One of the most dramatic Iranian dances is Mazandarani dance which is also known as "Selma", "Lak Sari Sema" or "Chakeh Sema". This dance is hold along with music, singing and quick dance movements in the north of Iran. The origin of this dance is Mazandaran and it is currently the most common dance which is performed in all Tabari regions (among people who speak in Mazandarani). Lak Sari Sema with a romantic content is a feminine dance with certain limitations in movements all of them are the expression of the people's feeling in this region.
What makes clear the authenticity of some movements in this dance is the similarity of implementation, movements and feelings with slight differences that the people from the east to the west of this province have accepted it.
Lak Sari Sema is usually done in women’s happy parties, feasts, customs and folk ceremonies, wedding parties (The ceremony of offering the gifts to bride family, Bale Boran, marriage feast, Hanabandan, Wedding party etc.), circumcision ceremony and the other happy events.
Chakeh Sema has been performed constituting two parts as Chakeh that means clapping in Mazandarani language as one of the distinct features of this dance and Sema meaning a kind of dance for expressing the happiness, fantasies, wishes and people’s romantic dreams in most regions of Iran .
Shalite Shelwar's whirling: This dance is generally done individually or by participating two persons and in some cases in a group and sometime by men. They dance by wearing a kind of local skirt named Shalite Shelwar or Charkh Shelwar, a ruffled and short skirt above the knee remained from local clothes of Mazandarani’s women, shaking their Shalite with harmonic and smooth movements of hands and feet. Shaking shoulders and especially the lower parts of body independently and disorderly with no relation to other dancers is the main process of this dance
Most of the dancer's movements in this dance are accompanied by clapping and the audiences clap in a circle around them, as well. Another type of Chakeh Sema is done with a handkerchief named Sema Dastmal (Sema Handkerchief). To compos the music of Lak Seri Sema's dance, someone knocks on some appliances as washtubs, tub or the other appliances with both hands coordinately and someone else sings some happy songs to create more passion.
The people of Mazandaran previously used the Luk (a wooden dish) to create the music of this dance, but today new music instruments are also used in ceremonies. Lak Seri Sema was done in an original manner with beautiful movements in the past, and although it has been distorted today, we can see some original motions of this type of dance by the local elders in villages and different regions of Mazandaran.
