Danse du Jour

[shanmonster]

Today's clip comes from Saada Tribal Group - Ritual de espadas. I'm not the only belly dancer out there mixing martial arts with dance. My only quibble with this performance is the way the performers keeps grasping the "sharp" edge of their swords. But I must say, I vastly prefer a martial style of dance done with a sword to a balancing dance done with a sword.

Watch on YouTube

Comments

[sidruid.livejournal.com]

i feel like, with the exception of that one twirl in the sword near the end, they basically just flipped it for a while and held it. More a prop than martial. I'm sure if they watched some chinese sword forms they would get inspired to adapt some of the moves for their style.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Ah, but compare and contrast with the following dance, which is more representative of sword handling in belly dance, and you'll likely see why I'm calling it more martial.

[sidruid.livejournal.com]

sword abuse, and at a ren faire no less. :)

[valkryor.livejournal.com]

I was waiting for the one in the middle to fall out of her dance bra. :P

[elanya.livejournal.com]

That or balance her sword on her rack :o

[tdj.livejournal.com]

I must admit that if someone ever did manage to come up with a noggin-'n-bosom martial style, it would be formidable.

[elanya.livejournal.com]

I was hoping I could find a link to a Yoon Ja-kyung video to show you - she does Korean sword dance and she is *amazing*. Stupid youtube - I know she was on there before!

[miraba.livejournal.com]

If it's not treated like a sword, it's just a shiny stick.
/sword martial artist mode