bailamos!

My first Azeri school year concluded a few days ago, complete with a Zeng Son aka graduation ceremony for the 11th formers and the passing of the key of knowledge onto the 1st form kids. (This part involved a literal ceremonial purpose key, about a meter long) There were speeches given and poems that were recited. The 11th formers had sashes on, beauty contestant style, sporting the 3 colors and seal of Azerbaijan.

There was also traditional dancing by both the small children and older kids; while observing I considered how demonstrating this dancing would look to the Americans in my life whenever I see them next in the homeland. A product of the clearly marked gender lines and roles, with Azeri traditional dancing there are typically clusters of women then clusters of men dancing on their own separate areas of the dance floor.

Falling in line with the conservative, demure/passive role of women - women typically dance by slowly crossing one foot for a heel tap in front of the other foot and alternate this foot pattern while holding their arms out as if you're going in for a bear hug but instead of embracing another person, there's a wrist circling movement is very small and not at all boisterous. Hip shaking is seen as very taboo so very rarely will you see any of the booty shaking Americans seem to have such a fondness for. Think the exact opposite of the word exuberant - and yet there is very little in this country that could effectively get me out onto the dancefloor after my first Azeri folk dancing attempt/trauma last summer.

Men, however, get all the fun it seems as usual in Azeri society. The phrases 'dancing shoes' or 'dancing pants' definitely applies here. Arms are held out straight out sideways from shoulders and sometimes bend at the elbow to the head alternately (those of you who know the sprinkler dance - think of the arm-head pose...you're halfway to how the dance looks) and then the feet, oh my goodness the feet movement. It's mostly an insanely fast kick slide shuffle forward of the feet with all the weight in the heels. The men in this country LOVE to dance and I've seen the equivalent of dance battles in the numerous Azeri social functions I've been to lately (mostly weddings). Factor in that it's customary for men to drink rather copiously when they get together at weddings (usually a total of 6 bottles of alcohol on a table when you are seated, none of which the women will touch since local women very rarely drink, a small glass of champagne on a very special occasion at best) - well, drunken wedding dancing isn't too different no matter what country or culture you're in I suppose.

The bigger wedding I attended recently even had an all male conga chain where they were holding hands and wrapping around the huge restaurant between tables and aisles, I think singing and/or dancing to the toy (Azeri word for wedding) music. Here I was sulking at a wedding because I was homesick and the Azeri man conga chain rolls by from behind me...that's one way to turn a frown upside down!

I suppose I'll take or have a video in my possession at some point, my digital camera is slightly broken these days hence the slacking on the picture taking. Lezgin weddings are supposed to be even more boisterous - Lezgins are a minority ethnic group of the Dagestan Caucasus area (aka where I and a few other PCVs live) who have a reputation within Azerbaijan of really knowing how to get rowdy. I've seen a wedding video (which took place in neighboring Dagestan, not Azerbaijan though) where the men were just chugging bottles of local vodka and enjoying themselves via dance - somehow it really did seem more ruckus than anything I've yet to witness at an Azeri wedding (though, I have a sneaking suspicion that my tendency of disappearing before the evening really gets underway has a hand in this).

49 weeks now that I've left, not that I've been literally and meticulously counting the number of weeks I've been out here. (It's just easy when to count when phrased as departing a year aka 52 weeks ago, minus 21 days aka 3 weeks...simple math people) There's more stuff to write. I'll save it for another blog, which I promise will come soon. I haven't been terribly busy, just terribly unmotivated to update ^.^ Until next time!