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EveryParampara

Music, dance and storytelling

Songs, dances, theatre, epic poetry and oral history.

Music, dance and storytelling traditions are the performances that a community passes down by ear, eye and heart: the epic poem recited by a griot, the dance in a circle at a wedding, the shadow play of Java, the ballad of a village, the lullaby of a grandmother. They carry history, law and humour in forms that people can remember. Many are linked to festivals and rites, and many are on UNESCO's lists of intangible heritage. Here they are gathered by country, with notes on who performs them and when.

Songs and dances of the people

Folk music and dance are community property: they are learnt by joining in, not by lessons, and they change a little with every generation. Circle dances, line dances and couple dances accompany harvests and weddings, and instruments such as the drum, the fiddle, the pipe and the lute are made locally. In many places, there are separate songs for work, for love, for mourning and for children, and each has its own time and place.

Stories and theatre

Oral storytelling holds a society's memory: epics, myths, fables, proverbs and riddles told by elders. Some become formal theatre, such as kabuki and noh in Japan, wayang in Indonesia, the mumming plays of Britain or the Ramlila of India, which retells the Ramayana in a month of evenings. These forms often depend on one master teaching one student, and communities and governments now support them to keep them alive.

About this page

Written by the EveryParampara desk with AI assistance. Background on Music, dance and storytelling (kind of tradition). Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

RegionSouth AsiaSoutheast AsiaEast AsiaCentral Asia and the CaucasusMiddle EastNorth AfricaSub-Saharan AfricaEuropeNorth AmericaLatin America and the CaribbeanOceania
MealBreakfastLunchDinnerSupperTea-time and snacking customsTea, coffee and drinking ceremoniesSweets given and sharedFeasts and festival mealsFasting and breaking the fast
🇧🇷 BrazilBaião A syncopated folk rhythm and partnered dance from northeastern BrazilPerformance 🇺🇦 Kyiv, UkraineBanduraБандура A Ukrainian plucked string instrument played to accompany epic songs and folk balladsPerformance 🇺🇸 Fairbanks, United States and 2 moreWorld Eskimo-Indian Olympics An annual Arctic gathering of traditional survival games, athletics, and cultural artsGame 🇹🇷 Kayseri, Turkey and 4 moreHalay A traditional line and circle folk dance kept across Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Iran, and Syria.Performance 🇳🇿 Auckland, New ZealandPoi A Māori performing art of swinging tethered weights in rhythmical patterns.Performance 🇵🇭 Philippines and 1 morePangalay A traditional fingernail dance of the Tausūg and Bajau peoples in the Sulu Archipelago and Sabah.Performance 🇵🇱 Kraków, PolandSt. Mary's Trumpet CallHejnał mariacki A five-note bugle call played hourly from the tower of St. Mary's Church in Kraków, Poland.Performance 🇮🇳 Jammu, IndiaBhangra A Punjabi harvest dance, first kept by farmers and now performed worldwidePerformance 🇦🇴 Luanda, Angola and 2 moreKuduro An energetic Angolan music and dance style born in Luanda that mixes African rhythms with electronic beats.Performance 🇱🇧 Lebanon and 5 moreZajalزجل Half-sung Arabic poetry in colloquial speech, traded as a duel between improvising poetsPerformance 🇵🇭 Palo, Philippines and 1 moreTinikling A Philippine folk dance where dancers step between clapping bamboo polesPerformance 🇬🇭 Ghana and 2 moreEwe drumming The drum ensembles of the Ewe people, with iron bells, rattles and talking drumsPerformance 🇬🇭 Ghana and 2 moreAgbadza An Ewe music and dance, born of war songs and kept for funerals, weddings and festivalsPerformance 🇮🇳 India and 5 moreGhazalغَزَل A short rhyming poem of love and parting, recited and sung from Arabia to South AsiaPerformance 🇮🇳 Kolkata, IndiaJana Gana Mana India's national anthem, from a Bengali hymn of 1911, sung at civic occasionsCeremony 🇮🇳 Thrissur, IndiaPulikaliപുലിക്കളി Painted tigers and leopards dance through Thrissur on the fourth day of OnamPerformance 🇦🇺 AustraliaBark painting Ochre pictures on flattened tree bark, an Aboriginal art form of northern AustraliaCraft 🇯🇵 Ōmuta, JapanKarutaかるた Japanese playing cards from the 16th century, still raced over poems each New YearGame 🇨🇮 Abidjan, Ivory Coast and 3 moreZouglou A dance-led music style from Ivory Coast, sung in street slang and local languagesPerformance 🇨🇳 China and 3 moreDragon dance舞龍 / 舞龙 A long dragon puppet on poles, danced by a team at Chinese New Year and other festivalsPerformance 🇺🇸 New Orleans, United StatesSecond line A New Orleans parade where clubs march and a crowd dances along behind the bandFestival 🇮🇷 Shiraz, Iran and 1 moreKhatamخاتم A Persian inlay craft that builds geometric patterns from thousands of tiny cut piecesCraft 🇯🇵 Kyoto, JapanIkebana生け花 The Japanese art of arranging cut branches and flowers in a vesselPerformance 🇿🇦 South Africa and 1 moreIndlamu A Zulu war dance of two warriors in pelts, matched move for move and stamped on the beatPerformance 🇹🇷 Samsun, TurkeyHoronχορόν Line dances of Turkey's eastern Black Sea coast, danced with shaking shouldersPerformance 🇹🇷 Konya, Turkey and 4 moreMevlevi OrderMevlevilik A Sufi tradition from Konya known for its whirling ceremony and devotion to Rumi's teachings.Spiritual 🇲🇱 Bamako, Mali and 5 moreGriotjeli, ߖߋ߬ߟߌ in N'Ko script West Africa's hereditary keepers of spoken history, praise and musicPerformance 🇧🇷 Rio de Janeiro, BrazilRio CarnivalCarnaval do Rio de Janeiro Five days of samba parades, costumes and street parties in Rio, ending at LentFestival 🇯🇵 Tokyo, Japan and 1 moreBonsai盆栽 A Japanese craft of keeping small trees in shallow pots, shaped for contemplationCraft 🇮🇪 Ros Muc, Ireland and 2 moreSean-nós dancedamhsa ar an sean nós An improvised solo Irish dance: low footwork, free arms and a loud battering beatPerformance 🇧🇭 Bahrain and 3 moreFann at-Tanburaفن الطنبورة A Gulf song and dance of drums and tanbura, born in healing, now stagedPerformance 🇵🇭 Manila, PhilippinesPasyon A Tagalog epic of Christ's passion, chanted without a break during Holy WeekSpiritual 🇨🇳 China and 2 moreChinese knotting中國結 (Zhōngguó jié) A folk craft of cord tied into lucky shapes, made in China and given as charmsCraft 🇸🇳 Senegal and 1 moreKumpo A palm-leaf figure of the Diola, danced at village festivals to urge good conductFolklore 🇰🇮 KiribatiMusic of Kiribati Chant, body percussion, songs and dances of the islands of KiribatiPerformance 🇲🇿 Island of Mozambique, MozambiqueTufo A women's dance of northern Mozambique, performed at Islamic feasts to drums and songPerformance 🇱🇨 Saint Lucia and 1 moreJounen Kwéyòl A day of Creole food, music and dress in Saint Lucia and Dominica, kept each OctoberFestival · Feasts and festival meals 🇵🇰 Islamabad, Pakistan and 2 moreQawwaliقَوّالی Devotional Sufi singing from South Asia, led by hereditary parties at shrinesPerformance 🇧🇷 BrazilForró Music, dance and party from Brazil's Northeast, with accordion, triangle and zabumba drumPerformance 🇦🇴 Luanda, Angola and 4 moreKizomba A close, slow couple dance from Angola, named after a Kimbundu word for partyPerformance 🇧🇮 Gitega, BurundiKaryenda A sacred drum of Burundi that symbolized the monarchy and announced royal events.Performance 🇺🇸 Boise, United States and 3 moreBasque festivalEuskal jaiak Gatherings of dance, sport and food that keep Basque culture alive far from homeFestival 🇫🇷 Paris, FranceCoupé-décalé Ivorian dance music of club nights, flamboyant dress and money thrown to the crowdPerformance 🇮🇳 IndiaSatsangसत्सङ्ग Sitting in the company of truth, to hear, sing and meditate in northern IndiaSpiritual 🇨🇳 Beijing, China and 2 moreChinese opera戲曲 / 戏曲 (xìqǔ) A sung, danced and acrobatic theatre from China, in over a hundred regional stylesPerformance 🇱🇰 Kandy, Sri LankaKandyan danceඋඩරට නැටුම් The sacred dance of Sri Lanka's hill country, kept in temple and on the stagePerformance 🇹🇴 TongaTauʻolunga A Tongan dance of hand gestures and steady eyes, performed by young women at weddingsPerformance 🇵🇾 ParaguayParaguayan harp Paraguay's national harp, strung with 32 to 46 strings and plucked with long fingernailsPerformance
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Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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