The Friday Olympic Video: Bolero

Posted on August 3rd, 2012 by witchsbrew

Oh, yeah! This is so Pagan! Bull-dancing goes back at least 3,500 years to the Minoan civilization of Ancient Crete. A “bolero,” by the way, is the short, fitted jacket that Spanish bull fighters wear.

Bull jumpers, fresco in Kronnos, Crete According to Nancy Manahan & Becky Bohan at the Nanbec Blog, the light-skinned dancers are women (Minoans–like Ancient Egyptians–depicted female figures with light skin and men with reddish skin): one has completed her jump and is spotting for the man on the bull’s back; the other has the bull by the horns and begun her vault.

Young men and women bull-dancers are central figures in Mary Renault’s classic historical novel The King Must Die. This retelling of Theseus and the Minotaur is plainly an inspiration for The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

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