Dance in wedding ceremony of Transbaikalia Semeiskie

The article is devoted to the still preserved wedding tradition of the Transbaikal Old Believers, i.e. domestic dances which are not consciously treated by the the tradition bearers as a unique phenomenon or artifact. The numerous examples given in the article demonstrate dances of ‘ryazhenye’ (disquised), accompanying a “wedding train”. The article describes still preserved forms of dances, e.g. “Golubtsa” or “Trapok”, specific masculine and feminine Russian walks and steps. Another problem of the study is the peculiarities of motion and movements plastics in local traditions of Old Believers’ settlements. Dancing and sin ging, games presuming face changing, voice imi tations, circular rotations, noise, bells ringing, hand claps that caused a laughter outburst, all this was intended to take off tension and fear, provoke joy, create a barrier to negative influence of otherworldly forces, and to defend the newly-wed from “bad spirits” and wicked intrigues.