History of folk dances of Belarus
Belarusian nation has created a lot of bright and original dances throughout its history. The roots of Belarusian folk dance go back to the 13th-14th centuries, when the formation and development of three nations - Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian began. First dance elements appeared even earlier and had a religious origin. National festivals, family events and rituals in Belarus never did without song and dance. During the winter months so-called “kudzelnitsy” and “muzyki” were widespread in the country life of the Belarusians. Those village gatherings where boys and girls were going to did not do without dancing. The rules and characteristics of those dances differed not only from village to village, but from region to region too. The most striking and simple Belarusian dance is the round dance. The round dance (karahod) is one of the oldest choreographic genres in Belarusian folk culture; it combines in itself a dance, a song and a play. Many Belarusian folk dances aimed at acquaintance between boys and girls, so there were a lot of partner dances. There was also a combination of partner dances with round dances and the change of partners during the dance.