This article is about the famous musical piece; for the uncontrollable upward movement of the F-86 Sabre: see Sabre dance

The Sabre Dance is a movement in the final act of Aram Khachaturian's ballet Gayane, completed in 1942. It evokes a whirling war dance in a Kurdish dance, where the dancers display their skill with sabres (swords). Due to its exceptionally exciting rhythm, the Sabre Dance established a place for itself in common concert practice, leading also to various adaptations in popular music.

Plate spinners and other human tricks innovators highly contributed to the movement's popularization in America, notably The Ed Sullivan Show, wherein it was played while plate spinners performed their act. The Sabre Dance was also covered by performers such as jazz player Woody Herman, rock and roll musician Dave Edmunds and Toy Dolls, a British punk/oi! band, in addition to Tony Levin.

In recent times, the music was featured in an episode of "The Simpsons" as Bart uses Grandpa Simpson's dentures to swing around on a ceiling fan. When the Simpsons go to China to get Selma's adopted baby, Homer lies and says he's a Chinese acrobat. When the star performer of the final stunt at the acrobatic theater is silenced before production, Homer is elected to save the day. The acrobats perform "Chair Man Wow" to Sabre Dance as they precariously stack chairs to the ceiling with the intent of launching Homer on top. In addition, in an April 2006 Family Guy episode Peter "distracted" Lois by whistling Sabre Dance while on a unicycle. The theme is regularly played at Buffalo Sabres hockey games. It is also the music played while Conan O'Brien's recurring character the Masturbating Bear masturbates on stage. The MSNBC TV program, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, features the music during Oddball, a nightly news feature of bizarre stories, often referring to the tune as "this strange music".

In Spike Jones's song Pal-Yat-Chee, the singer himself imagines the murder scenes in the opera resembles the Sabre Dance.

War dances | Pieces

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