Lezginka Dancers – the dance between eagles and swans
I saw Lezginka dancers for the first time in 2014 when I was unwillingly dragged by my wife to the Winter Olympic Games in Sochii, Russia. I am allergic to sport and ended up spending most of my time in the cultural venue where I saw Lezginka dancing for the first time. (see my illustrated blog post about my visit to Sochii).
Lezginka dancing is a generic term for an exciting dance form found amongst the many tribal nations (Both Islamic and Christian) that live in Caucasus mountains bordering the Black and Caspian seas. The Male Lezginka dancers are eagles and the girls are Swans. This video shows just how much fun this style of dancing is:
The colourful tribal costumes are as exciting as the the dances.
Our new friends in the cultural tent invited us to a wedding in Dagestan, which was an opportunity not to be missed. In Dagestan we met watch the professional Lezginka dancers in rehearsal. It was one of the most exciting moments of my life.
(I wrote four blog pieces about the Dagestani wedding)
This is a gallery of the drawings I made during my trips to Sochii and Dagestan
Lezginka Dancers from the Caucasian Mountains (Southern Russia)
This is a video of the professional group of Lezginka dancers in their very beautiful costumes from Adygea. Watch how the Swans float and the eagles prance.
One of my Lezginka images was reproduced for a Two Bad Mice greeting card
