Sword Dance

Flankirovka is (loosely speaking) the art of spinning a Shaska.

A shaska is a traditional Cossack Sabre mainly used by the cavalry soldiers. It's a single edge sword with a slight curve, no guard, and a pretty heavy tip.

In the traditional Cossack military art, it was used in both single- and dualwielding. It's style comprised of very fast wrist movement, causing the blade(s) to spin rapidly. This was used for both offense and defense. Later it evolved into a dance, althought the traditional military arts are also still preserved.

It's mostly done on the same music also used for a Hopak.

This composition is based on a traditional Cossack folk song 'Oysha ty Oshya', which loosely translates to 'Hup you Hup'. Oysha doesn't mean anything, but is a encouraging word, like 'Hup' or 'Go'.

After a slow and quite free introduction, the rhythm starts in the percussion. From here on out, the music will relentlessly go faster, so the dancers are able to exercise their skill.