Melusina Sword Dance

I'm incredibly curious about sword dancing at the moment, an interest that no doubt was partially sparked by having just spent a long drive over to Adelaide and back with a gentleman who happens to be a swordsmith, but also by having some newly acquired experience dancing with props. We covered zills (my favourite), veil and cane last year and I enjoyed learning to use the cane so much that I can only imagine how incredible it feels to dance with a sword. As luck would have it, my beautiful dance teacher Melusina is particularly fond of sword work and teaches it in her level 3 class, which I should hopefully be advanced enough to join by midway through this year.

In a discussion on swordsmithing that we had in the car last week, Tim (the aforementioned gentleman) described the process of crafting a sword as almost alchemical, and said he always relishes that magical moment when a simple piece of steel becomes a blade. For him, the creation of these powerful weapons fulfils some kind of primitive masculine impulse, something I'm sure many sword and knife enthusiasts can relate to.

I very much look forward to the day when I can commission a personalised scimitar from Tim, and dance with it in the knowledge that it carries all of his energy as well as my own. In the meantime, I'll continue to enjoy Melusina's incredibly impressive sword dancing via crummy youtube videos like this one.