i used to do highland dancing when i was young ( got a few trophys and medals for it) i love watching the dances now esp from other countries i still get a chill and its still going strong in scotland i cant go to any highland games without dancing being a main feature wild00child dont u worry we still love it here :) x
truly beautiful.Used to go Highland games in scotland ,saw the scottish soldiers dance like this .Part of our culture .Good to see other nations do this as well.Good luck to everyone doing this.Respect. luv, From scotland
I'm a highland dancer, and I personally love the sword dance (which is strange lol.) These people are beautiful dancers; and I hope to dance like them all someday. My teacher says I am ready to go to the championships now; but after seeing these, I'm starting to think she may have been wrong. lol :)
I've lived on both the east and west coasts, so I've taken from teachers in Los Angeles as well as Philadelphia at different times. Thank you for the comments!
Here I thought they'd be dancing with a beastly claymore in hand, but I suppose now they are dancing around the beastly claymore, if there was one there, hence the blocks to hold it above the ground.
@ambika69 And besides what Seann Triubhas said, sword fighting is more a question of balance and precision than it is of actually "swinging" a sword, most people don't realise this.
@Lady98K Yeah, I got that part, thanks. Middle east, north africa, india, china, japan, and even various parts of europe have swords dance as part of their culture as well over the years. Y'know what? In every last one of them the sword was a part of the performance, swinging the blade arround was taken from battle and made into an art. This here is the only version i've seen them leave it on the bleeding ground. This is prancing balerinas, not sword danceing. It doesn't deserve the name.
I find that the public doesn't generally like to see these dances in shows because they find them boring. 80% of the times I've performed these dances have been on a competitive stage. At a championship, occasionally they'll have high quality swords which have a sharp point. Faster music generally means less advanced dancers. For championships, they play slower music so dancers can show control and elevation.
@ambika69 Why don't you give it a go and see how long you last without hitting the swords with your foot? That's what is challenging about the Highland sword dance, there is a lot of skill involved in dancing inside crossed swords, using the correct positions of the feet, and not touching them.
before you make assumptions about highland dancing and no 'hip movement' as you put it, do a bit of research. The hips are vital in highland dancing for a many things, including a good second position and decent highcuts too; this is harder than it looks, trust me.
Basically it's a celebration dance of victory, and they dance around their sword. I can not stress the word "basically" enough. I'd rather not like to start a knowledge war here.
Asking a perfectly valid question isn't trolling. I asked a valid question that made your comment seem stupid and you couldn't handle it, so you jumped off the deep and and said, "I'm not entitled to an opinion". That's trolling. Nobody said you weren't entitled to an opinion. Just because someone disagrees and has a better founding for their disagreement doesn't mean you can't have an opinion. Hope you learned that in 5 months. :)
@NorseWinter Mr. winter, I understand it takes balance, percision and advanced proprioception to do this dance, but the same is required for ballette and scottish riverdance. For sword dancing, however, you need to take it to a completely different level. Few people these days realize the ammount of skill and control it takes simply to use a sword in combat, or even practice, without being more dangerous to yourself than your opponent, it takes a great deal more to turn that art into a dance.
You are very good. Do you still dance. I have just entered intermediate and im doing ok i practice to your dance videos and see how i can improve. Hope you came in. BTW im Scottish.
:O $1000 for half of a kilt outfit! slightly ridiculous no?! come to scotland btw! i got my full kilt outfit with waistcoat socks and kilt for about £300 first hand which it about $600. anyway you're swords are amazing, wish i could do it like that. its always seemed to be a problem dance for me :) lol xx
I must admit that I'm dissapointed. I am reading 'The Pirate' by sir Walter Scott, and I was curious about his description of this dance; but it's far away from what I understood reading (if you want, you can read it on chapter XV). Anyway, it's interesting on its own. Even it's a bit obvious, but not many types of dances are linked to the melodic line.
@kirkeichler WOW! I'm a contemporary and urban dancer and would never disrespect another dance form by making a ridiculous comment. It may not be for you but that doesn't negate it's contribution and validity to culture and dance. You're entitled to your opinion but maybe you should educate yourself on the topic before doing so! Beautiful job ladies!
Green and gold is either mackenzie or Kaysmith thats my family's colors so that wjat she is werin....red and golds is no clues or just red and greens stil learin
Thats because she/he is ethnically Scottish. If you are a white living in the US, you are definitely not ethnically American. If I were to live in Africa, for me to call myself African and not European would mean that Im black.
@ambika69 Also, this dance is derived from one that used to be performed by Scottish soldiers going into battle hundreds of years ago, it has a long history.
I think it's neat the piper is so loud the audience doesn't need to shut up. How come there aren't any guys? Is this just the womens section of the competition?
Well its not fun, but luckly it was aonly at practice not a preformence. Hey those are the swords with the big handles! When I was a biggener dancer, I landed straight on 1 of the handles and it HURT!!
@ambika69 So what do you think this should be called, if not a sword dance? It is a dance, using swords. Whether or not they are on the ground is irrelevant. You may not like it, but it's been around for hundreds of years, so maybe you should show a bit more respect. And 'riverdancing' is not Scottish. I assume you are referring to Irish step dance, which is something completely different.
Sword dance? The bloody hell? Maybe I'm missing somthing vital here, but how in the bleeding hells was that a sword dance? They never even picked them up! They're just prancing around like idiots.
