As a national champion Clogger (a traditional American dance style), when I was coming to Tajikistan I wanted to learn some of the traditional dances here. After a strenuous search through my connections leading me to people in Salt Lake City, Arizona, and Vienna, I finally was able to get in contact with a choreographer here in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. While texting was a problem as she wrote in cyryllic and I only write in Arabic script Farsi, we were able to get in touch and I’ve now had the wonderful opportunity every weekday to go study with this choreographer for an hour every morning. Even having the opportunity to perform in a Tajik music video through this cultural exchange.
Although in America I am a member of a group that tours internationally doing folk dance, this perhaps late 70s master of the Tajik national dance made me work like I’ve never worked before, she makes me feel like the old one while she keeps going without pause. The first day we worked on the “Zarb”, perhaps best translated as beat. This move is the root of the Tajik traditional dance and involves stamping either the right foot or left foot repeatedly to the beat while the other foot makes seemingly no noises and follows behind. With the music on loop we went forward and back, side to side, over and over and over, till I wanted to pass out, and then more. When she gave me a 2 minute break, she said I can’t sit, I have to stay standing so I adjust to their dance. This pattern repeated every day I went.
The next thing we added were the “Kitf” or shoulders. Even though I’ve done shrugs in the gym I never thought my shoulders could get sore from just moving them up and down, and back and forth, yet the Tajik National Dance proved me wrong. Nevertheless, neither of these held anything compared to, definitively the hardest part of Tajik National dance, the “Charkh” or spin/turn. If you’ve ever tried to spin around a baseball bat and hit a pinata, imagine doing so but for minutes straight and then being expected to dance as soon as you stop spinning. The first day we practiced this, I thought I was going to throw up the whole time and had to not only sit down multiple times but had to stop my teacher so I could run to the bathroom. While I wanted to learn this dance, this was so daunting and made me feel so sick, I told her I couldn’t come in for two mornings because I was so scared we would work on the Charkh again. With a lot of mental energy I brought myself to go again after a few days and we spun more, worked more on the zarb, on shoulder, on our arms, on everything, yet the Charkh remained my enemy and everytime we did it I marveled at how in the world they could do it.
A few weeks into this process when I went to the old dancer’s house and studio, I was surprised to find a group of other people there. I discovered they were a group of professional dancers from Bukhara who had come to work with my respected teacher. At the end of my lesson, one of the male dancers from this company came and did his Charkh for me. It was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen. While I still felt sick, I caught a glimpse of what the Charkh could be and it motivated me to keep going.
Taking a pause here in the story for those interested in the history, the Tajik national dance comes from the region of Khatlon or Kulob and is thus named “Raghs-e Kulobi or Khatloni” accordingly. The dance started as people would gather and someone would play the jaw harp, with the music of the Jaw harp women would start moving their hand with the beat. Men started pounding their feet to the drum and the dance was born. In this dance women’s and men’s movements vary greatly as women would dance with other women and men with other men. An interesting note is how women often still dance this dance with long sleeves covering their hands as for a long time women couldn’t show their hand or wrist.
My teacher danced for a long time with the national folk dance ensemble and had directed many groups and started multiple of her own studios to teach dance. It was truly a blessing to learn from such a wonderful dancer and person. While she worked to a degree I wasn’t yet comfortable with, she helped me to learn something beautiful. It wasn’t always comfortable or easy but it was worth it. In the end, one day as I went to dance I realized how much more I could spin without feeling sick and how much progress I had made. It was honestly very surprising to see how my body had adapted to be able to spin so much more than I could at the beginning of my time there, without getting sick. All in all, she provided me such a wonderful experience, even being able to dance with her dancers in a Tajik music video and more, I’m grateful I got to participate.
I feel this is how my whole time in Tajikistan has been. At the first outlook it looked so interesting and exciting I was excited to be immersed in the language and the culture. Eventually however the hot air, the food, the culture, they started to become more uncomfortable. I wanted my home air conditioner, my quiet living room, and my normal American food back. Yet as I endured, I found the beauty of the culture and the people again and I found that I had adapted and learned more than I thought I could.
All in all, I feel so grateful for the opportunity I’ve had to come study in Tajikistan and learn about this foreign culture and it’s people, it’s truly been a big blessing to be able to come here!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J12w5bcRp4g
See Connor in action in this music video starting at 6:12!
by Connor Phillips
Dan E. Davidson Fellowship Recipient
Eurasian Regional Language Program (ERLP)
Dushanbe, Tajikistan, Summer 2025