Some believe that the Kabyle dances are only “cṭe wa rdiḥ” and that they are all alike and meaningless, apart from their playful function. However, this is not the case!
The Kabyle dances are expressions of culture that at the same time are figurative, ritual, propitiatory, therapeutic as well as playful. They are distinguished through different genres and each of them have a specific function and plays a well-defined role in the balance of individuals and to strengthen community friendliness.
They are practiced in ceremonial and particular circumstances of life in society, and on appropriate occasions (not only matrimonial feasts). And, like musical genres, each of them even has a distinctive name: Tigmarin, Tisekkwrin, dderza, tabrurezt, taqfafayt, aqellal, tizuraz, tazlalazt, taglilezt, tahulit, ajeddeb, ecc.
Too bad we lost all this today! We depreciate our secular traditions because they are stunned and flabbergasted without our knowledge. We utterly neglect the expressions that underpin our entity of identity and give it a stamp, a face. We miserably squander the immeasurable wealth of our cultural heritage in oblivion, we do not take care of it and we do not value it. In doing so, we are culturally flippant and socially improvident.
Dahman At Ali
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