Region
Northern Kurdistan (Turkey)
Halay is the iconic dance of northern Kurdistan — Diyarbakır, Mardin, Urfa, and the wider Kurdish southeast of Turkey. It is performed in a long line, dancers linking by their little fingers and moving with strong leaping steps to the davul (large drum) and zurna. Halay differs from southern govend by its harder, more athletic character and the height of its steps. Diyarbakır is famed for halay gatherings of more than a thousand dancers in a single line. Among Alevi Kurds it has taken on a ritual dimension closely related to the sacred semah dance of the cem.