30.07 Lezginka Legend Brings Dance of Dagestan to US
BROOKLYN, New York, July 30 (By Maria Young for RIA Novosti) In a roomful of pint-sized performers, swirling and stomping like they were born to dance in their forefathers footsteps, a tanned and muscular Anatoliy Vartanian is waving his arms like a madman, shouting frustration in a voice filled with disgust, his salt-and-pepper hair jutting out at crazy angles, outrage spewing from his soul.
What are you thinking??! Tighter! Youre not trying! he fumes in his native Russian tongue, inches away from the face of a wide-eyed eight-year-old boy who instantly manages to sharpen his moves, leaping higher, turning with a precision that wasnt there a moment before.
Thats the kind of respect you command when you are one of the most famous lezginka dancers of Dagestan, where this fast-paced, frenzied dance, filled with jumping, twirling and high-pitched screams originated hundreds of years ago.
I love each of them tremendously... but when I shout at them, when I tell them off, I have a result. If I were soft with them, they wouldnt have danced like that, said Vartanian through a translator in an interview with RIA Novosti.
