I don't feel like dancing today

Azeris sometimes amaze me in their attachment to dance. Don't get me wrong I like a little bit of music here and there, and Azeri dances are not some kind of belly-dance shindig. Proper affair they are, all fully clothed and all the rest - but there is a lot of them. I am having a lot of practice therefore.

First there is a music: in the morning, the programs start withm the bang: drums, flutes -the Full Monty. Madhouse starts at 8:00am and never finishes with loud music following you around: in the car, bus, taxi and even apartment block elevators. Azeris abhor silence.

I remember those gently BBC Morning programs and with lovely (to some) Natasha Kaplinski and a co-host. Strained smile, polite joke or two, an anxious reporter on the case - and we are already on the next subject, probably a weather or traffic report. Not so here. Political programs, social discussions, even religious programs are rudely interrupted, or are peppered with (depends on your point of view) with a dance or two.

Azeris express themselves best in a solitary dance where they excel and dominate opponents. Solitary dances are performed by both men and women and involve subtle hand motions in addition to sequenced steps. Only in Azerbaijan - i think - a political commentator on the TV can join a beatiful singer for a dance after a long discussion on Human rights. I would like to think this is one of our distinguishing features.

We are definetely not English, who have only a puny Morris dance to show for their thousand years of existence as people. They had probably been busy doing something else - like conquering India.