Scottish sword dances

The Sword dance is one of the best known of all Highland dances, an ancient dance of war. Performance of sword dances in the folklore of Scotland is recorded from as early as the 15th century.

Related customs are found in the Welsh and English Morris dance, in Austria, Germany, Flanders, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Romania.

  • In Ghillie Callum or "Scottish sword dance" the dancer crosses two swords on the ground in an "X" or a "+" shape, and dances around and within the 4 quarters of it.
  • The dirk dance involves either one or two dancers, each holding a single dirk.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.