In Georgia, dance is a combat sport
Here’s a great rehearsal video of some Georgian (the Russian Georgia, not the US one) dancers [hat tip: commenter “g6loq”]. Usually they wear costumes that make it more difficult to see their bodies. It creates a nice illusion but hides their feats (not their feet) to a certain extent. You can see the full effort that creates the pyrotechnics here
And ordinarily when they’re doing this stuff, at least some of them are holding—and throwing—knives. Real ones, as far as I can tell.
One of ballet choreographer George Balanchine’s (also a Georgian, by the way) famous sayings was “ballet is woman.” He was expressing his own thoughts as a heterosexual man, as well as a genius choreographer. I beg to differ; there’s a big big place for men in ballet, and not just as porters. But yes, there is something about ballet that particularly highlights the grace and line of the woman. Ballet is not egalitarian, either; the differences in the male and female bodies and what they do best in terms of movement and expression is profound, and ballet exploits them rather than hiding them.
If ballet is woman, though, Georgian dance is even more man. The video makes that crystal clear, I think. Dancing is not an effeminate pursuit; in most cultures, au contraire. It’s one of the ways men show their bravery, daring, strength, virility, power, you name it. And these Georgian guys? They’ve got “it” to the nth degree, and they flaunt it.
The Georgian Stalin would approve…
By the way… even people who are not that good try to do some of these moves… i still can do some… but not like the ones in the video… common at weddings, when there is too much drink..
Practical application of the Fouetté
It not just the motion, the timing and distance of impact have to be perfect. Coolness under pressure is a must.
If sharp knives are involved …
Ballet had always been, for me, the ballerina — not that I’m in anyway a connoisseur of what goes on — I only know I like what I like and the ballerina’s the thing I like. As to the Georgian men, I swear, if the devil made me an offer of being to be able to dance like that for my soul, I’d seriously consider it. Just watching them on their knees is as awesome as watching ballerinas en pointe. By the way, my knees ache just from watching.
There is fast and there is slow …
Here, flexibility, power, grace and balance.
Observe her spine …
I swear, if the devil made me an offer of being to be able to move like that for my soul, I might seriously consider it…
The shear athletic power and grace of the dancers is beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
Somehow I don’t think the average Georgian off the street could dance like that 😉 Those guys are professional athletes. And I think they should be wearing knee pads…
Watching that made my knees ache.
Dancing is very masculine, & they are very good at it because it requires lots of oxygen to the muscles & men have bigger lungs that can deliver more 02 to the muscles. Their greater musculature enables them to perform the moves with greater ease & less fatigue than a woman.
Wow! Absolutely amazing…what talent!
And, they seem to be doing it on a floor that doesn’t look all that great.
Maybe it is just the couple of floorboards in the foreground; but, I seem to see a couple of uneven boards and some large gaps/holes in the boards.
That has got to make it harder, no?
Is it hot in here, or is it just me….
“They’ve got “it” to the nth degree”
They certainly do.
Just another typical eclectic attraction to your site. Congrats.
Minor quibble: Georgia is not Russian. Culturally unrelated and most definitely linguistically unrelated — it’s part of the Kartvelian family, unrelated to pretty much every other family of languages. The Georgian term for the language is Kartuli, and the name of the country in their language is Sakartvelo. I have no idea where “Georgia” came from, though I suspect from Russia. (In Hebrew, they’re called “Gruzians.”)
It was a part of the former Soviet Union, though not “Russian.”
However, I have no suggestions as to how to delineate Georgia over there. Maybe the Georgia in the Caucasus? (As opposed to “The Caucasian Georgia” — that sounds like white people in the southern US state.) I would NEVER suggest calling it Kartuli. I’m tired of pc-ing our Anglicizations as it is — I still use Bombay and Calcutta. And I find any one who tries to give European cities the native pronunciation intolerably annoying.
(To make it more wonderfully confusing, that area was also called at one point, Iberia!)
Lee:
Actually, I realized that Georgia isn’t “Russian” in that sense. But I figured I had to make it clear which Georgia I was talking about, the US one or the other one, and “Russian” seemed a handy enough designation.
I figured someone might fact-check me, though 🙂 .
Russia invaded Georgia, using a crisis they themselves created via bands of marauding criminals.
It’s like when people say Americans are the British or the Canadians, because the Canadians burned down the White House.
Just WOW!!! I have to admit I am not a fan of ballet, although I admire the talent and hard work it takes, but I have always been a fan of man-centric dancing (which is why I love Gene Kelly) and this was fantastic!
Morris dancers use swords…
(and depending on the dance, they lock them together and play a game that has to do with putting your head in the circle… kind of a hot potatoe off with your head symbolic dance… a variation of it is seen in the wicker man with christopher lee… )
“Ballet is not egalitarian, either; the differences in the male and female bodies and what they do best in terms of movement and expression is profound, and ballet exploits them rather than hiding them.”
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Fascinating. When any thought is paid to politics, and social issues, the largest percentage of participants in ballet are Progressives, Liberals, Democrats. FACT.
And the largest percentage of them are, confused.
Why?
Because they are the first to support the Progressive notion of “gender neutrality” as it is taught in most colleges, universities today.
However, as neoneocon declares above, ballet is NOT egalitarian.
Nor is any true sport that is taken to the highest levels of competitiveness.
Who is it who excels in basketball?
Who performs to the highest levels in football?
Hockey?
Soccer?
Lacrosse?
Only Liberals, Progressives, Leftists argue for “egalitarianism” when it suits their agenda.
“Gender neutrality”——its Bull****.
Elementary schools in my state are considering restrooms/bathrooms as gender neutral. Boys who identify themselves as feminine can use the same restroom as the girls.
Sweden just added a new word to their vocabulary for a “gender neutral” individual; “Hen”. Not someone who is specifically a “girl”, or, a “boy”. Now, a “hen”.
Gender neutrality marches on:
“In the Egalia, a preschool in Stockholm, there are no male or female students. Instead, all children are referred to as ‘hen’ — a gender-neutral pronoun that has become so established in Sweden that it will be recognized next month in the newest edition of the country’s official dictionary.
The Swedish Academy’s SAOL dictionary, which is updated every 10 years and will be republished April 15, will feature ‘hen’ as an alternative to the male pronoun ‘han’ and the female ‘hon.’ The revised edition will also include thousands of other new words…”
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/04/01/sweden-is-about-to-add-a-gender-neutral-pronoun-to-its-official-dictionary/
Egalitarianism in bathrooms gets traction in Kalifornia:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-law-allows-transgender-students-to-pick-bathrooms-sports-teams-they-identify-with/
…and in the state of Utah:
http://fox13now.com/2015/02/12/park-city-high-school-unveils-two-new-all-gender-restrooms/
…and in England:
http://www.inquisitr.com/1948944/parents-pull-daughter-from-school-after-learning-a-transgender-boy-is-allowed-to-use-girls-bathroom/
and in…
Lavrentiy Beria was also a born in Georgia. The Georgians got their revenge on the Russians by sending them to the Gulags.
clarityseeker:
Ballet is not egalitarian in the sense that the sexes are not treated the same. But in ballet, the woman most often ends up on top, as it were. Perhaps that curries favor with liberals.
Also, there are some strains in ballet choreography (not just new ones; older ones as well) that are more egalitarian than others. Bournonville, for example. I further discuss that here.
neo-neocon said:
“Dancing is not an effeminate pursuit; in most cultures, au contraire. It’s one of the ways men show their bravery, daring, strength, virility, power, you name it. ”
Also it was a way to learn, and teach, martial skills.
Capoeira from Brazil is probably the most famous dance-like martial art. But in ancient cultures, and up into fairly recently in some places, war dances were how men learned to fight. The dances performed the same function as kata, or forms, in the Japanese martial arts.
And yes it was through dancing that a man would show his virility. Because by definition a powerful war dancer was a powerful warrior.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD18ilKj5R0
“Capoeira: The Brazilian Martial Art – Dance, Fight and Music – Capoeira Brasil – MMA – UFC”
And yes it was through dancing that a man would show his virility. Because by definition a powerful war dancer was a powerful warrior…
Makes me think of this short fight. Ah!
Caporea, supposedly, derives from Brazilian African slaves disguising their martial training.
Yes, G6loq, but they no doubt passed it on the same way they learned it. Through dance.
That is a funny video; I highly recommend it.
If it must be said, once incident doesn’t invalidate the concept. Showy or flamboyant doesn’t equal powerful. Dance is the means by which martial skills are or were taught in many cultures. It doesn’t mean everyone learned.
How does one categorize Kenichi Ebina?
The body control is astounding!
Why categorize? It would be like trying to categorize Bruce Lee.
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