Elazığ Region

Elazığ Region Dance Photo Gallery

This region is the land of well-worded, smiling, quick-witted people.Those who have seen this city are well aware that evil looks, bad language, grief and sorrows have no place in the vicinity. Elazığ enjoys smiling faces, wishes to give joy to the grieving ones. The dances can be seperated into two categories as Wedding Specials and Halay.Wedding dances can be performed with men and women seperately or jointly alike. The prominent ones are:
1. Çayda Çıra:
It is a local dance of weighting. The bride’s hands and feet are painted one night before the departure to groom’s house. This ceremony is performed in bride’s house. During the performance, candles are lit on the brances of trees or in plates by the riverbed while at the same time, men and women holding colored plates with candles perform the dance “Çayda Çıra”. During the dance, drum and zurna are played and the following song continues:

Çayda çıra yanıyor
Canda şevk uyanıyor
Yandı eridi mumlar
Nasıl can dayanıyor
Nanay gelinim nanay
Oyna dön bugün bu ay

2. Güvercin Oyunu (Pigeon Dance):
It is performed by four individuals and jointly by men and women as optional.During this dance the following song is performed accompanied by drum and zurna:

Güvercin havadadır
Bir eşi yuvadadır
Bir elim yâr koynunda
Bir elim duadadıra
Güvercin vurdum kalkmaz
Kanım tel olmuş akmaz
Köçükten bir yâr sevdim
Şimdi yüzüme bakmaz.

3. Halay:
People of Elazığ also possess Üç Ayak (three step), Çabuk Üç Ayak (quick three step), Ağır Üç Ayak (slow three step) and Dik Halayları. These are performed by 2-6 persons. Napkins are held like flags during the dance. Knees are twisted while shoulders moan to each others to create a resemblence to the sets of mountains during its performance. The description of Çabuk Üç Ayak (quick three step)is as follows:

Üç ayak, üç ayak üstü tiz gelsin
Mastar’dan Hazar’a toz duman olsun
Omuzlar yükselsin, kollar yükselsin
Göğüs dik, bakış ok, kaş keman olsun

Costume:
Dancers wear a blue “şalvar” over white shoes while covering while belts.The white belt is worn over a white shirt along with a blue “puşu (yemeni)” covering the head.
There are a variety of games originated from the suburbs or from the center of the region: Üç Ayak, Fatmalı, Delilo, Horum, Tamzara, Çayda Çıra, Halay, Avreş Oyunları, Zeybek, Şeve Kırma etc. Among these, the dance “Horum” can also be pronounced as Horüm. (Horum; pigeon.)
Other than Tamzara, there is also Arapkir Tamzarası and Delilo, Çayda Çıra, as well as Kol Oyunu. It also includes dances like Leli-Aşo which features flour-making and wool-working, Mısrî Dance an deven Blacksea Region and Erzurum dances, along with Zeybek. These people call Zeybek as “Zöbek” as seen in the expression “Our zöbek is different”. There may also be a set of dances that includes: Hori or Horum, Mısrî, Tamzara, Arapkir Tamzarası, Halay. The last one has three seperate parts. Elazığ also has dances such as Palu, Karakoçan, Genç dolaylarında Lorke, Govent, Tek Ayak, Maden’de Rumtiki, Lorke, Halay, Beş Parmak, Üç Ayak, Karşılama, Ben Bir Kavak Olaydım.
In open space, these dances are always accompanied by drum and zurna. Instruments like Çığırtma and dümbelek are also in use. Instruments like Bağlama are only used in villages. They are rarely used in the center of Elazığ these days. Violin is played like kemençe in company of “kanun” hanged on the neck (as the old style kanuns) and a “tef”. These three are called “instrument group”.
The Old Elazığ dances also feature symbolic Deve Oyunu (Camel Dance). Two dancers take up a costume of camel. The dance is accompanied by davul and zurna.
Anoter symbolic dance like Camel dance is this. A man is disguised as woman with a scarf and sits on a table. A man comes and messes with the woman, disturbing her. He draws a blade, threatens the woman with a gun with no use. Finally he says, “I will marry you”. Only then the woman agrees. They get up and dance together. In some occassions Sarı Zeybek is played and man dances alone with a blade while man sometimes takes up the woman with money. In this case, the woman sits down and accompanies the man by keeping a routine while sometimes the dancer disguised as woman gets up and dances with the man.