DANCE UNITS IN THE ANALYSIS OF TURKISH FOLK DANCES

Abstract

Although Turkish folk dances are basically dances, it is obvious that they consist of a combination of “movement - music - rhythm – traditional clothing” in their traditional structure. We cannot exclude any of these. When we try to analyze or teach the dance structurally, we are faced with the fact that the elements of “movement - music – rhythm” are an integral part of folk dances. This intertwined structure brings about serious problems, confusion and inextricable problems if it is not handled scientifically.

In Turkish folk dances, there are examples where “dance and music/melody" overlap and do not overlap in terms of time. We can call the dances in which the dance and melody overlap each other, that is, they are in harmony in terms of their beginnings and endings, “regular dances”, and the dances in which they do not overlap, that is, they are not in harmony in terms of their beginnings and endings, “irregular dances”. Although there are generally no problems in the examination and teaching of regular dances, serious problems occur in irregular dances. The biggest confusion in the study and teaching of irregular dances arises from the use of melody phrases as a basis in terms of timing. However, since it is a dance being examined, action should be taken based on the dance, and the beginning and end of the dance sentence should be taken into consideration for timing. In order to achieve this, the dance must be examined structurally well, the movement units must be well explained, and the definitions must be applicable to all dance examples. Only by analyzing and teaching in this way can a successful result be achieved.

Our study was conducted to eliminate this confusion. In the study, it is revealed how the dance can be divided into units structurally, from the smallest unit to the largest unit, each of them is defined and exemplified. As a result, the units of the dance are scaled from smallest to largest as "figure, movement, motif, action sentence, episode, dance" and are supported with examples.