Men en pointe: please do not try this at home
I remain fascinated with the dancing of Georgian men. That’s “Georgia” as in here:
In Georgian folk dance tradition it’s the men rather than the women who sometimes dance on their toes, or en pointe as we like to say in the Frenchified ballet world. But it’s a a very different pointe technique then the one used by the female ballet dancer (always female, except for parody). The ballet dancer balances on the very tips of her toes, and the strength of the foot is developed in its arch, which forms a lovely curve that should have no breaks in it:
Male feet tend to be less flexible, even in dancers, although there are certainly exceptions to the rule. The Georgian dancers aren’t trying for that elegant ballet line. They are into a different effect—one of stabbing the ground, almost clawing at it with the forefoot bent and the weight on the knuckle of the toe, a broken and harsh line instead of a seamless elegant one:
The point of Georgian men’s pointe work (sorry; couldn’t resist) is to convey daring as well as skill; to show that the man is afraid of nothing. Don’t believe me? Take a look at this, and pay special attention when you get to minute 2:17:
Speaking of dance as a show of daring-do, this next clip is so scary I’m not sure I’d even want to be in the audience for it. Here’s a description of the type of dance it is:
Khevsuruli (ხევსურული) ”“ This mountain dance is probably the best representative of the Georgian spirit. It unites love, courage, and respect for women, toughness, competition, skill, beauty, and colorfulness into one amazing performance. The dance starts out with a flirting couple. Unexpectedly, another young men appears, also seeking the hand of the woman. A conflict breaks out and soon turns into a vigorous fighting between the two men and their supporters. The quarrel is stopped temporarily by the woman’s veil. Traditionally, when a woman throws her head veil between two men, all disagreements and fighting halts. However, as soon as the woman leaves the scene, the fighting continues even more vigorously…At the end, a woman (or women) comes in and stops the fighting with her veil once again…As a characteristic of Georgian dances, Khevsuruli is also very technical and requires intense practice and utmost skill in order to perform the dance without hurting anyone.
Indeed (the real action begins at around minute 4:50 so you can skip ahead to that, but I left the whole video as is in case you want to see the entire dance intact):
It’s terrifically masculine, isn’t it? That’s my takeaway. It’s slashing martial art, set to harsh music.
I hope those dancers are well paid.
The dances are thrilling on two counts. First the dances themselves, magnificently incorporating maleness — physical brio. Second, it shames both modernism and the post-modern vestigial male while vindicating the past by making the point that tradition has and will continue to have it all over progress, even to what entertains, enchants us, and captures our imagination.
“…respect for women…”
Especially the kidnapped brides?
OW! OW! OW! OW!
To paraphrase George Michael
Gender is natural, gender is good,
Not everybody likes it, but everybody should
Not that they don’t do trans in that part of the world. Here is one Georgian actor playing two lovers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i0cdW5Tx3E
How do the *Prancing Elites* on Logo channel
feel about these guys ????
The second half of the second video reminds me of the fight scenes in some Hong Kong martial arts movies. I’ve always thought of those scenes as dance-like; they’re even “choreographed”! The dancers in this video even use some of the same moves.
Too bad that Stalin, ethnic Georgian that he was, didn’t take up Georgian dance instead of politics. How different the twentieth century might have been.
Amazing strength. supernatural
Video – Sharia Law In America? – Hannity
http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2015/06/video-sharia-law-in-america-hannity.html
ps. Link Exchange with CC??
Hi Neo,
This is absolutely unrelated to the topic above but I think you will like what Peter Wehrner writes about at https://www.commentarymagazine.com/2015/06/06/confirmation-bias-admit-wrong/#gf_18
Cool. All dancing needs knives.
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“Male feet tend to be less flexible, even in dancers, although there are certainly exceptions to the rule.”
Reminds me of an event I still find disturbing to recall.
Was in a restaurant for lunch some years ago. Kind of an up-scale deli I guess you would call it.
A couple sat across the dining room from me, at a small open table against the wall in the direction I was facing. Maybe 3 or 4 yards away.
I initially paid no attention but they were not only talking animatedly, but she was fidgeting quite a bit. She was middle aged, well dressed, tightly bloused if you get my drift, and just outside the attractive range. Notwithstanding, she gave off this weird sexually charged vibe, as if she was going to start in on him right there. Nothing I wanted to witness.
Then she started doing “it”. She kept slipping off her shoe on the traffic side of the table and flexing her foot. What the hell she was doing that for in a restaurant where food was being served – most importantly MY own food – I couldn’t figure, and it irritated me enough to give them a glare, which she reciprocated.
What was I going to do though, go up and punch some 50 year old wimp because his female companion was acting obnoxiously?
Trying to ignore them, I later, and against my better judgment, glanced up from my paper.
I saw that she not only had her shoe off again, but was doing something my brain could not process at first: she was rotating her foot around and bending it down almost in the same way you would cup, and then open, your hand.
It was like stumbling into a freak show performance. Seeing something you never even considered was possible; or, that anyone would want to do if it were.
Yet she obviously had an uncontrollable compulsion to perform this exercise, even in public.
Never saw anything like it, and never should have had to in the first place, considering where I was.
The term “prehensile” kept leaping to mind. Upset my metabolism, you might say.
I’ll bet she was a space-alien invader. That is probably how you can tell. That and their flicking lizard tongues.
It was explained to me many years ago that during the Ottoman Empire, the army would tour the villages in the Balkens and probably Georgia with dances every year or so. The dances were very athletic and the young men would compete to be the most skilled. The army would then draft the winners.