named after the Highlanders dance troupe, an affiliate of the International Circassian Cultural Academy (ICCA), also featured dances from Turkey's Circassian community, including the Shapsigh Thaparish: a dance of the Shapsugh tribe that mimics the rhythm of heartbeats, while young men move their legs in imitation of horses.

In the merry Hakolash dance, which belongs to the Bjadough and Abzakh tribes, men and women danced to fast-paced music and the sound of the bkhashatsh, a wooden instrument that produces soft sounds when shaken.

The performance concluded with the Highlanders dance, known to Circassians in Jordan as "Shashan".

The concert, which had a second showing Thursday evening and concludes with a final performance Friday, is the ICCA's first annual show. It aims at celebrating Circassian culture and heritage and reinforcing the integration and harmony of Circassians within the Jordanian community, according to Dalal Kabarday, the academy's public relations coordinator.

Launched in August, the new academy seeks to preserve Circassian heritage with plans to organize courses in music, traditional embroidery and handicrafts, among other skills.

Headquartered in the Jandaweel neighborhood in west Amman, the ICCA, is a not-for-profit society registered with the Ministry of Culture.

The Circassians, an indigenous people of the northwest Caucasus region, are a non-Arab, Islamic people originally from the Caucasus region of western Asia. Southward Russian expansion during the 19th century forced between 1.5 and two million Circassians to emigrate south to the Ottoman Empire following the 19th century Russian-Circassian war, according to web sources.

The first wave of Circassian immigrants, who were mainly of Shapsugh extraction, arrived in Jordan in 1878 and took refuge in Amman. They were followed by the Kabardians, the Abzakh and Bzhedugh.

Unofficial figures place the Circassian population in Jordan at between 80,000 and 100,000.

Today, only a minority live in their divided ancestral homeland, mainly in three republics of the Russian Federation: Kabardino Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia and Adygheya.

29 October 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=31373.