Shalakho ( hy, շալախո, , ka, შალახო or ) is a dance famous throughout all of

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

Performance

In a broadly spread version, two men dance in order to win the favour of a woman. The dance can be performed by one or more dancers, men or women, in a free, Caucasian style of performance. Motions of women can be slow and lyrical. Music of the dance is rapid, which is reflected in the expansive and energetic motions of men.

In Theater and Records

The dance melody was first recorded and arranged for piano by the Armenian composer Nikoghayos Tigranyan in 1895. Şalaxo

The dance was performed in a 1940 Azerbaijani ballet ''Maiden Tower'' by

Afrasiyab Badalbeyli Afrasiyab Badal bey oghlu Badalbeyli ( az, Əfrasiyab Bədəl bəy oğlu Bədəlbəyli) (19 April 1907, in Baku – 6 January 1976, in Baku) was a Soviet Azerbaijani composer, with noble Iranian origins (he was the descendant of Bahman Mirza and ...

. In 1942, it was performed in an Armenian ballet called ''Gayane'' by Aram Khachaturian.

Genuine examples of folk music are widely represented in "Gayane": labor, comic, lyrical, heroic songs and dances. Among the folk melodies used by the composer there are such wonderful examples as "Pshati par" (in "Gathering cotton"), "Gna ari man ari" (in "Dance of the Cotton"), "Shalakho", "Uzundara" (in the fourth act), etc. ...

References

{{reflist Armenian dances Azerbaijani dances Dances of Georgia (country)