When you think of jumping rope you may think of schoolyard fun, simple games with friends and perhaps falling on your face. But what if you were to take those basic fun skills and practiced and practiced an practiced with 11 other girls and choreographed a mind-boggling performance for a live audience?
Well, it might look a little something like this!
This video showcases the incredible talents of this Russian girls’ group of jump rope dancers.
They prance out, single file, elegantly on their tippy toes. In their hands are their ropes. When you first watch this video, or when you hear about a troupe of dancing jump-ropers, you may be asking; “Ok cool so where’s the hop-scotch show? How about the knuckle bones interpretive dance?” And I hear you, BUT just wait till you see this incredible routine.
It begins of course, with ballet level grace.
Then, the ropes come out…
We start off small with just one skipper and her rope, rhythmically skipping to traditional Russian dance music. And true to ballet form, she’s not just skipping, but she has perfect form, pointing her toes and sustaining a perfectly straight posture.
Then the whole group begin with their ropes.
It’s incredible, not only that you can coordinate such a large group to dance so gracefully with jumping ropes, but to do so with immaculate timing. Every dancer (…or skipper?) moves perfectly in time not only with the music, but with each other. They’re in complete synchronicity, and it’s mesmerizing.
And they continue to mix in group dance.
And they infuse the performance with some acting too! While three girls move skillfully across the stage in a short line, the others mock whispering to each other. It’s so fun to see not only the dancing, not only the rope-jumping, but a bit of story telling to boot!
And not to mention how inventive they are with the ropes!
These ropes aren’t just made for skipping! They are used as props too! The way these girls can incorporate their ropes into inventive choreographic sequences is incredible. We aught to salute the choreographer of this wonderful performance, for creating such an engaging routine which takes something that usually just gets skipped over to a dynamic and versatile prop.
Of course, the rope-jumping still blows your mind!
First one girl steps out from the rest and skips with her rope, before moving back into the group. Then two girls step forward, and skip with the same rope. If you’re thinking “That’s cool, but it won’t get any cooler than that”, I respect your opinion, but you would be conclusively wrong. When you see three girls skip with the same rope, you will see the error in your assumption.
And just when it seems like they’re reaching their peak, they step up the pace and go faster as the music increases pace. The audience, sensing the rhythm steadily speeding up, begin clapping along. It gets faster and faster and inevitably, a few smiles creep onto some of the girls’ faces, as they realize how spectacular the audience realize they are.
Watch the full video below to believe just how amazing this talented troupe is.
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