Svanetian dancing

Swani Jawni

What is the story with this picture? Who is Swani Jawni? "Pow!" "Bam!" "Pop!" Swani Jawni, caped and fearless, plies the skies looking for Arch-Nemisis, "Procrastinator"!!
Look! "Procrastinator" is writing emails! Who can stop him?! Frightened masses of music books look on in horror. Piles of flashcards scatter in terror. Dirty dishes in the sink start swearing and clanking out of town in beat-up Ladas. Bad news!
"Who can help us" scream the last tea cups?
"Wapow!", Swani Jawni is here!
"Teacup, Sleeping Bag, what's the matter?"
"Pr...pr...ProCRAstinator has been here!" cried one little minidisc.
"I knew it!" (Punches fist, "Smack!")
"This time he's gone too far," growled Swani Jawni; (black leather boots on "Scooch", dagger belt tightened "Ssst", blade-check "Chk-Chik").
"Fwoosh" -Swani Jawni takes to the skies with a fling of his cape! "Procrastinator" be gone!
Until next time, keep your eyes pointed skywards for more adventures of... Swani Jawni!


In 2001, UNESCO recognized Georgian polyphonic singing as 'a world heritage treasure' and gave some money to preservation efforts. Out of this quarter of a million dollars have come a number of interesting things including a Symposium on Georgian Polyphony in September 2002. Another project is the sponsorship of seven regional 'training centers' where master singers in the regions are given a small salary to train ten young promising students how to sing. In Georgia, teaching someone to sing means teaching them all three parts to at least one hundred songs. The famous chanters of old knew all three parts for up to 5000 songs and chants, can we imagine? Other projects include the publication of much needed books and recordings of regional folk music. These materials are trying to find their way into American markets, if we can just find a good means to do so (write me with ideas on this) (or how to be a better cartoon writer).

In September 2004, the Second International Symposium for Georgian Polyphony was held, including guest performers not only from all over Georgia, but also the United States, Canada, France, Britain, Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden, and scholars from those regions and more. Half of the festival was held in Tbilisi and consisted of afternoon and evening concerts and ongoing lectures on polyphony from morning through evening. The second half of the Symposium was held six hours west on the Black Sea in a region that is called today Guria. In ancient times it was called Colchis, and Greeks and Romans were amony the many who traded goods coming in from Persia, India, and the Far East. It is in this region that Georgian three-part polyphony flourished.

For the festival in Guria, many regional choirs were invited, including a choir of old men and their young pupils from the highland region of Svaneti in the Northern Caucasus. The men were 'grizzled and chizzled' as I say, with hands as big as plates, and big bones in their cheeks and eyebrows. The boys were boys, as they are worldwide. This picture was taken when I was dancing with the Svanetian boys while the older men sang and clapped, as is custom for dance songs.

One of the most beautiful moments I witnessed with these boys happened like this: the day before the big concert in Guria, everyone was rehearsing, including the Svanetian choir. In Svaneti of course, there are no opportunities to swim because the rivers are swif-running and freezing, and are the most common cause of death, and there just isn't any water above 40 degrees Fahrenheit in lakes or rivers. So, it was indeed a sight when I saw all of the Svanetian boys with their director in the shallow sandy water of the Black Sea, rehearsing a circle dance while singing.

Can I paint this picture any better? A circle dance is what you're seeing in the photograph. People holding hands, stiff-armed to maintain equidistance, doing a complicated series of steps around in a circle, while singing a repetitive chorus song with various verses of text. Here were these boys, not knowing how to swim, dancing this absolutely ancient dance in the water, singing completely in tune with their grandfather's tuning (which sounds outrageously out of tune to my western ears). They were so delighted, it was an extreme fest of excitement and mirth. The pull of the water slowed the steps, the music had to adjust, the water was warm, the sand soft... these boys looked like they were having the best time of their lives.

At the party after the concert, because there is always a party (one wonders if the concert were just an excuse for the party, where three times more singing happens than in the concert). In fact, I want to make the point here that performance is still a relatively new thing here, a nineteenth century concept the Russians brought from Europe. Of course in feudal Georgia, nobles and kings had professional choirs, but really the oral folk tradition was passed down in activity based environments like working, feasting, and hunting. So I've read. What am I, some expert or something?

Anyway, it seems this performance/festivity relationship still exists because we had an outrageous party with about five choirs after the concert. Last year in Sighnaghi, Shergil and Shmagi, my buddies from Latali Svaneti, taught me a few Svanetian dances. Suddenly, the Svan guys started singing one of the dances I knew. No one was dancing, so I jumped up and went over to one of the boy ringleaders. We started off the steps, and pretty soon, we had most of the guys joining us. I wish you could see the singers to the right, they're a sight. I'll try to get a couple more photos in there soon.