BACKWARD DANCE

“Tars” means “reverse”. In the indo European parent language the root “tars” meant “to get dry, to feel thirsty”. So the word “tars” was closely connected with drought and aridity which meant loss of harvest, dryness and longing for rain that would bring fruitfulness. Hence it becomes clear that while “ver-ver” kind of dances are connected with the fertility of the nature, “tars” dances are connected with the drought, thirst and the loss of harvest. Because of the drought, everything goes wrong, goes “tars” in the household.

Drought and infertility were not the only source of people’s misfortunes. In the old, the mourning for any disaster and calamity suffered by the Armenians and perhaps by their ancestors as well, was accompanied by dances, the main movement direction of which was to the left, to the “unsuccessful” side. But the track lines of these dances were different from those which mourned drought and infertility.

So, in the old times the leftward dances meant either mourning some disaster, or drawing some disaster and trouble to the enemy by bewitching movements and songs.

We’ll present the Sarighamish variant of “Tars Par”. This is a round dance. The handhold is by little fingers. The dancers stand quite away from each other, so that their forearms which are stretched forward at the angle of 45 degrees, are half way between the dancers. The elbows are bent at the acute angle.

The dance form consists of ten steps:

1.Take a large step to the left with the left foot
2.Take a step with the right foot to the left, crossing right in front of left
3.A step with the left foot to the left
4.Repeat the 2nd step
5.Repeat the 3rd step
6.Hold
7.A step forward with the right foot
8.Cross left in back of right
9.step side and forward on the right foot
10. rise the left leg backward, bending the knee. The steps are quite large.

This dance is described by three steps to the left and two steps to the right.

“Tars Par” of Sarighamish consists of interwoven “crafty” steps, hostile intrigues which are expressed in winding, crooked track line. It might aim in trying to mislead the evil powers in those winding and whirling movements, thus trying to keep the evil away. This kind of patterns are also found on the doors and porches of churches which aim to prevent the evil power from entering the churches or other sanctuaries.