They laugh at gravity
There are women performers in Russian and Ukrainian folk dancing. But they’re really just decorative window-dressing.
The men are the thing. And yes, they have ball bearings for knees, and springs in the soles of their feet.
I first saw this sort of dance when I was about nine years old, when during the Khrushchev “thaw” the Moiseyev Dance Company performed in New York. I will never forget my stunned delight. I didn’t think the human body was capable of such feats.
I’m still not sure it is. But seeing is believing:
NOTE: And by the way, this is professional, highly-trained and polished, mega folk dancing. I very much doubt it looked quite like this at village festivals. But it’s based on folk dance moves and forms, and “Moiseyev’s work has been especially admired ‘for the balance that it maintained between authentic folk dance and theatrical effectiveness.'”
I have seen this type of dance in person. It’s a beautiful combination of dance and gymnastics.
“Into the air junior birdmen!”
Someplace, there’s an orthopedic hospital full of guys who tried to do this. Or who wore out doing it.
We saw this Cossack style dancing in St Petersburg a few years ago. Marvelous. Hard to believe the athleticism.
But, you will be pleased to know that there is a Cossack folk dance troupe, The New Archangel Dancers, in Sitka, Alaska that was at one time composed of only women who danced both the men’s and women’s parts. They now accept men into their ranks, but are still mostly women. We’ve seen them too, and they’re pretty darn good.
Check it out: http://newarchangeldancers.com/index.html
To be fair, the late Igor Moiseyev did work the girls pretty hard, too, in his not-terribly-traditional shows. But others such as the Alexandrov Red Army Ensemble do seem to be pretty much all men.
How they can run while sitting down is still a mystery to me.
I remember doing things like that drunk… but not as good… quite common for men of the time to show that stuff… at 55, i can still do some – but NEVER that good…
give me some starka and lets see… …
That was amazing! Thanks for posting that. Unbelievable and great fun to watch! It reminded me of the wonderful barn raising scene in “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.” (Which I think neo has posted before.)
neo, have you seen the movie, “Napoleon Dynamite?” Very, very different style of dance, but the message Napoleon’s dance has in the movie is wonderful. I think it’s extremely well done. The writer director team (I think they are husband and wife) really managed to put a touching story on the screen featuring outcasts and using the power of dance to give them power.
One of my favorite movie scenes is the wedding/bottle dance in Fiddler on the Roof. That’s pure sex. https://youtu.be/yGBG8mCt59s
One’s quads scream, just watching!
I’m pretty sure I blew out a knee watching that.
I never performed dancing like that! I’m impressed. I know how hard it is to get there. Years back, at the start of my martial arts years, my Sifu saw that I my standing jump was pretty high.
“Pretty high for a gwailo.” He drafted me into his Lion Dancers. I did that dance for about 12 years until my knees could no longer take the abuse. I was often the head of the lion because I weighed about 135 lbs, and my dance partner (the tail) weighed about 200. Lots of good times at Chinese New Years celebrations.
Lion Dancers usually eat free!
What an interesting journey to watch this on YouTube and then a follow the suggested videos! I was transfixed by Circassian noble dancing in Moscow, elderly dancers in a rustic Russian village, a very young boy on a version of Georgia’s Got Talent dancing while throwing knives from his mouth and dancing couples at a wedding party in Chechnya.
Very often at folk dancing in Bratislava, there will be a highlight by the best few males which does one or two these moves; sometimes about as well as these.
Never so many dancers, never so many moves, never such great quality.
Folk/alt – break dancing