war dance

The tradition & historical record

A war dance is a dance involving mock combat, usually in reference to tribal warrior societies where such dances were performed as a ritual connected with endemic warfare. Martial arts in various cultures can be performed in dance-like settings for various reasons, such as for evoking ferocity in preparation for battle or showing off skill in a more stylized manner. It could also be for celebration of valor and conquest. Many such martial arts incorporate music, especially strong percussive rhythms. ²

War dances can overlap with sword dances and other forms of weapon dance, utilizing weapons or replications as part of the artistic performance. ²

Examples of war dances include: ²

Aduk-Aduk – Brunei Albanian war dances Ardah – Arabian Peninsula, Kuwait Ayyalah – Arabian Peninsula Attan - Afghanistan and Pushtun Areas of Pakistan Baris – Bali, Indonesia Bende War Dance – Nigeria Buza – Russia Blood walk – Bloods of United States Cakalele – Maluku, Indonesia Capoeira, as well as some similar Afro-Caribbean arts Cibi – Fiji Crip Walk – Crips of United States Dirk dance and Scottish sword dances – Scotland Dier Dance- upper East, Bolgatanga-Ghana European sword dance or weapon dance of various kinds Haka - Māori people of New Zealand Hako (Rapa Nui) – Easter Island Hopak – Ukraine Odzemek - Slovakia and Moravian Wallachia Hula and Kapu Kuialua – Native Hawaiians Indlamu – Zulu people Juego de maní – Cuba Kabasaran – Minahasan people, North Sulawesi, Indonesia Kailao – Wallis, adopted by Tonga Khattak – Afghanistan and Pakistan Khorumi (ხორუმი) – Georgia Ohafia War Dance – Eastern Nigeria Panther Dance – Burmese Bando with swords (dha) Pentozali – Crete Pyrrhichios – Greece Razfah – Oman and the United Arab Emirates Reggada – Morocco Sagayan – Philippines Siva Tau – Samoan war dance Tahtib – Egypt Takalo - Niue Yarkhushta (Յարխուշտա) – Armenia Yowlah – Oman and the United Arab Emirates ²

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “War dance”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ²

war dance is dance involving mock combat, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ¹

The source record links this tradition to 5 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ¹