Tsifteteli () or Çiftetelli, is a

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular r ...

and belly dance of

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

and the

Balkans The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...

(particularly

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

). In Turkish the word means "double stringed", taken from the

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

playing style that is practiced in this kind of music. There are suggestions that the dance existed in

ancient Greece Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...

, known as the

Aristophanic Aristophanes (; ; ) was an Ancient Greek comic playwright from Athens. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. The majority of his surviving plays belong to the genre of comic drama known as Old Comed ...

dance Cordax, even though such claims have yet to be confirmed. Furthermore, it is historically never spotted in Greece before the Greek-Turkish population exchange of 1923, and no dance in native Greek tradition shows similarities with the specific dance. Despite this, it has established itself as the most popular and most common Greek dance together with

Zeibekiko Zeibekiko (, ) is a Greek dances, Greek folk dance, similar to Turkish Zeybek (dance), Zeybek dance. Origin and history It takes its name from the Zeybeks, an irregular militia living in the Aegean Region of the Ottoman Empire from late 17th ...

. Nowadays it is found not only in Greece and Turkey, but also in the entirety of the Southeastern Mediterranean region. The characteristic

is in 8/4 time, arranged as either 3/3/2 eighth-notes followed by 2/2/2/xx (the last beat being silent), or sometimes the first measure is played as 2/2/x1/1x. See for an example of the latter. It is primarily performed by women.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tsiftetelli European folk dances Folk music genres Balkan music Belly dance Music of Greece Greek dances Turkish dances Music of Turkey Turkish words and phrases

See also

References