Hopak is the dance of the Ukrainian soul. Encyclopedia of Dance: Gopak

Today, deputies passed a bill that recognizes combat hopak as a national sport. Verkhovna Rada Speaker Andrei Parubiy immediately boasted to his parliamentary colleagues that he had been involved in this for many years. “Strana” was looking into what a combat hopak is.

Story

The combat hopak dates back just over 30 years. It was revived on the basis of elements of Cossack combat: it is believed that the traditional martial art of the Zaporozhye Cossacks was lost, and only some elements were preserved in folk dances.

The founder of the combat hopak is Lviv resident, martial arts researcher Vladimir Pilat. He spent 17 years studying various martial arts. Having taken up the study of folk dances, Pilate paid attention to the variety of their movements. He discovered that Ukrainian dances, especially popular among the Cossacks - "hopak" and "metelitsa", include a large number of elements not common among other nations and similar to military equipment - jumping kicks, squats or spiders, various steps, reflections, sweeps, kicks, etc. Later, these movements, transformed with the requirements of modern martial art, formed the basis of the technical arsenal combat hopak.

The first experimental school of combat hopak was founded by Vladimir Pilat in Lviv in 1985. In Kyiv, it began to actively spread in the mid-90s. Now the largest centers of combat hopak are located in Kyiv, Chernivtsi, Ternopil and Lviv. About 7 thousand people in Ukraine are engaged in it.

Structure

The hopak fighting technique combines dance plasticity with hits, blocks, grabs and throws. And also this is work with edged weapons, from a peasant sickle or two to a two-handed sword.

In combat hopak there are 7 levels of military skill. Three student ones - Zhovtyak, Sokol, Yastreb, one intermediate - Jura, and three workshops - Kozak, Kharakternik and Volkhv. Each step has its own coat of arms, as well as a characteristic hairstyle.

Elements

Stretching. To kick two opponents at once or to jump onto a horse from behind. Illustration school.buza.ru

A pike is an ordinary jump over an obstacle, such as a ditch. This move can also be used as a jumping double leg kick.

Sokolik. Avoiding an attack on the legs while swinging the weapon to strike. Illustration school.buza.ru

Goat. An unexpected way to get closer to the enemy with a weapon attack. In this case, a kick could be performed on the opponent’s hands or weapon, or, if successful, then on the head. Illustration school.buza.ru

Gun. A move to knock down an opponent. Illustration school.buza.ru

Earlier, “Country” wrote about the fact that he had been engaged in combat hopak for many years.

Ukrainians always want to be proud of something. Moreover, they are not even proud - they often “puff up”. Although the word “pykha” is translated into Russian as “arrogance”.

Although, as “Antifascist” already wrote, there is no word “proud” in the Ukrainian language. Where a Russian has pride, a Svidomo has “pihatіst”, which is “vanity” in Russian.

But you should be proud. Because how else to exalt a nation? To justify the murder of all sorts of “subhumans” – “separatists”, “vata”, “enemies of Ukraine”? That is why “cyborgs”, “ATO heroes” were invented, as well as fairy tales about the fact that Buddha and Christ had Ukrainian roots, and the ancient Ukrainians founded the entire earthly civilization. And, of course, they are reshaping the history of Ukraine, talking about a state that was not on the world map before the formation of the USSR.

But Ukrainians are somehow violetly proud of ancient Ukrainians, especially since many adequate citizens of Ukraine who have an education and have read smart books understand that this is the most blatant lie that the Ukrainian authorities could come up with. And we need some more real examples. Because you can’t be endlessly proud of just an embroidered shirt and dress up dogs in it.

And so - we found it! And they were immediately canonized - combat hopak officially became a national sport. Previously, the Verkhovna Rada adopted bill No. 5324, which introduces the concept of “national sport” into legislation, and now the Ukrainian parliament has legalized dancing in trousers in the sports arena.

Well, okay, dance has become a martial art, who feels bad about it? Look, Brazil has capoeira, they dance and wave their legs, everyone likes it. But the Brazilians did not call capoeira an ancient martial art; it was originally the dances of slaves who disguised hand-to-hand combat training in their dances. But with the “combat hopak” it is much more difficult.

The author of this style is Vladimir Pilat, who has been developing it since 1985 and even published two books. By the way, he is not only the supreme teacher of combat hopak, but also the president International Federation combat hopak, Ataman General (respectively, Colonel General of the KVU), Chairman of the Holy Council of the Association of Sons and Daughters of the Native Ukrainian National Faith (“RUNVera”).

After this listing of titles, any sane person should understand everything. But this is just the beginning.

Ukrainian historians seriously believe that every movement of the hopak carries encoded information. This style is aimed at reviving the harmonious warrior and is still considered exotic. And after the word “esoteric” it is enough to remember another charlatan style - non-contact combat. Experts have heard about it.

But let's return to the combat hopak.

Let's start with the fact that there is nothing national in this so-called martial art. I confidently say this as a martial arts coach and as a person who has been involved in martial arts for 30 years. Let's look at these "combat elements".

The lower level is rotation (mill, barrel, watermelon) - that is, different kinds undercut.

All this has long been in the arsenal of Chinese Wushu, which is much more ancient than the most ancient Ukrainian. These movements are also found in both Korean and Japanese martial arts, which were almost all borrowed from China.

Next - squats (simple, side, with a hand hit on the floor, on the boot, on the sole), stretching down and to the side, crawler, broom, sweep, lay - the same sweeps and kicks from below from a sitting position. Many of these elements are known in jiu-jitsu, and in sambo, and in any other wrestling, when a wrestler sits up to knock out the opponent’s legs or to make throws that grab his legs.

The upper level is jumping (straddle, ring, hawk, toad, etc.). These are elements of jumping strikes, which in hopak are more similar not to strikes, but to beautiful and high jumps. If martial hopak practitioners showed at least once how with such “gops” they can break boards, tiles or something similar, as Korean athletes of tang-su-do or tae-kwon-do do, then THIS could be considered blows . And so - the masters of “combat hopak” simply stupidly copy the blows of Japanese karate-do - mawashi-geri, Maya-geri, Yoko-geri and others.

By the way, the Supreme Teacher of Combat Gopak himself, Vladimir Pilat, claims that he studied Kyokushin karate for 9 years, in 1977 he successfully passed the exams for 1st dan and received a black belt. He opened his own school of Kyokushin karate called “Tiger School”, and at the same time studies other styles of karate-do, kick boxing, and professional boxing.

Any questions?

You can, of course, argue about the combat hopak, but let's talk about the dance itself. Because the fighting style was created, as it were, on the basis of dance, and this dance was mentioned by Gogol, and the first information about it refers to XVI century. The hopak melody has been used by many composers. Thus, hopak themes are present in “ May night"by Rimsky-Korsakov, "Mazepa" by Tchaikovsky and many other works.

Mentioned - but no one remembers what he looked like.

The first person to describe hopak in detail is considered to be Ukrainian composer Vasyl Verkhovynets (1880-1938), author of the book “The Theory of Ukrainian folk dance" The hopak described by Verkhovinets included jumps, squats and rotations, colloquially called gopki in Ukraine. But he recorded the dances using only a combination of drawings and descriptions in words. But words alone cannot describe the movements in such detail that a dance can be reproduced from such a recording. Movement, like music, requires a kind of recording system. Today there are two such systems that are used for recording modern dance and ballet (Laban. Method, Benegh Method).

But the history of hopak, that is, that so-called “national” Ukrainian dance, actually began with the creation in 1940 of the Ukrainian Song and Dance Ensemble, which was headed from 1955 to 1975 by Pavel Pavlovich Virsky. Even the Ukrainians themselves admit that “it was this choreographer who created an academic folk dance based on classics and traditional folklore, and choreographed that famous hopak, which he still uses to complete his concerts academic ensemble dance of Ukraine named after him."

But the “traditional folklore” was not Ukrainian. After all, Hutsul dances or round dances of Kolomyykas can be considered traditional Ukrainian. As historians write, Ukrainian stage dance Until then, it existed only in the form of insert numbers in performances of the Ukrainian musical and drama theater and isolated Ukrainian operas. And so Virsky created Ukrainian folk dance, as they say, from scratch.

The Pravda newspaper of March 13, 1936 wrote: “I must say frankly that the dancing was the best thing that was shown in the performance. In the fourth act, Hopak “brought literally the entire theater to its feet!”

Dancers flying high into the air with sabers drawn in their hands, breathtaking spins, masterful fencing in dance, rapid jumps and various “squats”, also performed while maintaining technical canons classical choreography(turnout, elongated lift, clear positions of arms and legs, etc.) - shocked not only the ordinary Moscow public, but also K. S. Stanislavsky himself, who enthusiastically appreciated the tour of the Kievites.”

That is, hopak was created precisely by Soviet choreographers in the USSR in the mid-30s of the last century. That is, the national Ukrainian dance, the pride of Ukrainians, was created by the communists who are hated by today’s Ukrainians.

Hopak needs to be decommunized urgently!

But that's not all.

Let me add the last fly in the ointment to the Ukrainian vanity fairy tale. Where do you think the main elements of Ukrainian folk dance were taken from? You'll never guess. From China. More precisely, hopak received its main, so to speak, basic elements from... folk Uyghur dance. The video shows this very clearly at 2.26 minutes.

Uyghur national dance

Uyghurs – Turkic-speaking people, the vast majority of whom live in a region called Xinjiang in the far west of China. But Ukrainian hopak surprisingly resembles Tajik, Turkmen, and Adyghe folk dances. That is, the basis of Ukrainian dance was the dances of the Turkic tribes.

Thus, not only does the so-called “combat hopak” have nothing to do with the national martial art, but is a weak copy of Japanese karate-do, but the “hopak” dance itself is a symbiosis of the national dances of other peoples.

Gopak. History of origin, description, types and features of hopak

After the creation of the USSR, the idea arose to create national species dance. The tasks were carried out by Soviet choreographers strictly according to instructions - most of the effort was devoted to entertainment Georgian Lezginka. The traditions of Russian ballet were creatively reworked by choreographers, mostly Jewish. Love for a special role Georgian people I found my dance expression. But problems arose with the creation of a special Chechen Lezginka or Kabardian Lezginka. More modest funds were allocated.

The people's attitude towards dancing before the advent of television was generally “uncultured” - no one took upon themselves the obligation to limit themselves to a strict set of movements prescribed from above. They selected the movements for themselves, so the Terek Cossacks or Kabardians danced the Lezginka, not paying attention to what was Georgian or purely Dagestan in it. Likewise, the notorious Russian squat did not prohibit dancing without squats, waving your arms in the style of the Georgian Lezginka, or taking elements of the “gypsy girl”, that is, clapping your hands on your ankles and jumping. In addition, in many places they danced to different tunes and did different movements depending on the music. There was no strict unification of dance styles based on nationality; there was something else - a difference in dance styles depending on the melodies. Lezginka different peoples danced in a similar way because the melodies set a similar rhythm and mood. For the same reason, there was often no fundamental difference between Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian dance. The Moldavian ones differed due to traditions, but they often danced to the violin, and as a result they had a different rhythm and mood. However, here too the similarity of music and style, for example, between the Bukovinian Slavs and the Moldovans, indicated that the people did not really adhere to the principle - this movement is Slavic, and that movement is Moldavian.

Mighty Soviet choreography, supported by all the power of the traditions of Russian ballet, made it possible to create a whole system of dances. Moreover, the principle of the socialist hierarchy of cultures, where Russian national culture with its squalor and colorlessness it was supposed to emphasize the colorfulness and originality of other cultures, and demanded that Ukrainian dances be obviously more colorful than Russian ones. Therefore, they introduced into the hopak acrobatic elements. Later, the Americans, without any reference to authorship or copyright, used these elements of the Soviet remake to create breakdancing - national dance blacks, which the blacks did not want and did not want to invent until the moment this dance was invented for them. The essence of breakdancing is simple - to emphasize the physical superiority of blacks. Hopak pursued a similar goal - to emphasize the special strength and acrobatics of Ukrainians compared to other nations. True, hopak in ideal performance required advanced gymnasts, but breakdancing turned out to be even cooler. For high-quality breakdancing performance, it is advisable to have at least the level of a candidate master in gymnastics and the appropriate condition - short stature, the ability to calmly do the splits, have excellent acrobatics skills. However, even hopak in at its best was never available to the simple peasant. And a Cossack warrior, when performing a hopak in the style of Alexandrov’s ensemble, would be hindered by a large muscle mass And a big increase. No wonder good gymnasts and acrobats are mostly short.

Naturally, good gymnastic and acrobatic training is easily used in martial arts. Martial arts initially always included preparation in the form of acrobatic exercises, stretching, bridges, etc. The exercises, among other things, improve coordination and speed of movement. However, only an idiot who knew nothing about the history of Russian ballet, the logic of the Soviet, “national” remake, or the history of the Cossacks could invent a combat hopak.

If you open the first page of Gogol's story Taras Bulba, you will immediately come across a description of a training, fist fight. Blows are delivered to the body; blows to the head and neck are prohibited. If we add here the right to kick, we get classic version Japanese karate. Please train, practice your strikes and defense. The test with blows to the head will be during a fist fight on a holiday. The Russians had all this, the Ukrainians had it, and a lot of other peoples had it. In the time of Taras Bulba, no one would have thought of doing “combat” hopak. They put on armor, picked up wooden sabers and chopped. Then the nobility came up with special rapiers with a safe tip, and before that, from Rome to Japan they used wooden weapons that were unable to damage armor, in addition, they were often covered with leather for softness. This type of sport and military training existed until the beginning of the 20th century. For example, Chekhov first met Gilyarovsky in the gym, where Gilyarovsky was practicing fighting on espadrons (sabers) with a partner. True, sports armor was already used. And now there is a sports fight with sabers. Previously, armor was heavier; it protected trainees even more reliably. They trained in saber fighting in the same way, sitting on horses.

Another thing is that firearms rendered the armor useless. Therefore, by the end of the 19th century, armor was not preserved in every Cossack family and not in every noble family. Many simply did not have the opportunity to train normally. Therefore, more often than not, family legends have preserved other methods of training necessary for the transition from a conventional battle with an enemy to a real one, when force is put into the blow in a slightly different way. This is cutting a vine at a gallop, practicing hitting a trickle of water. But before, the main way of training was to fight in armor. In the same way, the art of rotating a saber was exclusively an auxiliary way of training the muscles of the hand. Nothing could ever replace real sparring.

By the way, the notorious slaps as a symbol of a special Slavic martial art are also nonsense. Yes, you can knock out an opponent with a slap, but the logic of the fight that we see in Gogol shows that, most likely, touching with the fingers as in a slap or slap, and not touching with the heel of the palm, was used to imitate blows to the head - with fingers to knock out or You can’t deliver a knockdown, but if you hit it with your fingers, it means you could hit it with your fist. And if there are helmets, using a slap to practice blows is completely logical. We must not forget that training is aimed at developing skills, and is not intended to cripple an opponent.

Combat hopak is a typical example of nonsense that arises in the minds under the influence of a Soviet remake. A real Cossack or nobleman, who trained and regularly sparred with sabers since childhood, would simply hack to death any specialist in combat hopak. And they weren’t the ones who were killed. For example, we hear a lot about ninjas. Yes, they could do a lot - sneaking, eavesdropping. But in the vast majority of cases, the battle between a ninja and a samurai ended in favor of the samurai. Samurai were taller and more massive, they could not hang on their fingertips for so long and crawl along the walls, but they were excellent with swords and were prepared to repel any attack. Zipper with a sword and no ninja. By the way, in the West, nobles prepared against various surprises - attacks with a club, kicks, etc. Good command of a sword made it possible to deal with any peasant who imagined himself invincible due to success in a fight with clubs or the ability to kick.

The Soviet remake is a terrible phenomenon. It would seem that in the context of the struggle for the nationality, it’s time to throw away the remake, but no, the remake turns out to be stronger. Moreover, the remake turns out to be especially convenient for fools. Create, invent, try. Russian ballet, in principle, made it possible to imitate anything - saber fighting, circus acrobatics, dance of little swans, tug of war. Ukrainian hopak was created so that the Ukrainian man in the street would look at the stage and admire - oh, how cultured and cool we are. But dance is not martial arts. And, in general, if the task was to create a Chukotka hopak that was more beautiful than the Ukrainian one, they would have created it. And they would create a combat Chukchi hopak. By the way, it’s time to deal with Western nationalism - where it was most composed, in Lvov, in the West or in Moscow.

Gopak is a dance of Ukrainian Cossacks that originated in southern Ukraine and Russia in Ukrainian military communities in the 1600s. The Cossacks celebrated their return from battle with victory through a similar impromptu dance. The musicians collected their instruments: violins, bagpipes and flutes and pipes, and joined the dancers in a festive performance called hopak.

In the 16th century, Ukraine experienced a long period of struggle for independence, mainly against Ottoman Empire(1657-1709) and the Russian Empire (1686-1709). At this time, the Cossacks in the area called "Sich" introduced unusual tradition celebrating their victories upon returning home. As a celebration, these ordinary warriors began to dance, reenacting their battle scenes so that everyone could see what they had experienced. They performed dance pantomimes of sorts using their swords and other weapons, and local musicians joined them in dancing. The men then began to improvise, performing acrobatics in the air, as well as other specific movements such as squats, to prove their masculinity and heroism. This style of dance movements gave the name hopak - because Ukrainian word"gopati", that is, "jump".

Since the dance was pure improvisation, the Cossacks could change its tempo at any time. The tempo of the musicians was based on the choice of the dancers, because dancing allowed them to express their individuality. Although the music did not have a specific tempo or melody, time signature The hopaka was usually 2/4. The music generally increased in tempo from quite calm at the beginning to almost furious towards the end of the dance. The kobzar, a Ukrainian folk singer-storyteller, usually also accompanied the dance. Classic instruments, which were used for the musical accompaniment of the hopak - violin, bagpipes, flute, trumpet, and dulcimer. Over time, hopak music developed and began to be included in operas and ballets. So, one of the most bright examples The opera "Mazeppa" written by Tchaikovsky performs.

Dance has also evolved throughout history. What began as exclusively a dance of warriors in the Sich, over time grew into a festive event for everyone else. Although men still played a leading role in the dance, when the dance began to spread to the surrounding villages, boys, girls, and women soon began to take part in it. This mixed version of hopak became ubiquitous when the Sich was destroyed at the end of the 18th century.

The overall structure of the dance evolved, including by allowing more dancers to participate. Most likely, Ukraine. Today, hopak has changed its appearance to suit a more modern perception of dance. Now it is not only pure solo improvisation. Most dances are performed in unison by a group of men and women. The acrobatic aspect of the hopak is performed mainly by male soloists.

IN modern history the revival of hopak is associated with the activities of P. P. Virsky, who created the folk dance ensemble of the Ukrainian SSR in 1937 and was there from 1955 to 1975 artistic director State Ensemble folk dance of the Ukrainian SSR. Based on classics and traditional folklore, he staged, which became academic, the hopak with which the Academic Dance Ensemble of Ukraine named after him still ends concerts.

Stage costumes

Used for hopak men's suits(red trousers, colored belt, embroidered shirt, pointed boots) are essentially the Cossack uniform of that time. The participation of women in hopak arose only in its stage version. Their costumes are usually historical costumes of the central part of Ukraine (embroidered shirt, reserve or plakhta, kirset, pointed red boots, wreath with ribbons).

Features of the dance

A characteristic feature is the demonstration of strength, dexterity, heroism and nobility. Improvisational type dance. Moving in pairs in a circle, the guys compete in dexterity. The girls encourage them to try new tricks, and then dance the lyrical part. In the finale, the hopak is again stormy, sparkling and temperamental. TO specific features Hopak should include a split in a jump (“split”), when the legs and arms are spread in different directions. There is also a “slider” figure, when the dancer leans on his hands from behind in a squat and throws his legs forward, moving around the stage.

Hopak on stage

In operas

• "May Night" by Rimsky-Korsakov
• "Sorochinskaya Fair" by Mussorgsky
• "Mazeppa" by Tchaikovsky
• “Cossack beyond the Danube (opera)” by Gulak-Artemovsky
• "Aeneid" Lysenko

• “The Little Humpbacked Horse” by Puni
• "Taras Bulba" by Solovyov-Sedoy
• "Gayane" by Khachaturian
• “Marusya Boguslavka” by Svechnikov

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Excerpt characterizing Gopak

Prince Andrei arrived at the army headquarters at the end of June. The troops of the first army, the one with which the sovereign was located, were located in a fortified camp near Drissa; the troops of the second army retreated, trying to link up with the first army, from which they were said to have been cut off large forces French. Everyone was dissatisfied with the general course of military affairs in the Russian army; but no one thought about the danger of an invasion of the Russian provinces, no one imagined that the war could be transferred further than the western Polish provinces.
Prince Andrei found Barclay de Tolly, to whom he was assigned, on the banks of the Drissa. Since there was not a single large village or town in the vicinity of the camp, everything great amount generals and courtiers who were with the army were located in a circle of ten miles along the best houses villages on this side and on the other side of the river. Barclay de Tolly stood four miles from the sovereign. He received Bolkonsky dryly and coldly and said in his German accent that he would report him to the sovereign to determine his appointment, and in the meantime he asked him to be at his headquarters. Anatoly Kuragin, whom Prince Andrei hoped to find in the army, was not here: he was in St. Petersburg, and this news was pleasant for Bolkonsky. Prince Andrei was interested in the center of the huge war taking place, and he was glad to be free for a while from the irritation that the thought of Kuragin produced in him. During the first four days, during which he was not required anywhere, Prince Andrey traveled around the entire fortified camp and, with the help of his knowledge and conversations with knowledgeable people, tried to form a definite concept about him. But the question of whether this camp was profitable or unprofitable remained unresolved for Prince Andrei. He had already managed to derive from his military experience the conviction that in military affairs the most thoughtfully thought-out plans mean nothing (as he saw it in the Austerlitz campaign), that everything depends on how one responds to unexpected and unforeseen actions of the enemy, that everything depends on how and by whom the whole business is conducted. In order to clarify this last question, Prince Andrei, taking advantage of his position and acquaintances, tried to understand the nature of the administration of the army, the persons and parties participating in it, and derived for himself the following concept of the state of affairs.