Students expelled from Russian medical school for ethnic dance

KISLODOVSK, Russia, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- A group of medical students was arrested and expelled for performing a traditional dance of the Caucasus in the street in a southern Russian city, police said.

The 18 were students at the medical college in Kislodovsk in the Stavropol region, a primarily ethnic Russian region in the North Caucasus, RIA Novosti reported. The Kislodovsk police website said Monday they were arrested in early October for an outdoor party that included dancing the lezginka, a traditional dance of primarily Muslim areas in the South Caucasus and neighboring central Asian countries.

The students were fined 1,000 rubles (about $30) each, police said. But police also reported the incident to the school, which expelled them last week.

Police said the dancing was accompanied by shouting and loud whistling.

The lezginka, which has a number of variations, can be danced solo, by couples or groups. When danced by couples, the man leaps about imitating an eagle while the woman moves around him.