Teškoto or Teshkoto (Macedonian: Тешкото, "the hard one"), is a folk dance from the Mijak ethnographic region, located in western Macedonia.
The dance represents the hard life of people from the region. Its origins come from the period when locals were leaving their motherland to go out of the country for better life, but over the years it has also grown as a symbol for all the pain caused in the region in the past.[1] The dance has inspired artists and poets (for example Blaze Koneski's poem Teškoto).[2]
One of the most prominent festivals that feature the dance is the Galičnik Wedding Festival, an annual event in the Galičnik, one of the oldest villages in North Macedonia.[3]