Margarit
(Armenia)

[Full notes] [Summary notes] [Other dances & the source code]

Disclaimer: Mistakes are quite likely in the notes and no guarantees are made as to accuracy. There may be other versions of the same dance or other dances with the same name. Music may differ, particularly in speed, introduction and duration, between performers. The division into parts, bars & counts might not be standard. These notes of the dance are freely distributable (under GPL or CC-by-sa) in so much as the note's author's contribution but the choreography and/or collection were by other people and so their copyright might apply to the dance itself. Better than using notes, go to a dance class where it is taught by Pajlak Sarkisian.

A delicate Armenian women's dance with emphasis on the arm movements. Originally choreographed for professional performance use, it was adapted (simplified) for us participant folk dance hobbyists by the choreographer.

This dance is far more complicated (many parts, lots of arm work, complex non-repeating structure & much subtle styling detail) than dances I usually lead or teach (& it was the most difficult one so far to write up!). I liked it when I learnt it but thought it to difficult & time-consuming to teach back in the UK. Instead I taught on 'Ovivi Erk' which I learnt on the same course and has similar styling but far few parts.

However, in the 2012 Eastbourne International Folk Dance Festival, Dalila Heath (who specialises in teaching Armenian dance in the UK & had learnt this dance likewise from the choreographer but at a different time) taught it. I was not in that class but I met a friend coming out of it very enthusiastically. She told me that I ought to have been there because I could have learnt it and so could have been able it on at the following Youlgrave dance holiday which we were both going to. Dalila overheard & called out "Andrew already knows it!", which was a bit of an exaggeration as it was 6 years since I had learnt it properly, so I was basically dropped in with the job of teaching it. Working out how to teach it relatively quickly (it had taken over an hour spread over several sessions when I was taught it thoroughly) to a group of mixed Balkan/International & Sacred/Circle dancers was difficult and it took 20 min to teach (without much on the styling detail) despite pushing them quite hard and mixing teaching some bits with walkthroughs first & some with following first as fitted each but it somehow worked & it was well received. I don't know if I will being doing it ever again though because of the time required & I lead casual dances for fun not serious classes where people expect to have to remember the steps afterwards.

At least one aspect is easy though: the footwork contains nothing more complex than a Grapevine (probably because the stage performance costumes would have been floor-length dresses).

There are slightly different versions of this dance in circulation. This is because the adaptation for social dancing was a work in progress and the choreographer continued to adapt for successive groups of visiting dancers. I think the session I learnt it might have been the first version of the social dance adaptation. There is the question of whether I should write up this version, which I know best & have learnt directly from the choreographer, or a later version, as that may be more stable. However after seeing (via Dalila Heath) the version taught in 2007, I preferred the one I learnt because the subsequent simplifications (mainly making the sequence of parts a bit more regular) made it not fit the music quite as well.

The following notes, despite being verbose in arm movement descriptions, do not fully describe the detailed styling of the arm movements because arms & hands are capable of many more different motions than legs are.

All parts are 2 bars (in my, probably non-standard, way of counting it) long except Part I, which is a 1 bar filler, and the intro. All parts start with the R foot moving. All steps are one count each except for where I've summarised them as 'quick' (half a count) or 'slow' (2 counts). There is no need to count 1.9 times the first main sequence as the music clearly changes signalling the transition; the transition is simply skipping the final Part E1 & going straight into the simple Part F anyway.

The same music is used for other dances. In 2023 I came across it being used for the generic "Armenian Shuffle" (facing R, (R forwards, L forwards, R close), ditto on other feet, facing centre, Grapevine starting R side & L across behind, R across infront turning to face L, L & R forwards, L close turning to face R). I asked the leader & it turned out that tune was used for that dance in a Circle Dance teachers' gathering back in 2001, before I came across Margarit.

Style: Very graceful. Quiet, gentle, flowing, upright. The default hand shape is a relaxed curve but with the middle finger slightly more flexed than the other fingers.

Notes by Andrew Hardwick.
Summaries written 2012/6/16. Details written 2017/5/14. Typos corrected 2019/1/19. Armenian Shuffle connection 2023/3/8. Alternative name added 2023/4/12.
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