Thread: On the Silk Road

I'm back after a wonderful visit to Uzbekistan, a fascinating country with incredible history (Tamerlane was born there), amazing buildings and lovely people. We went to watch a folkloric dance troupe performing when we were in Bukhara and here are a couple of clips, one of the whole troupe and one of a soloist. The troupe were slick, professional, beautifully costumed and by the body carriage all trained ballet dancers. Great hands! Unfortunately their performances were wasted on the tourist-crowd who made up 99% of the audience as you'll see :-(

I confess to knowing absolutely nothing about Central Asian dance so if anyone can share some info on the dances they are performing, that'd be great.

Troupe
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzN1hP5DZaI]YouTube - Dances from The Silk Road I[/ame]

Soloist
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8Tts1ImX50]YouTube - Dances from the Silk Road II[/ame]

I love the 'stans. Did an extensive trek in Pamirs and the Tien Shen and then some travelling around a few years ago - fabulous place, warm-hearted people with a fascinating regional history. Loved it!

Nice, thanks for posting! Those costumes are lovely.
I don't know anything about the dances either, but I'm eagerly awaiting input from anyone who does.

Beautiful dances, thank you so much for sharing !

Not exactly the silk road but what about this as an Uzbeki clip! ..g.:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyjV6KUlwVo]YouTube - Uzbekistan Stage Show[/ame]

Thank you for sharing these wonderful videos with us!

It looks like Uyghur dance to me. :)

thanks..i shared that with all my hye dancers...loved it!

Originally Posted by caroline_afifi

Not exactly the silk road but what about this as an Uzbeki clip! ..g.:

YouTube - Uzbekistan Stage Show

This is a stitch...g.:

Originally Posted by Aziza_UAE

I'm back after a wonderful visit to Uzbekistan, a fascinating country with incredible history (Tamerlane was born there), amazing buildings and lovely people. We went to watch a folkloric dance troupe performing when we were in Bukhara and here are a couple of clips, one of the whole troupe and one of a soloist. The troupe were slick, professional, beautifully costumed and by the body carriage all trained ballet dancers. Great hands! Unfortunately their performances were wasted on the tourist-crowd who made up 99% of the audience as you'll see :-(

I confess to knowing absolutely nothing about Central Asian dance so if anyone can share some info on the dances they are performing, that'd be great.

Troupe
YouTube - Dances from The Silk Road I

Soloist
YouTube - Dances from the Silk Road II

Oh - fascinating person -

[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timur]Timur - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

Amir Timur, better known to us in the West as Tamberlane, has undergone a rehabilitation in Uzbekistan at least and is now regarded as a hero. His statue replaced that of Marx in one of Tashkent's central parks.

The photos of our visit to his tomb are here: Uzbekistan: Samarkand 1 - Carolynn-in-Dubai's Photos

Here's an introduction to "suzani," ie needlework, for which Uzbekistan and other Central Asian nations are famous:

[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzani_rug]Suzani textile - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]


Some of these are absolutely amazing.