Sword dances are recorded from throughout world history. There are various traditions of solo and mock battle (Pyrrhic) sword dances from Greece, to the Middle East, while all known linked ("hilt-and-point") sword dances are from Europe.
General sword dance forms include:
solo dancers around swords – such as the traditional Scottish sword dances. This general form also encompasses non-sword dances such as the bacca pipes jig in Cotswold morris dance,
mock battle dances, including many stick dances from non-sword traditions, and such common continental dances as Buffins or Matachin
hilt-and-point sword dances – where the dancers are linked together by their swords in a chain. These form the basis for rapper sword and long sword forms,
Mock battle
Mock battle sword dances are found worldwide, varying from the Greek Xiphism, the Saltatio Armatum of the ancient Romans, through Turkish, Persian and Middle Eastern traditions. Some European sword dances, such as the dance from the island of Korcula in Croatia, include both hilt-and-point and mock battle sequences.
Linked
Hilt-and-point sword dances are, or were, performed all over Europe. These are particularly concentrated in an area corresponding to the boundaries of the Holy Roman Empire at around 1400-1500, and many of these traditional dances are still performed in Germany, Austria and the Flanders. Linked sword dances were also found all over the Iberian Peninsula, and are still widely performed in the Basque Country.
Sword dances performed by the guilds of Smiths and Cutlers in Nuremberg are recorded from 1350. 16th century records of sword dances survive from all over Germany. Depictions of dances survive from Zürich (1578) and Nuremberg (1600)
Hilt-and-point sword dances traditional to England include rapper sword and long sword, although both of these are now also performed by revival teams outside their traditional areas, including teams in most of the English-speaking world. English sword dancing has also been brought to the New World, initially as part of the "morris revival" of the 1970s and 1980s. Teams are now extant in most major metropolitan areas in North America. The New York Sword Ale is an annual gathering over Presidents' Day weekend that brings together over a dozen sword teams form the east coast and around the world.
The Pyrrhic dance was introduced into Rome by Julius Cæsar, who added it to the public games, and caused it to be performed by children. It was very popular among the Romans, and exhibitions of it were frequently given by the Emperors Nero, Caligula, and Adrian. According to Athenæus, the Pyrrhic dance was performed in his day in Sparta, by boys of fifteen. This was in the third century. A martial dance, much of the character of the Pyrrhic, is said to be practised in the present day in Albania, and also in the Island of Candia.
Albanian Dance is usually danced by the Albanians in full armour, and is supposed to be the ancient Pyrrhic dance. Wilder groups amuse themselves in the Pyrrhic dance of the Spacchiotes, danced in short kirtles, long boots, with a quiver of arrows and bent bow; the Klepht and Albanian dances, where a long chain of dancers is led by a coryphæeus. He nods his head or waves a handkerchief, to mark the time.
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Newcastle Kingsmen (England)
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Handsworth Sword Dancers (England)
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St Martin in Sulmtal (Austria)
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Kemen Dantza Taldea (Basque Country)
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St Martin in Sulmtal (Austria)
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Flamborough Sword Dancers (England)
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Markina Sword Dancers (Basque Country)
Albanian Sword Dance
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video:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9aZb_1cvxgo
Pyrrhic Sword Dance
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