Dance as an Element of the Wedding Ceremony in Culture of Different Peoples: Traditions and Modernity

Abstract

The study considers the dance in the context of the wedding ritual and wedding ceremonies in culture of different peoples: Russians, Buryats, Tuvans, Kalmyks and Altaians. The paper explores the dance that accompanied the wedding celebration itself and the dance that was performed at the pre-wedding and post-wedding ceremonies. The author managed to discover a lot of wedding dances in Russian, Buryat and Kalmyk culture. This circumstance illustrates the development of dance culture of peoples and the widespread use of dance in various spheres of life and activity of society. The paper revealed some cults (solar, animals), reflected in wedding dances and examined the images, meanings, symbols of cultures. In addition to traditional wedding dances the research presents a description of modern wedding dance performances highlighting the specifics of modern wedding dances in Russian culture. This study provides a description of a number of lexical, compositional and technical features, the nature and manner of performing popular wedding dances of different peoples. The author analyzes the common features and differences of traditional wedding dances. The regional specificity of wedding dances is considered by the example of Russian, Buryat, Kalmyk culture. The paper confirms the assumption that wedding dance in culture of different peoples acts as an important element of the wedding rite, very representatively reflecting cultural specifics of peoples. The study of traditional wedding dances also allowed the author to conclude that dances of this kind are a vivid presentation of the dialogue of cultures.