Another amazing song from Sevak Amroyan. This time it’s Yarkhushta / Յարխուշտա
The Armenian folk dance Yarkhushta has very ancient origins. As such it has been mentioned in the works of early medieval scholars such as Movses Khorenatsi, Faustus of Byzantium, and Grigor Magistros.
Yarkhushta has traditionally been danced by Armenian soldiers before combat engagements, partly for ritualistic purposes, and partly in order to cast off fear and boost battle spirit for more effective hand-to-hand combat.
The tune of the dance is played intentionally very loudly by two zurna hornpipes and one or more double-headed bass drums, each struck with a mallet and a stick from opposite sides of the drum’s cylinder.
It has been demonstrated that the combination of zurna’s high-frequency tone and the bass drums’ deep, low-frequency beat create a combination of sounds with wide peak-to-peak amplitude that is capable of placing the dancers in the state of euphoric trance. This factor amplifies the effect of adrenaline/epinephrine rush that the dancing of yarkhushta usually produces.
It is also one of the ancient dances depicted on 12.000 year old rock carvings found throughout Armenia.
Beautiful music and singing. Thank you for sharing it. I am sorry, though, that the film editing does not allow at least a few seconds’ focus on the actual dance, so we could admire it with a little continuity. Glorious landscape.
The 12,000 year old rock carvings are amazing.
Katherine, I understand your interest in wanting to see the dance, but this video was amazing. The directing, the editing, the shots, the color grading…pretty much every aspect of the video was TOP NOTCH. I mean feature film quality. Better than the $100 million “The Promise”. Impressive.
Katherine the dance doesn’t actually have complicated choreography like other Armenian dances like Kochari. The key to a great Yarkhushta dance is the spirit between 2 dancers, and obviously the claps. I understand your point but just thought I’d bring this point up. Karin dance group has a great choreography they came up with which should be on youtube, you should definitely check that out also.
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