Relation between identity and performance: Folk dances in Cyprus

This study aims to examine the relationship between identity and performance by an ethnographic perspective, around folk dances. The social and culturally constructed concept of identity is not fixed, but a periodically and situationally reproduced conception. Identity changes spontaneously, sometimes by the hand of rulers, and sometimes in the nature of cultural life. The concept of performance, on the other hand, is all of the social, cultural and communicative actions that take place in any environment where two pairs of eyes follow each other. Even though performance is a relatively neglected subject, it is at the center of cultural acts; cultural life is built through self-presentations and performances. Identity and performance concepts constitute the theoretical background of the study. In this context, it is set out from the idea that identity is a performative concept and folk dances are activity that offers identity performances. In this respect, folk dances have also constituted the front stage of the nation-identity in the nationalization processes. In this study, it has been tried to investigate how folk dances are positioned in identity constructions in the island of Cyprus and how they are used as a means of identity performances.