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Traditional folk dances- important elements in oral culture- play important role in transmitting cultural values between generations. The dance called “canimen” performed by the Alawi Turkmens in Central Anatolia is also one of the elements of traditional oral culture and has been carried to the present day as a cultural heritage whose source is the community and whose creator is not known. The tradition of using the performing arts dating from the era before Turks’ embracing of Islam as their religion has been preserved in Alawi practices which are based on different belief forms of Turkish culture within the belief system of Alawis. This study reveals the traces of “canimen” from the past. The functions dances fulfil in the transmission of cultural codes from generation to generation are examined within the scope of the study. The field study of the dance “canimen”- which is integrated into the value system of Alawism, which reflects the social structure of the local people, which transmits the cultural features to the present and which is performed for fun- was limited to Elmapınar village of Kalecik district of Ankara. Folk dances assemble people and they prevent them from being individuals and thus play role in turning them into collective elements. The functions of the folk dance have been evaluated not only as the explicit function that is performed in the visible state but also with implicit latent functions including rituals and ceremony elements. The research data were collected through semi-structured interviews. In the study, the play-dance relationship has been emphasized and canimen is considered as a didactic element. It is found in this study that the dance has functions that strengthen the sense of unity and togetherness as an important cultural element of the community, which enable the transmission of cultural codes between generations and which also act as an instrument of socialization. On the other hand, the way folk dances are performed and the functions they fulfil also change in parallel to socio-economic and socio-cultural developments such as globalization, urbanization, and migration. While maintaining its existence in the culture-belief system in the region; it has been observed that the concepts of verbal memory of the folk dance were gradually forgotten, visual memory was beginning to disappear and the didactic function of the dance coming from the past to the present time cannot be fulfilled sufficiently today. Because rituals have significant functions in arranging, maintaining, and establishing social order; they are also open to changes in accordance with social structure. Canimen- which faces the danger of being forgotten today- is an important product of a social culture with its cultural codes and functional properties. It is of vital importance that its current structure should be recorded and transformed into a written source in keeping the cultural values alive so that the folk dance can be transmitted down to next generations by re-synthesizing it in the system of values which develop with changing life conditions. This paper considers the folk dance, canimen, from the sociological perspective. Such an element of oral culture-which is in danger of beginning forgotten- will be preserved through studies to be performed in the future with larger samples in disciplines such as literature, folklore, and performing arts. Besides, it is also thought that studies which describe the historical, cultural, and geographical details of the dance will contribute to the areas of culture and science significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]