Podaraki (

Pontic Greek Pontic Greek ( pnt, Ποντιακόν λαλίαν, or ; el, Ποντιακή διάλεκτος, ; tr, Rumca) is a variety of Modern Greek indigenous to the Pontus region on the southern shores of the Black Sea, northeastern Anatolia, ...

: ) is a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

dancing song from the region of Pontos. The dance dates to the 10th century. It is now danced in modern-day

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

as well as the northern

Thrace Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to t ...

. The dance is called Podaraki (meaning "small foot" in Greek) because it involves much stomping with the (feet) of the dancer. It is danced both by men and women usually in an open circle, and rarely in straight line. It's a female song, also called , meaning "go girls for dance." In the song, a supposed girl calls the other girls to go dancing and to have fun before marrying. In its second half, after expressing the traditional criticism against both her husband and her mother and father-in-law for not letting her go dance and have fun, the supposed girl explains how she avenges both them and her children for that.

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