Love hurts - the art of toe dancing in the Caucasus
Published 09 January, 2008, 15:48
When men in the Caucasus fall in love, they say so in a unique way – through folk dancing. It's been like that for centuries. But dancing on the tips of the toes can be painful – a bit like love itself.
Ossetian people are known as austere folk. But one only has to see a dance known as the Khonga Kaft to know that inside every Ossetian breast lies a beating heart.
For hundreds of years, Ossetian men have expressed their admiration and love through dance. The Khonga Kaft occupies a special place among all the ethnic Caucasian dances.
Band leader Makharbek Pliev says Caucasian males do it their own way.
“Never have men in the Caucasus knelt before women. Instead they tiptoe with great pleasure. So please communicate on your toes all through the dance to make us understand that you have a crush on her,” Pliev said.
The peculiarity of the Khonga Kaft for the male dancer is that he has to balance on his toes, for up to four minutes sometimes, to show off his grace and willpower – a skill that requires considerable effort and is far from comfortable.
“You just cannot let anybody see that it hurts you, you have to conceal it at all costs,” Pliev says.
Unlike female ballet dancers, who use hard-toed pointe shoes, Ossetian men wear boots made of thin soft leather resembling stockings.
To lessen the pain, dancers pad their toes with cotton wool but this makes tiptoeing only a tiny bit less painful.
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