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Dance & Weapons
Thanks to Ariel and his shaska topic which gave me the idea for this topic.
First it brought me back to my own pencak silat days. With Pencak Silat each student has to prove his graduation for each degree by fighting against a virtual opponent AND move in sync on Indonesian music. The latter being imperative. Below an example by a friend of mine in NL Followed by 2 exhibition performances from Indonesia as performances are also accompanied by music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_WlJ9D29FQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQTw..._radio=1&t=116 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2wQ..._Iu_7Y&index=3 Back to the shaska: First let me explain about a very interesting traditional dance in the Caucasus : the Lezginka. Interesting because it is not only cross-border but also cross religion and centuries old. You name it ( Dagestan, Chechnya, Ossetia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Cherkess and Georgia), they all dance it It is both slow and fast in which the female stands for grace and purity, hency portrays a swan gliding across the water in her dance movements. Whilst the male is the protector, ruler of the sky and claims the territory and portrays an eagle. Powerfull and fierce. A nice example is this one : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEW8bDQTBBg As with all dances it developed / evolved from a wedding dance to an identity dance to show strenght and pride (remember the eagle...) and became a seperate or single male dance as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIkO9E_Wyc0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6sYGTpaacA but the Caucasus has also strong women, so some don't dance like a swan but... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUKpJz6Tk6o (poor husband...) or look at this lady at 0:53 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhAUnH1tvyQ as for the shaska: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvORvTfCDH0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CtAH1utQ8w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOEmMbiKNrs |
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Moreska is a romantic war dance with swords that spread originally from the Mediterranean countries in the 12th and 13th centuries.
It is supposed that Moreška first came to Korčula (Dalmatia - Croatia) from Spain in the 16th century across the South of Italy and Dubrovnik. Later, through centuries, Moreška disappeared from the Mediterranean with presence only in some parts, still deeply rooted in Korčula, where its today's pattern is that of of an attractive war dance with real swords https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqUa7KxPmyU excerpt from an article "Blackened Faces and a Veiled Woman: The Early Korcula Moreska" By Harris, Max; Feldman, Lada Cale Mock battles between Moors (or Turks) and Christians are one of the most popular features of the folk theatrical repertoire almost anywhere that Spanish culture was once dominant. Beginning, perhaps, in the late thirteenth century, and varying in form from small dances to massive street theater, they are still immensely popular along Spain's Mediterranean coast and throughout much of Latin America. Scholars have tended to pay most attention to the traditions westward travels from Spain to the Americas, where the conquered peoples often insinuated a "hidden transcript" of indigenous resistance into the "public transcript" of European Catholic triumph. But the tradition also traveled eastward to parts of Italy and Germany under Spanish rule and, further, to parts of eastern Europe not ruled by but engaged in trade and diplomatic relations with Spain. One such place in eastern Europe where the tradition still thrives is the medieval walled city of Korcula on the Croatian island of the same name. The island of Korcula sits in the Adriatic Sea, close to the mainland and about equidistant between Split and Dubrovnik. Known to Greek antiquity, because of its thick woods, as Korkyra Melaina (Black Korcula) and to the Romans as Corcyra Nigra, its strategic position on the Adriatic trade route between Europe and the East has meant that the island has been governed by external imperial powers for much of its history. Venice, the most frequent and longstanding of these, ruled the island for a brief period after 1000 and, again, in 1125/29-1180, 1254-1358, and 1420-1797. Korculan attitudes to Venetian rule were ambivalent at best. In the last and longest of these periods, the only realistic alternative to Christian rule by Venice was Muslim rule by the Ottoman Turks. Korculans, according to Vinko Foretic, grudgingly preferred the former, "with all its evils," to the latter. Testimony to an enduring Korculan resentment of Venetian rule can also be found in the still popular legend of the Crnomiri (Black Peace) brothers, reputed to have led an uprising against the first Venetian duke of Korcula, Petar Orseolo, in 1000. The island has a rich heritage of traditional sword dances. Five villages boast kumpanije (companies) whose members perform a linked sword dance, varying slightly from one village to the next. The city of Korcula has two groups that perform a traditional moreska, a mock-combat sword dance in which two sides, variously identified as Whites and Blacks, Christians and Moors, or Turks and Moors, clash swords over the fate of a veiled young woman. The dramatic narrative of the moreska clearly locates the dance in the widespread tradition of mock battles among Muslims and Christians mentioned earlier. The authors of this article have seen the moreska performed on several different occasions: at the opening ceremony of the Dubrovnik Summer Festival; at the opening of Korcula's annual Festival of Sword Dances, organized since 1997 by the island's Tourist Board; and in its traditional setting on 29 July, the feast day of Sveti Todor (St. Theodore). The traditional moreska on the feast day of Sveti Todor used to last a full two hours. To cater to the recent influx of tourists, the dance is now performed some fifty times a year in a shortened version, lasting only half an hour. The longer version, which involved more repetitions of the same dance figures, is no longer staged. Today's moreska begins with a scene in which the Black (Moorish) King drags the chained and veiled Bula (Muslim woman) into the playing area. He pleads his love. She protests her allegiance to the White King, whom she calls by the distinctively Turkish name Osman. The two "armies" follow, each consisting of an equal number of dancers, usually between eight and twelve apiece. After a vaunting exchange between the Black and White Kings, the two sides perform a series of seven figures, in which clashing swords cause frequent sparks to fly. … |
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The Rugova war dance (Albanian: Vallja me shpata e Rugovës or Loja Luftarake e Rugovës; Serbian: Борбена руговска игра) is a traditional Albanian sword dance named after the Rugova region in Kosovo.
Description Rugova dance is considered a relic of the war dances (Albanian: valle luftarake), the remnants of pantomimic dances performed in the re-enactment or preparation of battles. The dance is performed by two male dancers who fight a mock battle for the hand of a girl (a "maiden's dance" It was made internationally famous by the Kosovo Albanian Rugova clans (hailing from Kelmend in Albania). The dance is also found in mountainous Montenegro, where a tribe of shepherds settled in the 18th century. source: wiki https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8shckj-fXY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5i4qS0brMw 2 paintings : The Sword Dance (1890) by Paja Jovanović. The Sword Dance (1885) by Jean-Léon Gérôme. |
Have posted this a while back, it's the war dance from Halmahera called Cakalele: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...ature=emb_logo
Filmed from my wife in beginning of this year. |
into some romance...? but be warned...."not for the faint-hearted"
The knife dance is a Persian wedding ritual. The bridesmaids swipe the cake knife and the groom has to pay up to get the knife back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiGSNmKKsvY |
Sioux ghost and buffalo dance filmed by Thomas Edison in 1894
(only the first 20 secs one can clearly see some weapons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQGW5a0q51w |
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our dearest friends in Mexico were in Precolumbian times already very familiar with sword & club like weapons
like the Aztec's Macuahuitl ( the one with feathers called 'hungry wood') and a similar one from the Maya's ( called 'blade runner") Hence they had no issue replacing it in later times by the machete. Incorporated into a dance on Mariachi music. Like these Native Americans from Mexico in the 1st YouTube film Don't try this at home... unless you finish a bottle of Mescal .... and eat the worm.... arriba....andele https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esRnl2PlxzA and if your name is not Speedy Gonzales..., you can always start like this little muchacho :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ykp-YVpGPU |
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a Tamil dance from India 1949 with knives @ 1:40 min. by the Travancore Sisters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HUpgOmxdFI |
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in the Netherlands there is a big Mollucan community, most from the Southern Islands like (Ambon), but each with their own traditions and cultural variety
Hereby 3 examples from the Northern Islands being wardances : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEi2zZsxIlQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0umgOUzzQtQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WGMCfupIxg Fierce not only by their looks but these men were fierce as warriors as well, a picture of WW II and one from 1874 in Atjeh |
Scottish sword dance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZCT8H-Hpbc Georgian dance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OsAsJejxJY Korean sword dance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtJfefdr2Gc Dance from Bougainville Island https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5AEbo53SHo Indonesian Barong dance (from 6:20) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5O8gnQh5Po Aceh knife dance (final part of the clip) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvClxcLqxpc And another (from around 29:30) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMcbwZaDVM0 |
Dance for Ogun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W82tnya3cnk |
War Dance in Congo of the Ba Mongo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsFT-TeUrP4 the Konda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koQ0ynPZQGA and the Kuba: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oStCNLZBjUM |
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native American war dance :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-stkMRVkCIU another one in which the weapon ( axe) has similarities with the pre columbian axe from the Maya and Aztecs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA0bTp677gk and 2 Cherokee war dances https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEl-yJQvXaE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJvrAPMEVlY seems the Cherokee nation was very music talented as they had some great musicians amongst them like f.i. blues legends Charlie Patton and Champion Jack Dupree, Rickey Medlocke from Blackfoot and Lynyrd Skynyrd and last but not least James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix... |
Here is a clearer version of the same weapons dance from my Cherokee heritage (at the beginning of this):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNc5O7mug5E Here is a kampilan dance from one side of my heritage in the Philippines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCl1T6c8w4A Enjoy. |
beautiful the kampilan dance; such elegance ! the left hand movements / technique at 1:53 reminds me of my old pentjak silat days, many years ago...
here a silat sword dance : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txeeAfBimeI |
and after all those dances from far away, now 2 from my cousins in Belgium:
ancient ones and originating from the Middle Ages with Celtic influences https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Msrtz2YTcic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmzDUyZIE9w |
talking Celts....
here some lasses who commemorate the heavy price their Alba ancestors paid at Culloden https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c8ajzk5bAg |
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many, especially rugby lovers, know the famous Haka of the Kiwi's ...
but this one I dare say is more interesting as it shows the dancers in full regalia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y59JIObk_U the shield at 1:08 looks very much alike like the shield used by the Moluccans |
a dagger dance from Yemen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1KKLTKb5I4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gKBAog5BTQ |
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a Mortlock Knive dance from Bougainville:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibbO0uy55Zo and that it is not only a men's world ... can be seen in this vid by this enchanting lady: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tcEp5NxNf0 |
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Quote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M63lrcH-hJU&t=38s |
Ainu sword dance
It takes some time for swords to take part https://youtu.be/ynS955uVKqc https://youtu.be/x9Lr4hVd7Ys https://youtu.be/b8ECF5kpHe8 |
courtesy to ariel who pointed me to a zeibek yataghan and the zeibek warriors.
Zeybeks, or sometimes Zeibeks /Greek: Ζεϊμπέκοι Zeibekoi; Ottoman Turkish: زیبك, romanized: zeybek https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udRl7lsvtj0 by the way, the "eagle"movements are also to be found in the Caucasus peoples dance lezginka (Lezgisch: Лезги кьуьл; Russian: лезгинка; Azeri: Ləzgihəngi; Ossetian: тымбыл кафт, зилгæ кафт) where men stand for / symbolize the eagle and the women for the swan in their movements FYI: at 2:03 min the 2nd dance starts and the title mentions "ince"which means hawk in Turkish Clearly can also be recognized by the swift flying movements ( of a hawk) which differ from an eagle's |
courtesey to Ren Ren who wrote "In particular, the knife, persistently referred to as "surmene", is called the "circumpontian knife" (циркумпонтийский нож). This term is derived from the Greek word "Pont" (short for "Pont Euxin" - the Black Sea) and the Latin "circum" - around."
I stumbled again... upon something interesting and adding to the complexity of the Laz(istan) discussion.....this dance : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM45-Ao82zg now the dance's name "horon" originates from the Greek language: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horon_(dance) and here "Pontus"is mentioned...with reference to the above https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontus_(region) which takes us again to Lazistan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazistan and its people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laz_people and takes us to another dance.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftBHKwy52bA |
Ladakh sword dance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCCoiRMWbXM Tibetan sword dance https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10150393652589971 |
Quote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn-WBYV3KLo |
some Hussar related :
Hussar dance from the Ukraine https://folkways.si.edu/michala-thom...ck/smithsonian Czech Hussar dance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbwDLSQpqKU Hungarian Hussar dance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG_bAfub49M and as we are celebrating Carnaval where I live, together with our neighbours in Belgium and Germany / North Rhine erea ....a song in its current standard form, a carnival song from Cologne since the 1920s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYxy1PsDJDk also used in the move Paths of Glory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGmuICb8a7Y and last but not least as I do like a good fiddle... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEfoBFVu6HY |
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