Aradzani Dance Group releases instructional dance DVD

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Aradzani Dance Group of The Armenian Church of The Holy Martyrs in Bayside New York has produced a two part instructional dance DVD entitled “A Trip Through Historic Armenia Through Dance.”

Massis Post reported that the DVD is a travel log of Historic Armenia starting in Tigranakert and ending in Kesaria. There is video and slide footage of each town and interviews with four survivors of the Armenian Genocide.

Robert Haroutunian the group’s director explains the steps of each dance followed by a performance of the same dance by the Aradzani Dance Group.

The dances presented on the DVD are endangered and are from some towns and villages of pre-1915 Historic Armenia.

The Aradzani Dance Group is an ethnographic dance group whose objective is to preserve and perpetuate songs and dances of pre-1915 Historic Armenia. The group has a repertoire of 120 dances most of which are endangered.

Director Robert Haroutunian worked very hard in the research and production of this DVD. He gathered the dances presented on this DVD primarily from the late Arsen Anooshian (last director of The Armenian Folk Dance Society), Gary and Susan Lind-Sinanian dance researchers and teachers from Watertown Massachusetts, Tom Bozigian dance researcher and teacher from California, and Rudik Haroyan dance researcher and teacher from Armenia. He spent many hours learning these dances and doing research about towns and regions of Historic Armenia. He also gathered dances from people who had ancestry from Historic Armenia.

This DVD is part of Aradzani’s ongoing project of documenting all of the dances on its repertoire for future generations.