Sword Dance

Sword Dance

Sword dances are recorded from throughout world history. There are various traditions of solo and mock battle (Pyrrhic) sword dances from Greece, the Middle East, Pakistan, India, China, Korea, England, Scotland and Japan. Popular Dances like Choliya from the Kumaon region of India, and khukri dances from Nepal are prominent in the sub-continent, while all known linked ("hilt-and-point") sword dances are from Europe.

Female sword dancing, or Raks al sayf, was not widespread in the Middle East. Men in Egypt performed a dance called el ard, a martial arts dance involving upraised swords, but women were not widely known to use swords as props during their dancing in public. However, paintings and engravings of the French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme (who visited Egypt in the 18th century) show sword dancers balancing sabers on their head. Sword dancing, (Raqs al Saïf) is widespread in Turkey, Pakistan-India and Iran.

Women’s sword dancing evolved out of sword fighting between men in Egypt and Turkey. There was even a time when sword dancing was banned by the Sultan during Ottoman rule, as it was believed that dancers who took a sword from a soldier and pretended to “kill” him at the end of the performance collected the swords to begin a resistance against the army. These swords were never returned. A Word on Sword Dancing by Jheri St James

General sword dance forms include:

• solo dancers around swords – such as the traditional Scottish sword dances. This general form also encompasses non-sword dances such as the bacca pipes jig in Cotswold morris dance,

• mock battle dances, including many stick dances from non-sword traditions, and such common continental dances as Bouffons or Mattachins as described by Thoinot Arbeau in 1588.
• hilt-and-point sword dances – where the dancers are linked together by their swords in a chain. These form the basis for rapper sword and long sword forms,
• the Choliya sword dance of the Kumaon region of the hills of the Indian state of Uttarakhand, which started partly due to their long martial tradition and also to give protection to marriage processions. It was also held to be auspicious and, according to Hindu tradition, helpful in warding off evil spirits. It has a very beautiful and graceful form and has techniques which give it the status of a martial art.