Constructive Customs in the Music and Dance of the Tajiks (19th and 20th Centuries) by Nizam Nurjanov translated by Iraj Bashiri copyright 1995

Women musicians performed in the inner quarters, away from the men. Their plays were among the best staged by women. No family celebration took place without the participation of these women. Their music, songs, and dances served not only as a source of enjoyment and entertainment, but as a source of enriching the spiritual world of the audience as well. Indeed, the art of the Bukhara dancers held its own among the other representatives of the arts of Central Asia and was known to audiences even outside of Bukhara.

The musicians formed groups of three or four. Each group had a couple of musician/performers and two or three daira players.

There were special schools for training professional dancers. The art was passed on from generation to generation. Usually, every master dancer or performer recruited one or two apprentices from among her relatives. These were twelve to fourteen-year-old girls mostly from poor families. The apprentice grew into the profession as part of the entourage of the master dancer and, gradually, learned the intricacies of the profession. The teacher's constant appearances on stage served as an ever-present model for the apprentice to emulate.

The musicians began their performance in the yard of the house. They danced, barefooted on carpets spread in the middle of the house. The daira players sat at the entrance. The dancers performed five important and interesting dances: qairaqbazi, ravana, saqinama, zang, and qalandarbazi. Each entrance of the musician included a major dance which itself included three to six types. This cycle was called "pait." The dance began very slowly and became more involved as time went by. It always ended with the Saf dance with the accompaniment of the naqara. The naqara dance had a fast tempo, required a lot of energy, and was visibly enchanting. Like a boisterous song, it plainly revealed the festive moods, enjoyable events, and popular cultures on which it drew for strength. Furthermore, it revealed not only the highly polished techniques of dancing, but the very real emotions that go into the making of the dance.

After dancing a couple of paits, there was an intermission. At this time the musician, too, stopped to rest. Meanwhile the dancers and musicians changed clothes and prepared themselves for the next round, the "saqinama," for instance. In saqinama, the song took the center stage and the dance was moved to the background. This singing and dancing was performed in the middle of the yard, away from the walls underneath which women, sitting on narrow cushions, were entertained. The musicians played on and, at the end of each bayt stopped and clapped two times. As long as the daira players played, the dancer held her arms in front of her and whirled. Then she returned to the first position and began the cycle anew. While singing, the musician raised his arms, moved his fingers, and stood with one hand on the waist. During the performance of these moves, she continually stomped the floor.

The saqinama dance is a classical form; it is a meaningful art that soothes the spirit. It is necessary to state that the art of the saqinama, like the shashmaqam remained intact and that it retained its traditional structure and content. It has passed from generation to generation and its important components (except for a few) have survived to this day. The definite form is consolidated and subjected to rules. The continuation of the custom will further enhance the art form.

The art of the musician mingles with the shashmaqam and the dance and, in each case, there is need for a correspondence between speed and movement. The singing begins slowly, but it gradually picks up with a fast Urf dance. The piece is played on until it reaches a diapason and returns to the initial stage. At this stage the art of the musician follows the rules of shashmaqam.

Among the acts of the musicians, the zang dance, which is very complex and which requires a high degree of skill, had a special place. That is perhaps why this dance began late, 10:00 or 11:00 p.m. and continued non-stop until 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. It required the acceptance of the owners of the tuy. Furthermore, the musician would not begin the music for zang until the lady of the house rewarded the dancer with appropriate gifts. Often the wealthy consulted the dancer about the clothes for the zang dance a month in advance of the tuy. The songs accompanying the dance are uplifting, the movements are harmonious and subtle, and the dresses are reminiscent of the Nau Ruz festivities. The flower in the dancer's hair, the ringing of the bells, and the reflections on the polished instruments mingle, awakening latent feelings in the audience.

Zang is a boisterous dance; it is very uplifting and has a special spiritual quality. It astounds the audience with its depth, inner strength, and elevated degree of perfection. It is perhaps for this reason that the performers go beyond the performance and create an atmosphere that is at once romantic and personal. The performers themselves are enchanted by the very song and dance that they perform. The dance is performed without the control of the dancer, according to the emotions prevalent at the moment. It becomes a performance that cannot be repeated in exactly the same way.

The impetus for the musicians' compositions came from their musical and theatrical culture. In those cultures, although poetry and music mingled, any change in one was sure to elicit a reaction from the other. It was this synthesis of music, lyric, and dance that impacted the audience and created in the individual a special sense of beauty and pleasure. At the time of the entrance of the dancers, the audiences' eyes lit up; they smiled warmly. This was the important moment in which everyone expected music, dance, and poetry to bring him or her untold joy and pleasure. At the time of the dance, culture-oriented women rose, stood at a distance and, facing the dancers sang mukhammas poems. They also competed with the musicians. Every time the cycle was finished, they started anew. In this way the dancer established and held her rapport with the audience.

The professional groups were distinct from each other. By discovering their enduring national customs, they introduced a high degree of civilization into dance. The talent, delicate and kind disposition, and the knowledge of the dancers enchanted everyone. Most artists, however, considered the techniques of dancing to be complementary to the dance. Their skill was evident from their transitions, which were executed freely and easily, as they passed from move to move. Thus started, the dance was followed by the singing of the lyrics, leading to the poetic scene, and to the eventual enchantment of the audience. These dancers were also different in their acting ability. They had special gestures, expressed their emotions through their art, and imparted a deep sense of inspiration to the dance. Their art spoke through their gestures, looks, moves, smiles, even in their standing posture.

During the second part of the 19th century, the following were distinguished as the best dancers of Bukhara: Yaqut, Araz, Shayesta, Anbar-i Ashk, and Mukarramcha. Later on the dancer Kelin-i Gul-i Surkh became famous. In addition to being very beautiful, she had a pleasant voice. During the first decade of the 20th century, Yadgar, Latafatkhan, Pachcha, Mullajan, and Tilla became famous.

Apparently, until 1915, the Bukhara sazandas were mostly Tajiks. But beginning with the 20th century, their ranks were joined by the Jews. There were a number of reasons for this. Some Jews, especially those who accepted Islam, entered the arts with more ease than they could enter any of the other professions. This was because this profession was a low-class profession in search of talented individuals. And many of the Jews were talented. In addition, during the difficult rule of the Shari'a, Tajik women did not dare sing and dance even among their friends. For this reason, the cities did not have access to professional musicians at a time when a need for such professionals was on the rise. The Jews, thus, came in to help and, at the same time, found themselves a source of money. Furthermore, the Jews were courageous. While they wore the veil (faranja), they did not keep it on when they didn't absolutely have to. After the 1917 October Revolution, when freedom was granted, therefore, the number of Jewish sazandas increased dramatically.

The sazanda art, their dancers, qairaqbazi, zang, etc., are still in existence. They have, however, changed a great deal and have lost their exclusivity. The old social milieu, lifestyle, and values have undergone change. Abbreviated forms of the authentic dances have become popular. The present-day sazandas, for instance, are not fully familiar with the intricacies of the art of their predecessors and thus cannot incorporate the cultural depth of the past masters into their creations.

The compositions of the sazandas of Bukhara played a major role in the expansion of the arts in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. They played a similar role in the formation of professional groups and in the ballets. The Peoples Professional Dance Theater also grew out of the mainstream of the realistic choreography of these same dances and their very ancient roots. For an explanation of these ancient songs we have at our disposal the text of Khusrau Qubadan (between the 4th and 6th centuries). This source emphasizes the impact of women singers on society and underscores their success in the performance of a series of songs.¹ This and other similar sources testify to the participation of women in the creation of musical works in ancient times.

On the walls of the ruins of Panjkent (6th and 7th centuries), we observe the depiction of a zangbazi dancer at rest.² There are many depictions of musicians from the Middle Ages. One such depiction is of the marriage ceremony of Alexander the Great and the daughter of the last Achaemenian king, Darius III.³There we observe many women who are sitting on colorful carpets watching a dancer dance in accompaniment of a daira. The dancer is wearing a long dress held in place with an elegant shawl around her waist. On her head she wears a hat and, on top of that, a kerchief. Her right hand is slightly raised while her left hand is slightly lowered.⁴ In a different miniature, this one in Ahmadi's Iskandarnama (1522-23) a girl, holding a daira is dancing the qairaq. And shikan shikan, one of the features of the movements of the dance is mentioned in Firdowsi's Shahname.

One is an elegist, the other a lute player The third dances the shikan dar shikan.