Adnan Majidov: "There is no room for aggression in dance"

Participants from 25 countries are competing for the title of the best dance crew in the world as part of the Folk of Dance International Television Project. The member of the Presidential Council for Culture and Art, People’s Artist of the Chechen Republic Adnan Majidov told Vestnik Kavkaza about the role of dance in the life of any nation.

- Why is folk dance popular again now?

- First, dance language does not need any translations. Everyone understands it. When performers come on stage and perform a dance of some nation, the audience immediately gets an impression about this nation's traditions, customs and original culture. No need for translations. You can just come out, show your dance in a national costume with national music and thus tell a lot about the history of your people.

Second, dance is a spectacular form of art, it brings great joy, a lot of positive. It establishes the connection between performers and audience. It unites all nations. There is no aggression in the dance. Although some people confuse temperamental, emotional dances with aggression. Dance is life, it is aesthetics. Dance is history. Dance has no boundaries, it overcomes any distance. When you perform folk dance, people understand it and watch it with rapt attention anywhere in the world.

- What is your definition of folk dancing?

- For me, dance is a philosophy, I have devoted my whole life to folk dance, professional art of folk dance stage adaptation. Dance is a huge piece of any nation's culture. It is meant to make good not only in a particular region, but in the whole world, in order to remove political problems and misunderstandings. Dancing is good. I think that before holding any interstate meeting each politician should visit a concert to see the dances of the people, with a representative of which he meets. After that, it will be easier to agree on certain political aspects.

- Do young people the Caucasus like folk dances?

- People in the Caucasus love dancing. The head of Chechnya, hero of Russia Ramzan Akhmatovich Kadyrov, for example, not only loves dance, but also knows a lot about it, and therefore supports dance art. Dance shows a spirituality of any nation. Dance can help to raise a healthy generation of patriots. Kadyrov, not as an official, but as a person why studies originality and roots of his people, knows from inside what dance is.

Dance is an expression of people's soul, an inner state of a person, which translates into certain emotions and certain movements. A person with this dance expresses his attitude towards the world around him, his attitude towards his people, history.

There are many crews in Chechnya, including two children's state ensembles. Moreover, children receive a scholarship there. There are many children's dance studios there. In a word, dance is a part of our people's life. There is no holiday, no mass event without dancing, because dance is our image, our history, our mentality. But if there were no such support at the level of the republic's head, then we would not have such success and various tours.

Our dances are very emotional. There is a big contrast between male and female dance. When these two beautiful beginnings unite, it gives the dance we call the Chechen folk dance. That's who we are, the Chechens, that's how we're designed, we love our republic, our history, our dance. In the same way, we treat dances of other nations with deep respect, we look, we study, we perform what we do well. In general, dance means a lot in the history and life of our people.