A THIN ROPE
“A THIN ROPE”, is a mass ethnic dance of the Eastern Mari people. The dance appeared in times of paganism. It is considered to be a ritual dance. It is common for all Eastern Mari. It is a bright original dance with its own per forming style. People used to dance in bast shoes with small bells attached to them. Stomp ing and thumping are symbolic of disease ban ishment. The dance includes zigzag moves.
Two lines of dancers mimic plaiting a rope around the middle line (“to plate a small rope” meant to be guarded against evil spirits). It con sists of two parts: During the first part the danc ing pairs walk (the pace may be simple, accent ed or sliding) and sing chastushkas, during the second part the male dancers do strong and rhythmic steps waving their hands sharply. Fe male dancers move smoothly. Doing frequent steps they snap their fingers and sometimes spin around. The dance is accompanied by playing the bagpipes, drums, pipes and sgueezebox. The international contestfestival of the Eastern Mari ethnic dance called “Silver rope” takes place in Kaltasinskiy District twice a year since 2011. “Silver rope” open district dance festival took place in August, 2014 in the Kaltasy vil lage of Kaltasinskiy District.
S.I. Apsatarova
