An Evening at the Evranos Restaurant Folklore Show

A Folklore Show at the Evranos Restaurant in Avanos:

Belly Dancing at the Evranos Restaurant

The Central Anatolian region is rich in history and culture and within its thirteen provinces is a wealth of cultural beliefs, customs and practices.  During our stay in Avanos, we attended a folklore show at the Evranos Restaurant which gave us a small taste of the Anatolian culture.

Evranos Restaurant

The Evranos Restaurant is housed in an underground cave and it’s folklore show is obviously one of the attractions in the region. To get to the restaurant we walked through a short underground passage which opened out into a cavernous room with many alcoves. The restaurant was packed with various tour groups. Our group occupied one of these alcoves and we sat at long tables in the alcove.

Folklore Show

We had plenty of drinks and snacks whereas some groups had the full dinner package. I’m glad we didn’t have dinner there as the menu on their website doesn’t look too exciting.

When the show began, an ensemble of male and female dancers dressed in colourful costumes performed various folklore dances from the Anatolian region, with the mix of dances reflecting the everyday life of people.

Evranos Folklore Show

The dancing was energetic and the costumes were beautiful, but I thought a lost opportunity in spreading information about the culture of this region was in not having any kind of explanation as to what the dances portray. Whether it was a wedding ceremony, a harvest festival or what region or culture the dances represented would have been useful for the audience.

Belly Dancing

The penultimate act of the evening was a belly dance.  It wasn’t the best I’ve seen, but from the gleam in his eyes and the grin on his face, I could tell that our young Turkish guide liked it a lot.  During this act, a few of the men from the audience were invited to join the dancer and imitate her erotic moves – the result was hilarious and brought a lot of laughter from the room.

Evranos Folklore Show

This two and half-hour folklore show was quite entertaining, but as mentioned above, it would have been more interesting if we knew what the dances were about.

See more photos of our Evranos folklore show visit at Travelsignposts photo gallery.

Address:
Evranos Restaurant
Avanos Orta Mah. 88
Nevsehir Province, Turkey

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