War-Dancer among Armenians

Abstract

Wa,r-dancer have been widely spread a,mong Armeiian people as a,mong many peoples in the world. The most eloquent testimony to it are more than 20 da,nces preserved in the daily round of Armenians in which the idea of combat and struggle is most strikingly revealed. In Armenian Historigraphy there exist numerous evidences of war-dances performed particularly at the wedding and funeral ceremonies. 5th century historian Movses Khorenatsi describing the funeral of the King Ar-1 tashes mentions the war-dances afi well. There also exist evidences given by Pa,vstos Boozand (5th century)2 a,nd Grigor Maghistros (9th century).3 It is known that in Middle Ages special church meetings were summond which adopted resolutions on the ban of songs and particularly clap-dancings (Sap-paper)4 in commentaries a,ndinpublic places. The terms preserved in Armenian language come to prove the most ancient origin of the war-dances.5 The terms Banaki, Razrnakan, Paterazrnakan, krvi xat-par are still used in literary languages and dialects. The dictionary of Armenian Classic language (Haykazian) gives the following e2cplanation of the word par (dance): Arrangements, regiments of warriors dancing on the occasion of victory are called dancings of the troops.6 War-da,nces are being performed mostly by young and middle aged men. Since the beginning of time these dancings have been in the middle of attention of male age-groups and considered to be one of main means of military training. They have complicated dance-steps and their maWsterly performance demands consistent trainings. The imperfect performance of these dances was