Arabian Sword Dances (And other dances!)

[kahnjar1]

Originally Posted by Dom

for sure

à +

Dom

...this surely has to be an illustration for a quiz question WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?....................

[kronckew]

us 'mericans also have a sword dance.

Bush Sword Dance

English sword dance note the flexible blades and lack of guards
Morris Dancers
Yorkshire long sword dancers
More, with some history

Scots version - somewhat more ostentatious & using real swords.

Edinburg Tattoo Sword Dance


russian version guardless swords...

Russian dance

[Devadatta]

Originally Posted by kronckew

russian version guardless swords...

Russian dance

Because they are cossack shashkas and were used far not only for dance during the history

I agree however that the particular swords in hands of the dancers in the video provided are modern-made theater/dance replicas, not authentic pieces of course. But they have historic battle-ready prototype.

[David R]

Fascinating videos , I would love to know more about the context of these, ref. the stuff from the Islamic world. Re the UK, worth remembering that we lost so many young men in WW1 that for a generation the Morris dancing tradition was kept alive by womens teams, and so we may have lost some of the nuances of that form.

[kronckew]

Originally Posted by David R

Fascinating videos , I would love to know more about the context of these, ref. the stuff from the Islamic world. Re the UK, worth remembering that we lost so many young men in WW1 that for a generation the Morris dancing tradition was kept alive by womens teams, and so we may have lost some of the nuances of that form.

we probably lost as many if not more in the flu plague/pandemic shortly after.

many of the silly looking traditions like morris dancing, may pole, hobby horse and such had darker and more martial aspects in the past.

modern living, occupational health and safety regs have had an even more deleterious effect. so have the greenies and animal rights groupies. it was noted in one of the uk videos that there were only 4 longsword dancing teams left in yorkshire out of many hundreds in the past.

(In the Bush dance i really like the swords he and the Saudi King were using. no dancing blades those.)

[A.alnakkas]

Its not unusual to find over-polished clauberg blade on Ardha saifs.

[kronckew]

Originally Posted by A.alnakkas

Its not unusual to find over-polished clauberg blade on Ardha saifs.

a lot of the more recently made 'dancing saifs' i saw in saudi were shiney with bling silver and gold mounts and scabbards, but looked like the blade was not really functional. guess the newer ardha participants like to show off a bit, as the thobe & gutrah is fairly standardised, i guess this is one way.

Bush's saif seems a bit more curved than the king's. wonder how sharp it was...

Probably would look better with an etch if it's damascus or wootz.
Most politicians like sparkly things; comes from putting a shine on everything they say...