Russian squat dance. Buza - Russian martial dances

Russian dance, as a type of Russian traditional art, has its own centuries-old history. Even in the pre-Christian period, in the 5th-7th centuries, the character of the dance was imprinted religious ideas. "Cyrillic" tells about 7 Russian folk dances.

1. TREPACK

Trepak - old Russian folk dance. Performed in fast pace, bipartite size. The main movements are fractional steps and stamping. The movements were composed by the performer on the fly. Its properties have much in common with “Kamarinskaya” and “Barynya”: either a single male dance or a re-dance. But, unlike them, the trepak did not have its generally accepted tune.

2. DANCING WITH THE BEAR


The first official mention of the Russian folk dance with a bear dates back to 907, when Prince Prophetic Oleg celebrated his victory over the Greeks in Kyiv. At the gala reception, 16 dancers dressed as bears and four bears dressed as dancers performed for the guests. After the end of dinner, according to the order of the prince, the bears were ordered to be released on all four sides, and the dancers were executed. As it turned out later, the blind Prince Oleg mistook the dancers for ambassadors of the Northerners, who owed him several hundred marten skins.

3. SQUTT


The history of this dance begins in 1113 in Kyiv, when he died Grand Duke Svyatopolk. At that time there lived a bricklayer Petro Prisyadka. He worked a lot while squatting with heavy stones and tools in his calloused hands. Every evening after his feat of labor, he went out to Khreshchatyk and, having accepted a ladle of wine and a roll of bread, began jumping up and down, stretching his legs that had become stiff during the day. Vladimir Monomakh, invited by the people of Kiev to the kingdom, was passing through the city in the evening with his retinue. He immediately noticed the strange dance and pointed out to Metropolitan Nikifor the dancing young man. Within a few days, Petro danced for the Grand Duke of All Rus' at every breakfast, lunch and dinner. Dancing like Prisyadka or Pod-Psyadka soon became fashionable in wealthy Kyiv. Fat buffoons lost weight and learned to dance the “B-Squat,” breaking their crooked legs on the nasty medieval sidewalks.

4. ROUND DANCE


A popular Russian dance is a round dance - a dance in a circle. In ancient times, the circle in a round dance symbolized the Sun - the god Yarilo. It was believed that such movements in a circle while singing songs would appease the Sun God and bring good harvests. Today it's only historical fact religion of paganism of the ancient Slavs, which no longer carries its semantic load in the performance of round (circular) dances.

5. RUSSIAN DANCE


Russian dance is a type of Russian folk dance. Russian dances include improvised dances (re-dance, mistress, etc.) and dances that have a certain sequence of figures (quadrille, lance, etc.). In each region, these dances vary in character and manner of performance and usually have their own name, derived from the name of the area or dance song. Russian dances are slow and fast, with a gradual acceleration of the tempo.

6. DANCES-IMPROVIZATIONS


Improvisation dances and competition dances were very popular among the people. In them, the dancers were not constrained by a specific composition. Each performer is given the opportunity to express himself and show what he is capable of. Such dances are always unexpected for the audience, and sometimes even for the performers themselves. Boys and girls “learn” improvisational dances from an early age. The dancer does not want to repeat himself, to do the same thing that others do - hence the wide variety of original Russian dances.

7. PLAY DANCES


A special place belongs to dances in which the observation of the people is manifested: either about natural phenomena (“blizzard”, “blizzard”), or about any animals or birds (“Bull”, “Twitch”, “Bear”). These dances can be called play dances or game dances, since the playful principle is very clearly expressed in them. In his movements, the dancer does not simply imitate the habits of animals or birds, but tries to give them human character traits. It is very important that all components are subordinated to the creation of the dance image: movements and drawings, that is, choreographic figurative plasticity, music, costume, color. Wherein means of expression dances do not exist on their own, but as figurative expression thoughts. The completeness of all this is achieved by the synthesis of all components.

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Folk dance is one of the oldest species folk art. It expresses the style and manner of performance of each people and is inextricably linked with other types of art and with magic, including military magic.

Over time, a person began to reproduce certain sequential movements, which he defined for himself with the word “dance,” to some source of rhythm. In most Indo-European languages, this word is pronounced consonantly, which once again proves that once this ancient community of people had one language for communication and common ideas about the universe. Subsequently, ideas about the surrounding world resulted in ritual dances designed to influence nature.

Throughout the centuries-old history of its development, Russian folk dance has always been closely connected with the life and customs of Russian people (birth, wedding, etc.), with the working agricultural year (sowing, harvesting, etc.), with the military component of life .

In ancient times, dancing was part of the obligatory circle of rites of Ancestral Knowledge and existed among all Aryan peoples, including the Slavs. Numerous vivid examples confirmed the sacred nature of martial dances. Myths claim that such dances were previously performed by gods and spirits, and were later transmitted to the human world as symbols of the presence of a deity in the world. These ritual dances acted as connecting elements between Heaven and man, and the performers identified themselves with the warrior gods.

Singing, music and dancing by A.N. Afanasyev considers them to be necessary elements of ancient holidays and rituals, and explains the eroticism of pagan dances with the symbolism of fertility. The ritual meaning of ancient Slavic dances reflects the essence of the structure of the Universe and changes in Nature in the worldview of the ancient Slavs. In dance movements you can find many secret knowledge. Dancing conveyed mythological knowledge to people and was not limited only to sexual attraction and aesthetic pleasure.

An ancient feature of Slavic dance was the circular dance: round dance in Rus'; kolo, korogod - in Ukraine, Poland and Belarus, hormos - in Macedonia, Western Bulgaria and some other southern Slavic lands. The Russian round dance expresses the essence of the world's circular movement.

Smooth ritual dance with accelerations and deflations long sleeves also has a generic meaning and dates back to ancient magical times. She reached us well famous fairy tale about the Frog Princess, where the princess acts as the wife of Ivan Tsarevich and turns into a snake, a white swan, a cuckoo, or the beautiful Vasilisa the Wise. “A festive feast at the king’s place. Vasilisa hides the bones of the eaten swans in her sleeves and pours some of the wine poured into her sleeves. It's time to dance; the king sends big daughters-in-law (wives of senior princes), and they refer to the frog. She immediately picked up Ivan Tsarevich and went. She danced and danced, spun and spun - everyone was amazed! Waved right hand- forests and waters became; waved her left hand - different birds began to fly..." Waving her sleeves, scattering the swan bones placed there and splashing wine is a ritual act, and the unusual dance of the enchantress is a dance, apparently, in honor of the god of vegetation Pereplut and the mermaids who irrigate this vegetation.

During the dances, it was common to drink a special drink, which was also part of complex ritual actions. Often those dancing furiously, having given all their strength to the ritual, fell unconscious, and they were soldered with water and an infusion of various herbs.

Byzantine historian 9th century. Leo the Deacon in “History,” describing the campaigns of Prince Svyatoslav, called the pagan warriors the children of Satan, who learned the art of war through dancing. A traveler who later arrived from France and accidentally ended up in the Zaporozhye Sich was surprised by this fact: the Cossacks could dance the hopak all day long and train to their own singing.

IN Cossack troops dance lived everywhere, harmoniously intertwined with Cossack life, vigorously manifesting itself on village and military holidays. Any movement performed with skill is applicable in martial art. Squat dancing, while not being a martial art, can be based on the same principles as Cossack military practice: a sharp change in the level of attack, squats (or falls) followed by jumping or rolling. For example, in the battle of Iasi in 1577, the Cossacks completely disoriented the Turkish riflemen for some time in this way. During battles, cutters with weapons danced in front of the ranks of their comrades. They went into battle with music and dancing.

This is how N.V. describes the revelry and dancing in the Zaporozhye Sich. Gogol: “Their way was again blocked by a whole crowd of musicians, in the middle of which a young Cossack was dancing, with his hat thrown back like a devil and his arms thrown up. He only shouted: “Play more lively, musicians! Do not be sorry, Thomas, burners for Orthodox Christians!” And Foma, with a black eye, handed out a huge mug to each person who pestered him. Near the young Zaporozhian, four old ones were working rather shallowly with their feet, throwing themselves up like a whirlwind to the side, almost on the heads of the musicians, and suddenly, dropping down, they squatted and beat the hard ground with their silver horseshoes steeply and firmly. The earth hummed dully throughout the entire area, and the hopaks and tropaks, knocked out by the ringing horseshoes of boots, echoed in the air far away.”

It is quite possible that such dances served as the first system for accumulating military knowledge (at that time, traditions of writing any knowledge had not yet been formed). Training was carried out either verbally or in the form of demonstration of movements.

Joint dance, simultaneity, tact - the conditions for uniting people into a single organism. The philosopher Ribot said the following about this: “Dancing brings social benefits; it promotes coordination of movement, unanimity. It gives unity to a given group of people, as well as the consciousness of this latter and his visual perception. It serves as discipline, preparation for a general attack or general defense, a kind of military school. This explains important role tact. Kaffirs sing and dance in large groups so consistently and evenly that they give the impression of a huge machine in motion. For many tribes, the rhythm must be impeccable and any violation of it is punishable by death.”

The purpose of the movements in the combat dance was both directly applied and conditionally combative, developing dexterity and coordination. Since the martial dance was an information carrier martial art and a way of training applied movements, it goes without saying that it became most widespread among warriors: Cossacks, soldiers, sailors, officers; it was very popular in the artels of fist fighters.

1. “Zhivchiki” - quick in movements and decisions.

2. “Calm” - slow, patient, hardy, persistent, taking a long time to “heat up” and take a long time to “cool down”.

We can also identify the most harmonious fighters who combine the features of the previous types. Remember, like Bismarck: “The Russians harness for a long time, but travel quickly.”

With sufficient assumption, it can be argued that the first type is more typical for southern population Russia, the second - for the peasant class of the northern and eastern regions, the third - for the central regions and the Russian army as a whole.

These combat systems each had their own specialized war dance. The squat dance is the sum of the fighting movements of the “zhivikov” used in the dance. For those who are hardy and patient, slow dances with “breaking” that turn into wrestling are more typical. For the “universal” the dance was similar to the northwestern bouza with all its variants of slow “breaking” and plastic “explosions” of movements. In these dances, elements of squatting were also often used, but only occasionally, as decoration.

Crouching fighting methods were widespread among horsemen and were especially widely used by infantrymen in clashes with cavalry. The squat fight included somersaults, sliders (moving on squatting and all fours), jumping and cartwheels. The Cossacks used various techniques combat dance, knowing that one is better suited to the combat of a horseman, and the other to the needs of a reconnaissance infantryman.

Since ancient times, Russian folk dance has been characterized by percussive sound accompaniment: a tambourine, a rattle, a snaffle, a mallet, a ruble, spoons and various kinds of handclaps, called by chroniclers “beating in the doloni” (palms). “He doesn’t sing, he whistles like that, he doesn’t dance, he slams like that,” says the popular saying. In addition to clapping your hands, in Russian dance there were also various strikes with the palms on the body, thigh, boot top, etc. In the old days this was called "splashing". Over time, hand clapping, combined with “splashing,” reached a virtuosic character and turned into an essential part of the dance itself, mainly for men, and received the name “clapper.” When performing clappers, both the blow and the clap must be strong and clear, while the palm becomes strong and tense. With a little imagination, you can understand that these “crackers” are very useful for a fist fighter to deliver “slaps” and counter kicks.

From single, double and triple claps and blows, virtuoso clapper combinations are subsequently composed, and entire dances are built, such as, for example, the ancient Russian men's dance “Pleskachi” or “Pleskach”.

The purpose of the movements in the combat dance was both directly applied and conditionally combative, developing dexterity and coordination.

To perform complex dance movements, dexterity and the ability to control one's body movements were required. This complexity of men's dances was a necessary condition in self-improvement and development of dexterity for fighters, previously all adult men possessed this skill to one degree or another.

To this day, one can discern features of ritual dance in the techniques of fist fighting. In the Pskov region, the martial dance is called “skobar” or “lomanie” - “to break the merry one.” A similar dance is found throughout the territory where the Krivichi, a union of East Slavic tribes, once lived. “Merry is being broken” to the accordion playing. Before the “breaking” began, the dancer shook his head and could ruffle his hair. These actions, certain exclamations (whooping), and stomping are considered elements of ancient folk magic. It was as if a person was leaving the usual everyday space, moving to another layer of existence, where the attitude towards victory, defeat, life or death was different. Gradually the dancer enters a certain mental condition“crazy”, and “breaking” turns into a ritual or free battle against one or more opponents.

Ritual fights took place according to various agreements, for example, until the first blood or until the first fall. The fight could be stopped by an accordion player (in older times - a guslar) by stopping playing.

“Breaking” includes: dancing and stamping, shoulder behavior, jumping, swinging arms, hitting the ground (with a cane or stick, fists, feet), etc. - all these actions were designed to provide warm-up, external relaxation and internal composure of the body before the fight . The musical and poetic form is also especially important - the leading role of the instrumental tune, and a special one: “Humpbacked”, “For the zest”, and ditties - refrains of a mockingly defiant nature.

Previously, dancing competitions were widely held. This happened more often at fairs. They “argued” and placed bets on the dancers. The winner received good prize in the form of a gift, wine or money. The production was divided among the entire artel.

Usually the competitions took place in the form of pair and single dances in the form of a re-dance. While dancing, one of the dancers showed some movement or sequence, the opponent had to repeat them exactly, then showed his own. Sometimes the re-dance had different rules; the competitors alternately showed their movements, but it was forbidden to repeat the previous ones. The loser was the one who ran out of dance tricks.

As evidenced by the researcher of the military traditions of Rus' G.N. Bazlov: “Martial dances served as a non-written way of transmitting applied information. Selected by the ethnic group over the centuries, the movements most convenient for combat were transmitted plastically, along with the method of breathing and sound production, against the background of a special psychophysical state. Most elements of the combat dance have an applied combat meaning. Their thoughtless repetition leads to an inevitable distortion of the dance archetype, plasticity and meaning of the dance.”

S. G. Maksimov. Russian military traditions

1. Chewy, lively grunts.
2. Born for good, patient, long to “heat up” and long to “cool down.”

For each of these characters, tradition recommended a special combat system. Chewing explosive, amplitude and energy-intensive. Kind, economical and uncompromising. However, often fighters studied both techniques, knowing that one was better suited to the combat of the cavalry, and the other to the needs of the reconnaissance infantryman.

These combat systems each had their own specialized combat dance. We do not know the ancient reliable names of these dances; they have changed. It is well known that the dance that is now called hopak was called Cossack in the time of N.V. Gogol, and the current Cossack has almost nothing to do with our topic. The same dance in the north-west in the 19th century was called “lunyok”. The name of the dances was often transformed depending on the dance tunes that were popular at that time. The name of the music became the name of the dance. However, all of these dances had movements with the same definition of "squat". This is the sum of the fighting movements of chewing fighters used in dance. All these dances could be danced in a squat without it.

For those “born for good,” the dance was similar to the northwestern buzz with all its variants of “breaking.” In this dance, elements of squatting were also often used, but only occasionally, as a decoration.

Here we will talk about the battle dance IN THE SQUT.

This dance was widespread throughout Rus'. IN early middle ages total number Eastern Slavs did not exceed a million, the language was practically uniform, communication within the military class was close. The Slavic clan grew, its numbers increased, features appeared in language and culture, variability appeared in methods of combat, and the previously uniform martial dances changed.

The root, the archetype of the squat dance, is the same for all Eastern Slavs. A number of differences in music and dynamics do not change the original meaning and appearance of the ancient Russian battle dance. Ethnologists and folklorists are well aware of the rule: “The presence of many variants of the same ritual or text speaks of antiquity. Lack of options, about the “remake”.

Belarusians dance in a squat position in the Trepak dance.

Ukrainians in hopak, cossack and shingle.

Russians:

1. Lunyok, has not reached our time.
2. Buza, sit down only occasionally.
3. Russian, danced alone and with a couple, there are dance variants where there is little squatting.
4. A lady is dancing with a girl, whom another dancer is trying to beat off. There is an option without a squat.
5. Apple, naval dance, a late version of the East Slavic squat dance. Dances alone in a circle and together with an opponent.

Initially, the squatting technique existed in two forms:

1. As a way of fighting.
2. Like a war dance.

Crouching fighting methods were widespread among horsemen and were used by infantrymen in clashes with cavalry. It happened that during the battle, the speed of the cavalry attack was lost. Riders who suddenly ran into a barrier, a camouflaged convoy, or a ditch with stakes could face a stronger enemy, losing initiative and speed. During this phase of the battle, riders often lost their horses. When a warrior flew out of the saddle or found himself on the ground with a dead horse, it was necessary to continue fighting and regain the initiative. The infantry, on the contrary, tried to “hurry” the enemy and take possession of his horse. This is where crouch fighting skills were needed. The infantryman against the rider used, for example, such squat knees.

In the “slider”, “in single file” he rode under the belly of the enemy horse with a saber on his shoulder. When he found himself under the belly, he pressed the handle of the saber and raised it higher in order to trim the horse’s “little veins,” the groin. The horse fell, dragging the rider along with it.

He cut down the horse's front legs with a saber or with a blow of his hand or foot. The horse stumbled and fell over its head, crushing its rider.

With a foot or fist, they struck the enemy’s horse on the head. They hit the place between the horse's eyes and ears. The horse fell stunned.

If possible, they tried not to cripple the enemy horse, it was worth big money and was considered a rich trophy. In these cases, the rider was attacked. To do this, the gopkorez1 tried to strike the rider with his weapon and yank the enemy from the saddle. Here is how the epic tells about this technique: “Tugarin knocked Alyosha off the saddle like a sheaf of oats, but Alyosha dodged under the horse’s belly and hit Tugarin from the other side with a damask knife under the right sinus. He tore open his white breasts, and the ghost was gone.”2

If an infantryman was unarmed (and in this situation a cavalryman could also find himself in a situation where he had lost his horse in battle and lost his harness), then he jumped on the enemy, simultaneously grabbing his armed hand and hanging on the side of the enemy horse, clasping it with his legs. The horse fell, the attacker tried not to get under the body of the falling horse. Jumping on the rider was also used, while simultaneously knocking the enemy out of the saddle. Sometimes they jumped, leaning on a pike or fighting stick.

An evasion from an attacking cavalryman, intending to thrust with a pike or deliver a slashing blow, often began with a trick: the footman would squat down, as if allowing him to take aim, and then move away with a slider or jump to the side, scaring the horse, as if throwing himself at his feet. Horses try not to step on a fallen or sitting person, this is their instinct. War horses were specially trained to hit the enemy with their hooves, bite him, and knock down infantry with a body blow. Such a horse, which had undergone special combat training, was especially dangerous and was incredibly highly valued.

Crouching combat included four main levels.

1. Somersaults.
2. Sliders (movements on squatting and all fours)
3. Strikes and movements while standing.
4. Jumps and cartwheels.

Somersaults were used mainly as tactical movements and as methods of self-insurance when falling.

Sliders, it's special kind movement on the lower level from which you can strike and jump. Attacks with weapons were intensified by strikes and sweeps performed by legs. Hands placed on the ground provided additional support; you could hold a weapon in them and pick it up from the ground.

While standing, blows were delivered mainly with the legs, since the hands were occupied with cold or firearms(he was, of course, also allowed entry). This is why in squat dancing more attention is paid to footwork.

Squatting movements, changing combat levels, going down and jumping complement the technique of working “in growth”. When jumping, they mainly kicked and used melee weapons. They attacked the rider, jumped on the horse and jumped to the ground. Once on a horse, the gopkorez knew how to run along the backs of the horses, delivering saber blows, shot from behind the horse and from under its belly, knew how to horseback (vault) and flank (rotate the weapon with attack and defense of the flanks).

We will not consider the horse riding (vaulting) section; it was separated into a separate discipline “horse riding”. These exercises were trained both on horseback and as gymnastic exercises with an “artificial horse” (similar exercises still exist today in the practice of gymnasts). We started talking about horse riding because previously it was a natural and necessary section of the combat science of horsemen and was an organic continuation of the squat fighting technique. In ancient combat clashes, the fighter was required to be able to fight both on horseback and under horseback.

In foot battles, fighting in a crouch was relevant for a warrior who had fallen to the ground, found himself alone against many opponents, in cramped conditions or in the dark. IN street fights on compacted snow, fighters often slip and find themselves at the level of the “slider”, from where it is convenient to hit and especially trip an enemy standing on the slippery one. This style of fighting required good physical training and was very energy-intensive, which is why it was used as a tactical element of combat, alternating with economical equipment, now well known from modern (not fictional) systems of Russian wrestling.

The men developed the necessary motor skills specific to this style of fighting, especially endurance and fitness, by constantly practicing in dancing and fighting competitions.

In the north-west of Russia, the squat dance has been preserved in the form of variants of the Russian dance, both alone and in pairs with an opponent. The lady was dancing with a woman, when the same knees had to be knocked out around the partner, not allowing the rival dancer to approach her. He, in turn, tried to fight off the dancer, wipe off his opponent with a skillful movement and continue the dance himself. This option was very difficult, requiring high control over complex combat movements. It was considered unacceptable not only to touch a partner with a blow, but even to frighten her with a dangerous movement.

Video: Buza - Russian hand-to-hand combat

In the Vologda region they said that before the war, dancing competitions were held. More often, this happened at fairs. They “argued” and placed bets on the dancers. The winner received a good prize in the form of a gift, wine or money. The production was divided among the entire artel.

In preparation for this, the men left home, sometimes for several days, and trained there, inventing new combinations of dance “knocks”, unknown to their rivals and amazing fans. For the time being they were kept secret, and when performing at competitions they “presented” “new developments”. This tradition constantly replenished and enriched the dance technique.

Usually the competitions took place in the form of pair and single dances in the form of a re-dance. While dancing, one of the dancers showed some movement or sequence, the opponent had to repeat them exactly, then showed his own. Sometimes, in the re-dance there were other rules; the competitors alternately showed their movements, but it was forbidden to repeat the previous ones. The loser was the one who ran out of tricks first.

The purpose of the movements in the combat dance was both directly applied and conditionally combative, developing for dexterity and coordination. Since martial dance was an information carrier of martial art and a way of training applied movements, it goes without saying that it became most widespread among warriors: Cossacks, soldiers, sailors, officers; it was very popular in the artels of fist fighters.

In the Cossack troops, dance lived everywhere, harmoniously intertwined with Cossack life, violently bursting out of warm hearts on village and military holidays. During battles, when hostile armies converged, gopkorez with weapons danced in front of the ranks of their comrades, calling out enemies in hertz3. They went into battle with music and dancing. This custom of our ancestors was so well remembered by the Poles that they filmed it in the film “With Fire and Sword” based on the book by Sienkiewicz. And we forgot!

This is how N.V. Gogol describes the revelry and dancing in the Zaporozhye Sich:

“Their way was again blocked by a whole crowd of musicians, in the middle of which a young Cossack was dancing, with his hat twisted over the devil and his arms thrown up. He only shouted: “Play more lively, musicians! Do not spare Thomas, burners for Orthodox Christians!” And Foma, with a black eye, measured out a huge mug to each person who pestered him without counting. Near the young Zaporozhian, four old ones were working rather shallowly with their feet, throwing themselves up like a whirlwind to the side, almost on the heads of the musicians, and suddenly, dropping down, they squatted and beat the hard ground with their silver horseshoes steeply and firmly. The earth hummed dully throughout the entire area, and in the distance the hopaks and tropaks, knocked out by the ringing horseshoes of boots, echoed in the air. But one of them screamed out louder than everyone else and flew after the others in the dance. Chuprina was fluttering in the wind, her strong chest was all open; a warm winter jacket was worn in the sleeves, and sweat poured from him like a bucket. “At least take off the cover! - Taras finally said. “See how it soars!”

- "Not allowed!" - shouted the Cossack. "From what?" -"Not allowed; I have such a disposition: I’ll drink whatever I lose.”

And the young man had not had a hat on for a long time, nor a belt on his caftan, nor an embroidered scarf; everything went where it should. The crowd grew; others pestered the dancers, and it was impossible to see without internal movement how everything was torn away by the most free, most frantic dance that the world has ever seen and which, according to its powerful inventors, is called a Cossack.

- Oh, if it weren’t for the horse! - Taras cried out, “he really would have started dancing himself!”

In the regular army, dancing was carried out mainly among soldiers, but already in the 19th century, every regiment, hundred and even more or less self-respecting unit Russian army had their own choirs and dance groups. Units competed in dance along with drill, shooting, gymnastics and fencing. It was considered good form when the best dancers of the unit were “squatted” before the marching formation. If an outstanding dance tradition was developed in a regiment, then it was cherished and demonstrated to the authorities at the first opportunity, at reviews and demonstration performances.

During civil war The martial dance continued to live among the troops, both Red and White. The Red Army soldiers remember well the attacks of the regiments of the Izhevsk and Vodkin factories, which fought under the red flag against the Bolsheviks. They went into battle to the accordion, with rifles slung over their shoulders. The soldiers danced in front of the formation, sometimes together with the nurses. It is difficult to explain this rationally, but the Red Army soldiers could not withstand such attacks and retreated.

The legends of the civil war tell the same story: legendary division commander Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev knew the martial dance and loved to dance “Russian” on the parapet, under heavy fire from the White Guards. Dancing to the accordion, he taught the soldiers courage; among his subordinates there was confidence that “a bullet can’t kill a division commander.” They say that he has kept this custom since the First World War.

The naval squat dance began to be called “Apple” after the chorus in the then popular tune. Rising from the shore to the decks, the apple became one of the favorite pastimes of Russian sailors. The closeness and cohesion of the naval team created good soil for the preservation and transfer of dance skills, and competition between sailors of different ships constantly enriched the tradition.

The squat battle dance was also inherited by the Red Army. The rules of shows and competitions remained unchanged, although the movements were heavily “combed” by Soviet cultural education workers. Dancing at holidays and at the front is another matter. It was not only training the body and repeating fighting methods; it is difficult to overestimate the impact of music and dancing on the morale of the fighters. The great-grandfather's tradition turned exhausted soldiers into miracle heroes, kindled fearlessness and enthusiasm in their hearts.

Russian dance, as a type of Russian traditional art, has its own centuries-old history. Even in the pre-Christian period, in the 5th-7th centuries, religious ideas left their mark on the nature of the dance. "Cyrillic" tells about 7 Russian folk dances.

1. TREPACK

Trepak is an ancient Russian folk dance. Performed at a fast tempo, bipartite. The main movements are fractional steps and stamping. The movements were composed by the performer on the fly. Its properties have much in common with “Kamarinskaya” and “Barynya”: either a single male dance or a re-dance. But, unlike them, the trepak did not have its generally accepted tune.

2. DANCING WITH THE BEAR


The first official mention of the Russian folk dance with a bear dates back to 907, when Prince Oleg the Prophet celebrated his victory over the Greeks in Kyiv. At the gala reception, 16 dancers dressed as bears and four bears dressed as dancers performed for the guests. After the end of dinner, according to the order of the prince, the bears were ordered to be released on all four sides, and the dancers were executed. As it turned out later, the blind Prince Oleg mistook the dancers for ambassadors of the Northerners, who owed him several hundred marten skins.

3. SQUTT


The history of this dance begins in 1113 in Kyiv, when Grand Duke Svyatopolk died. At that time there lived a bricklayer Petro Prisyadka. He worked a lot while squatting with heavy stones and tools in his calloused hands. Every evening after his feat of labor, he went out to Khreshchatyk and, having accepted a ladle of wine and a roll of bread, began jumping up and down, stretching his legs that had become stiff during the day. Vladimir Monomakh, invited by the people of Kiev to the kingdom, was passing through the city in the evening with his retinue. He immediately noticed the strange dance and pointed out to Metropolitan Nikifor the dancing young man. Within a few days, Petro danced for the Grand Duke of All Rus' at every breakfast, lunch and dinner. Dancing like Prisyadka or Pod-Psyadka soon became fashionable in wealthy Kyiv. Fat buffoons lost weight and learned to dance the “B-Squat,” breaking their crooked legs on the nasty medieval sidewalks.

4. ROUND DANCE


A popular Russian dance is a round dance - a dance in a circle. In ancient times, the circle in a round dance symbolized the Sun - the god Yarilo. It was believed that such movements in a circle while singing songs would appease the Sun God and bring good harvests. Today this is only a historical fact of the religion of paganism of the ancient Slavs, which no longer carries its semantic load in the performance of round (circular) dances.

5. RUSSIAN DANCE


Russian dance is a type of Russian folk dance. Russian dances include improvised dances (re-dance, mistress, etc.) and dances that have a certain sequence of figures (quadrille, lance, etc.). In each region, these dances vary in character and manner of performance and usually have their own name, derived from the name of the area or dance song. Russian dances are slow and fast, with a gradual acceleration of the tempo.

6. DANCES-IMPROVIZATIONS


Improvisation dances and competition dances were very popular among the people. In them, the dancers were not constrained by a specific composition. Each performer is given the opportunity to express himself and show what he is capable of. Such dances are always unexpected for the audience, and sometimes even for the performers themselves. Boys and girls “learn” improvisational dances from an early age. The dancer does not want to repeat himself, to do the same thing that others do - hence the wide variety of original Russian dances.

7. PLAY DANCES


A special place belongs to dances in which the observation of the people is manifested: either about natural phenomena (“blizzard”, “blizzard”), or about any animals or birds (“Bull”, “Twitch”, “Bear”). These dances can be called play dances or game dances, since the playful principle is very clearly expressed in them. In his movements, the dancer does not simply imitate the habits of animals or birds, but tries to give them human character traits. It is very important that all components are subordinated to the creation of the dance image: movements and drawings, that is, choreographic figurative plasticity, music, costume, color. At the same time, the expressive means of dance do not exist on their own, but as a figurative expression of thought. The completeness of all this is achieved by the synthesis of all components.

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Publications in the Traditions section

Everybody dance!

We remember how they danced in Rus'. Kamarinskaya and the lady, Cossack and square dance, round dance and fair dance with a bear. Not a single holiday in Rus' was complete without dancing. Dances were named by melody, number of dancers, or pattern of movements. The dances were lyrical or martial. One for every occasion. The soul sings - the legs begin to dance.

Round dance . Dance with pagan roots. Circle in honor of Yarila, ancient god sun. “Walking after the sun” is part of Slavic rituals. Over the centuries, the ritual character faded into the background. Round dance has become the main decoration of Russians national holidays. The nature of the dance changes from occasion to occasion. Either they start a round dance in honor of the arrival of spring, or they greet Ivan Kupala holding hands, scarves or maiden wreaths.

Troika . A folk dance that can be unmistakably recognized by counting the dancers. Initially it was a man and two women. The rhythm and steps are like a Russian troika of galloping horses. The troika is danced not only by folk dance groups, but also on the classical stage. As, for example, in the ballet “The Nutcracker” to the music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Kalinka . A dance performed to a song that is only considered folk. The authorship belongs to Ivan Larionov. The Russian composer and folklorist wrote Kalinka in 1860. The melody went to the people straight from the Saratov stage amateur theater. There are no special choreographic figures in Kalinka: it is an improvisational dance. Including on ice - as in the case of figure skaters Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev.

Lady . The daring danced like " social conflict"in the spirit of who will out-dance whom. Main characters- “madam-lady” and “peasant peasant”. To the accompaniment of an accordion or balalaika, majesty stands against prowess, smoothness of movements against dexterity. According to one version, the Oryol province became the birthplace of the dance.

Kamarinskaya . The dance “hands on hips, heel to toe” became a fantasy for the orchestra. Mikhail Glinka in his overture used the melody itself and echoes characteristic of folk singing, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky included the theme in “ Children's album" IN leading role dance version - “Kamarinsk man”, a cheerful and perky resident of Kamarich, a volost of the Oryol province.

Cossack . Russian, Terek, Kuban. The dance is international with squatting steps, pair dances and jumps. The cheerful and playful melody of the Cossack has been known since the 18th century. The glory of folk dance reached the Parisian salons along with the Russian troops. Alexander Dargomyzhsky wrote for symphony orchestra“Little Russian Cossack”, and since the 19th century the Cossack in Russia has been “elevated” to ballroom dance.

Russian folk dance

Russian folk dance

Squat . Dance as an element of combat. Initially, Slavic warriors squatted to attack, and during the time of Suvorov they competed in the “combat squat” along with drill training and shooting. Either an acrobatics exercise, or a dance that raises morale. In the Vologda region a century ago they competed in dances, throwing out knees, and the naval squat dance was called “Apple” - after the name of the tune.

Quadrille . From a French village to a Russian one through noble assemblies. Russified French dance in Russia has acquired its own traditions. The dance meeting of several couples grew into a real romance in dance with many chapters: “acquaintance”, “walking”, “separation”, “farewell”. Supplemented with a ditty,