Islamey, the fast Circassian dance

Updated October 5, 2026 · 3 min read

The three main Circassian dances: Wuj · Qafa · Islamey. More: the guide to Circassian dance.

What Islamey is

Islamey is the fast one of the three main kinds of Circassian dance, a “dance-play” that historically began as a pair dance for lovers. Its name is said to come from a Kabardian village. The movements are full of symbols: they stand for an eagle and a she-eagle. In every form the dancers move around each other counter-clockwise, and male dancers traditionally roll up their sleeves before they start, a sign of the energy to come.

Dancing on the toes

The high point of Circassian dance technique is dancing on the tips of the toes, and it is used most of all in the Islamey. Nineteenth-century authors also used the name Islamey for the old competition dances: one dancer would leap into the middle of the circle and others would follow, and some records describe toe-dancing contests between young men and women that lasted up to thirty minutes. The movements borrow from war and nature: dodging a sword stroke, the gait of a horse, the flight of an eagle.

Kabardian and Bzhedug Islamey

The Kabardian Islamey, from Eastern Kabardia, is a stately, lyrical story of a couple. The tempo changes with the mood between the partners, both have solo parts, and the man often rises onto his toes to show protection and skill. The Bzhedug Islamey, from Western Circassia (Adygea), is much faster and keeps a steady tempo; rising onto the toes is used sparingly, as an accent, and the patterns are broader and quicker.

Balakirev’s Islamey

In 1869, after a journey to the Caucasus, the Russian composer Mily Balakirev wrote that a Circassian prince had often visited him and played folk tunes on an instrument rather like a violin. One of them, a dance tune called Islamey, pleased him so much that he arranged it for the piano. The result, Islamey: Oriental Fantasy, was composed in about a month and premiered by Nikolai Rubinstein. It was long considered one of the hardest piano pieces ever written; Maurice Ravel even said he wanted his own Scarbo to be more difficult than Balakirev’s Islamey.

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Islamey: questions