by Mike Miller

Created on: January 09, 2009   Last Updated: January 14, 2009

title: Dance The Apache!

Dance, between male and female partners, acts out one or another social facet of the primal relationship of our species. Apache dance, first developed on the streets of Paris, acts out the MOST primal....

Let me make perfectly clear that the "Apache" dance I refer to is NOT the current hip-hop craze. The "Apache" dance I refer to began in the clubs and streets of Paris around 1900. Named for the wildness of the Apache warriors who were then still furiously at war in the American Wild West, the "Apache" (pronounced - Ah pa shay) was developed by French street gangs. The dance stylized a combat between a man and a woman, and more often than not, ended with the death of one or the other, by knife wound.

American audiences last viewed "Apache" dance in the Gene Kelly film, "American in Paris" over fifty (50) years ago. Google video lists only three references for the name "Apache dance." None of the video references were filmed AFTER 1934. A revival of this unique dance form is certainly required.

The streets are the source of many of our dance forms. "West Side Story," the classic urban dance film, featured street gangs dancing in highly stylized moves to the music of Leonard Bernstein. Breakdancing also began on the streets. "Apache" is more of a street dance, than a club dance too. Perhaps inspired by a fight between a hooker and her pimp, "Apache" dance has sometimes been called "Rough Dancing." The man is usually dressed in a tight fitting striped, boat-necked, polo, evocative of a street thug, or perhaps a sailor. The woman is dressed exotically, her skirt, slit up to her hip. At the outset she is engulfed with passionate craving for the man, but he remains unmoved, spurning her advances. He must do so violently. She craves him so passionately that she crawls across the floor to cling to him, serpentine. He must repulse her by throwing her across the floor - after twirling her around and around, often by her hair !

Rudolph Valentino was able to learn the stylized moves of the tango - because he was already an adept Apache dancer.

Eventually the woman gets the message that she is being ultimately rejected...and she reacts with fury ! She slaps, kicks, scratches and maims her man, driving him to the floor. Here she delivers kicks - to every part of his body. He may grab her and they both roll around on the floor in paroxysms of lust, hate, and violence. Typically, she, or he, produces a knife, and consummates the dance orgy.

We need to see this once again! Not only is it riveting dramatic dance, but it enacts primitive tensions and undercurrents with which contemporary realtionships are typically fraught. Dancers, revive the Apache!

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