Dance & Weapons

[gp]

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=bQTwk_Iu_7Y&list=RDbQTwk_Iu_7Y&start_radio=1&t=116
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2wQdsL3WeM&list=RDbQTwk_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

[David]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXT61wXB6mw

[gp]

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. …

[gp]

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.

[Sajen]

Have posted this a while back, it's the war dance from Halmahera called Cakalele: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=29n0AYX6Qns&feature=emb_logo

Filmed from my wife in beginning of this year.

[gp]

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

[gp]

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

[gp]

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

[gp]

a Tamil dance from India 1949 with knives @ 1:40 min. by the Travancore Sisters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HUpgOmxdFI

[gp]

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

[mariusgmioc]

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

[David]

Dance for Ogun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W82tnya3cnk

[gp]

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

[David]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8MmDebC1Zc

[gp]

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...

[Battara]

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.

[gp]

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

[gp]

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

[gp]

talking Celts....

here some lasses who commemorate the heavy price their Alba ancestors paid at Culloden

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c8ajzk5bAg

[gp]

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

[gp]

a dagger dance from Yemen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1KKLTKb5I4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gKBAog5BTQ

[gp]

a Lapunti dance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGTVFY0eqSM

[gp]

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

[gp]

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

although the Moluccans had a reputation as fierce fighters, so one ought to respect their women and they ought not to be ignored. Strongminded, tough and proud as well. Showing their status, position and heritage , this was displayed by their tattoos. Almost disappeared during the last century a revival can be seen in the Netherlands as some reallign, rediscover and identify again with their roots and culture. FYI: the manual tattooing with the little hammer is less painful as the modern machine used in the present day parlors...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M63lrcH-hJU&t=38s

[dat_man]

Ainu sword dance
It takes some time for swords to take part

https://youtu.be/ynS955uVKqc


https://youtu.be/x9Lr4hVd7Ys


https://youtu.be/b8ECF5kpHe8

[gp]

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

[gp]

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

[JBG163]

Ladakh sword dance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCCoiRMWbXM

Tibetan sword dance
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10150393652589971

[gp]

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=bQTwk_Iu_7Y&list=RDbQTwk_Iu_7Y&start_radio=1&t=116
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2wQdsL3WeM&list=RDbQTwk_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

nice touch in the present days....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn-WBYV3KLo

[gp]

some Hussar related :

Hussar dance from the Ukraine

https://folkways.si.edu/michala-thomasa-ukrainska-orchestra/tanec-husar-hussar-dance/world/music/track/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

[gp]

some more interesting dances with spears and shaska's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8Gl0z9tT4Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO_jJQwFdTU&t=92s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8nYqZ3_hUA

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fKGue3LViVY

[gp]

from the Philippines ( looks very similar to what I did with Pentjak Silat in my younger years; martial arts was to be performed on music)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSl_6_RAM_A


from Yemen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbt2MaCq3wA

and Nigeria

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es6HcLIh-Ms

although no sound, some very nice pictues from 1930 Africa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-HwDWT7D0U

last but not least a little Celtic dance from Bonnie Scotland

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiET7tcn1_I

[gp]

double...

[gp]

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=bQTwk_Iu_7Y&list=RDbQTwk_Iu_7Y&start_radio=1&t=116
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2wQdsL3WeM&list=RDbQTwk_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

it seems sadly some of the films have been removed or changed to private ...
to keep the examples still available for the future, I found sone replacements in which the ladies move like swans and the men as eagles around them
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LDZKjo9sUkk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SANJrU5PjOQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AleeoXN0w-s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2Ly_lsdHn8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR18c6xIiD0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2Ly_lsdHn8

and away from the warriors, to the folk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrAWrgFuNmc
and a sweet little girl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuDj1XQ4u5s

[gp]

shaska...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLkjBMPAP2g

and some amazing Ladies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJGFBHXpWy4

away from dancing but to what it was intended to do,
a most interesting technical move:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqeiWawbzLo

[gp]

the Ladies with their Shaska reminded me of my pentjak years
an old film fron Holland

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISCawEcaSak

and from Indonesia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxEbN93FL_U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2Stbxe8Iek

[gp]

a Georgian dance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjGnWstCi94

2 Zeybek ones :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz2FZkgleZk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgQju-8rHkU

[kronckew]

...
2 Zeybek ones :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz2FZkgleZk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgQju-8rHkU


Shame the Zeybek ones didn't involve the yataghans. They were just decorations shoved in the sashes.