Takouba in action
 

The are a bunch of these Taureg dance videos online but I enjoyed this one the most.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4lf5h_takouba-1_music

And that is live guitar as you can see in this other video from the same venue.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4l...hoggar-1_music

Thanks for posting these Michael.

The takouba they use seem to be on the short side. One of them also seems to be quite stiff, perhaps an older blade? A while back I saw a documentary on the Fulani; it showed young men sharpening their takoubas for a conflict. The blades were very flexible. The one tabouka I had also had a very thin spring-steel blade.

The twirls at the end look surprisingly similar to break-dancing moves.

Hi Micheal,
interesting......notice at around 30 seconds + (the first video)the 'thrust' seems to be achieved by holding the 'flat' of the 'non sword' hand further up the blade ....almost certainly to stablise/stiffen the blade. If this is the case I can only assume that the usually very flexible blade is mainly designed for the 'slashing cut'.

All the best
David

This old photo may be of interest (not mine):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/flanifo...7605415600743/

Notice the man on the left 'fingering' the blade - explains why the blades are left unsharpened for the first 1/3rd or so, and gives some insight into the style of swordsmanship used. Maybe it's well known to others here, but I just stumbled across it today.

Best,

Iain