Here is the descriptions and the music that we are going to
perform.

Group Description

As the only country that geographically unites two continents, Asia
and Europe, Turkey has served as a bridge between East and West. In
the history of mankind, all the major civilizations ruled this land
for some time and left their art, religion, culture and architecture.
It was a meeting point of all the cultures from the Hittites, the
Phrygians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the
Seljuks, finally the Ottoman Turks and what is now the Republic of Turkey.

TurkSA is trying to familiarize the RPI community with this rich
culture, folk, art, people, and to forge a common bond of brotherhood
among RPI students interested in Turkish culture. Current activities
of TurkSA include Turkish Coffee days, Turkish film festivals,
Mediterranean food festivals, annual spring picnics and celebration of
the independence day as well as other national bayrams and holidays.
RPI TurkSA has currently 12 undergraduate, 26 graduate students and 4
faculty members.

Dance Description:
The dance that we are going to perform today is called Halay.

Halay is a famous dance in the Middle East. It is a symbol for the
tempestuous way of life in its place of origin, Anatolia. It is
usually played without any songs in many ceremonies such as
weddings, funerals and welcoming (however is accompanied by
singing during funerals for unmarried men.)

Halay is usually played with two traditional music instruments "davul"
and "zurna", literally meaning a drum and wind-pipe (or flute).In the
recent years however, electronic instruments have started to replace
them. Typically, Halay dancers form a circle or a line, while holding
each other with the little finger or shoulder to shoulder or even hand
to hand with the last and first player holding a piece of cloth.

Halay has spread from Anatolia to many other regions. In many Turkish,
Turkmen, Assyrian, Arabic, Kurdish, Persian, Greek, Armenian weddings,
people dance Halay for hours and hours. Every region has its own style and
forms. The type we will perform today starts with a slow rhythm and as
the speed picks up, the dance goes faster and faster.