THE DANCE OF DEATH 2 💀
- Mathew Birchall
- Sep 11
- 8 min read
After all that lust
I taste your simple touch.
Our nights were all in hers,
dark green the park she danced in
naked with The Dark Man.
She did not take off her clothes
but she was naked as a dance
is naked being nothing but movement.
no way to keep her still,
dark green, lights
of a drum, bright skin
of ordinary songs, naked
the way a dancer always is
because a dance is
nothing but a dream of walking
when the only place to go is music.
The Garden Unsealed (1985)
~ Robert Kelly
Some dances are specifically martial in nature, while others conceal their powerful fighting arts by hiding them in plain sight. You just have to know what you’re looking for.
The following list is hardly comprehensive but I present it to give you an idea of the variety and scope of martial dance.
Ancient Greek Mimetic Pyrrhic Dance: taught how to avoid projectiles (darts) by bending, flying away, stooping and quick motion footing to overcome the enemy.
Scottish Sword Dance: requires skill and agility. Its practice develops balance, stamina and quickness in both foot and hand.
Scottish Dirk Dance: the classic quick ambush weapon of revenge. Some were carried by commandos in WW2. Up until the last fifty years a system was taught in Highland Regiments, derived from Gaelic dagger dances (still performed on the Isle of Man) which encoded martial techniques. It utilises a low guard with lots of defanging the snake cuts to wrists and fingers.
Cossack Combat Hopak: is based on the Hopak folk dance which was based on a military fighting art, so this one kind of went full circle.
Turkish Knife Dance: contains rolls, picks, slash and cover, double knives and range work. They instill a sense of courage.
Kumoan Chholia Dance: use swords to depict rather clearly attack and defence.
Yemen Knife Dance: teaches linear, angular and circular attacks. Even the Florette makes an appearance.
Manipuris Thang Ta: is a sword and spear dance which is actually their art of self defence.
Egyptian Knife Dance: contains many direct attacks, figure eight cutting motions and snap cuts.
The Naga Tribes Sword Dance: known as Ka Shad Mastieh contains duelling techniques.
The Filipino Head Hunters Dance: known as Sayyam contains beheading moves.
Filipino Tinikling Dance is based upon the movements of birds using a three beat. Dancers perform sinawali (hypnotic weaving patterns) creating flow. They learn quick and quiet footwork. This dance was used to conceal the practice and training of escrima from foreign occupiers.
Korean Taekkyon: a folk dance/game which became a martial art. Medieval records mention it was used during street fights. The art uses the whole body in each movement, transferring power from the body to the arms enhancing quick movement strikes, this arm swinging is based on the movements of birds wings. Opponents are caught out with off timing tricks, fake-outs and slide stepping. It was actually banned under the Japanese occupation.
Thai Forn Jerng: a dance and complete martial discipline from the old northern kingdom of Lanna. This art epitomises beauty and strength, it is as much precise and deadly as it is charming and graceful. Dancers navigate space tricking their enemies into revealing weakness such as maneuvering an armed opponent so that they disclose an unprotected part. The handwork invigorates the performer and is the basis of a psychic battle where the mesmerising movements intimidate and distract the opponent, they can also be interwoven with prayers, spells and chanting. Dancers are taught “mae pod” ultimate deadly moves that fit the character of each student. The art improves health, strength, agility and flexibility.
Argentine Malambo: a traditional Gaucho duelist dance dating from the 1600s it utilises various changes and counterpoints with occasional use of a facon pushed in the floor and danced around avoiding cuts and wounds.
Italian Danzadi di Coltello Sicilliano: a knife dance which rallies the spirit. It utilises the stiletto (weapon of the Roman Goddess Laverna). Working within the masada ‘kill zone’ are leap evasions and time advantages. Blade control is done with the fingers rather than the wrist and elbow giving better control and quicker movements. The dance simulates deep thrusts with sharp twists for greater wound damage, similar to the naturally occurring comma cuts of the FMA sumkete sets withdrawing motion which help a blade disengage more reliably.
Italian Ritual Pizzica: a dance of knives which contains secret advanced methods and split coordination.
Italian La Tarantella Dance: thought to be a survival of Dianic or Dionysian (Dionysius is thought to have started out as the Hindu god Shiva ‘Lord of the Dance’) ecstatic dancing, which was given a magico-religious cover as a cure for the venomous bite of the wolf spider. It contains techniques used in clandestine schools – pedagogic secrets, balance, power, strength, instinct, feinting, cunning and deception at short and long ranges. Developed in narrow streets against ambushes and makes good use of Indrago mano or hidden hand reverse grip methods.
Cuban Juego de Mani: this “Game of War” is a type of stomping capoeira which makes use of percussive arm movements. In Colombia this became rumba and was used for street fighting and settling duels. It belonged to a nocturnal world of rum, revenge, knife fights and scar faced gangsters. Police would raid ‘rumbones’ rumba parties which were often tied in to santeria.
Spanish Pasadoble: a choreographed dance from the 1930s where the man emulates a bull fighter, while the woman is his Cape or shadow. It portrays the techniques used in the bullfight such as faena (passes) just before a kill. All the moves are sharp and quick and it takes up a lot of space. Bull fighting skills went on to influence some Mexican knife systems, both contain the mind-set of Querencia, a quiet and calm state which according to matadors is when bulls are at their most dangerous.
Spanish Flamenco: dating from the 15th century. From fleme – a small knife for bleeding horses used by gypsies, criminals, rogues and often favoured by prisoners in Seville jails who whilst singing songs to their loved ones through railings would use them to beat out a rhythm on iron window grates.
The dance is fluid, deliberate, masterful and performed in situ mimicking the Diestro, the Spanish circle of death where a fighter operates. Sevillian blade handling like flamenco is equal parts passion, skill, and strict discipline. In both physical pursuits the movements are more than expert, they are innately natural, even intuitive.
Navajeros (from navaja – the classic knife of the Spanish underworld) have borrowed from flamenco the concept of Duende “Demon” (meaning to move as though possessed). This is an intense emotional experience part ecstasy, part desperation that comes from the blood, it’s a form of involuntary inspiration that takes over the dancer and exalts their dancing to a high art. A navajero using this becomes a lethal display of ability that far exceeds the bounds of mere technique, it becomes a state to strive for. Filipino martial arts also embrace this type of trance to transform fear into supreme confidence which leads to victory, it’s an innate gift which allows us to act without conscious thought, under its influence you move differently and feel the effect right away.
Music is a gentle introduction to the feeling. For example the original 1940s Cuban Mambo was less rigid and more free, dancers described it as ‘feeling the music’, in which sound and movement were merged through the body.
Indonesian Kebangan: the “Flower Dance” of silat created by women but male warriors are encouraged to learn it. This beautiful yet deadly stylised dance may be expressed as a spontaneous formless freestyle, a fixed set or even randomly created with a partner. Nobody guides the dancer, it is totally their own as it takes place on the Raso (feeling) level.
A slow, dignified, fluid dance based on martial movements which are strategically disguised so it appears to hold little or no direct value for actual combat. Its postures are not overly aggressive and are used to confuse and distract opponents leading them into traps, they also play an integral part in helping a performer develop appropriate mind-sets. Movements are light and delicate, the hands are often kept open, performing graceful, intricate mysterious circling patterns through the air as if weaving charms (which are responsive to the drum beat).
Dancers walk softly and skim over the floor often entering a state of trance, allowing them to switch between freezing and sudden explosive movements. Kebangan encompasses weapon techniques with little if any change of form (often favouring straight razors), while its close range applications contain much overkill.
Hawaiian Hula: especially the Hula Ku’i which is a martial dance. As the indigenous Lua martial art was banned its techniques for fighting, massage, and healing were concealed within Hula. The whole dance is a ritualised mnemonic device whose movements serve as a means to learn, teach and preserve this rich tradition.
Brazilian Capoeira: a hybrid African/South American dance which uses a three beat originally from (candombe) drums later replaced by the berimbau and cow bell. This once infamous martial dance was considered a criminal art and was banned under threat of mutilation forcing players to train on deserted beaches and in ruinous old forts. In the 1890s the Sampias Special Police Force trained in it to help them combat criminals on their own ground.
Danced in a Roda (which are surprisingly small and tight) Capoeiristas get to explore their strengths and weaknesses, confronting their lack of knowledge, fears and fatigue in an enjoyable, challenging and constant process of self improvement (“You’re better off being beaten in the Roda than in the street”). It’s also a place where you learn about ‘melicia’ deception, allowing you to survive social ambush by using things as subtle as silent walking and breath control and some not so subtle such as a full on chest bounce out of the blue (it caught me out! Primarily because it was it was done by a woman, they just usually wouldn’t which is why it worked so well).
The key movement here is the ginga (evasion is favoured over blocks and parries) which makes the fighter a highly mobile frustrating target who is difficult to hit as they are kept in constant motion. The ginga prepares the body for other movements such as ‘balanca’ feinting or delivering attacks such as a sweep. The motion continuously rebuilds and stores torque power in a springy fashion just like in the internal arts (they even have the same concept of chi referring to it as ache).
This movements foot placement can vary. Pace steps allow you to cover distance and change direction with great rapidity, while sliding steps are useful for moving quietly, they let you test your footing before you commit your full weight.
The art itself is easy to weaponise (FMAs ‘Marriage of the Blades’ is an obvious application within the ginga movement) and in the past the art incorporated (tethered) knives, razors, machetes, small sickles and sharpened clubs – requiring no training as you simply performed a capoeira technique whilst holding the weapon.
Note : In the past the original martial arts were 90% weapons work, empty hand applications were something you resorted to if weapons were unavailable, many of the above dances are old enough to reflect this statistic. As Confucius once said “Never give a sword to a man who can’t dance.”
Mathew Birchall
*Images sourced from Canva.
**Image from personal collection.
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