Not so long ago, “Cossacks” appeared in the Ukrainian show business and already managed to arouse disgust from the Slavic countries and the love of the European one. The thing is that four guys of pretty good physique decided to cause a surge of emotions and revolutionize world standards, and primarily in terms of male orientation. What outraged me most was the appearance of these artists. As mentioned above, four guys of athletic athletic build with a bare torso, in leggings and heels perform on stage: they dance and sing! This caused a titanic resonance in society. They began to be discussed on every blog, they began to be talked about on every music site. Some responded well, some responded poorly. Of course, in our countries the ratio of good to bad attitude was about 1:10, but this is precisely what made the Cossacks popular! Hate breeds popularity. The number of concert offers instantly increased. And most of them were from European countries. Because there it is considered quite normal. For example, if in France you just pretend to be a homosexual, then you will break through everywhere: in work, in show business.

As already mentioned, the attitude towards the Cossacks is twofold. In Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and similar countries, most of those who hate this quartet are male. Since the stereotypes embedded in the psyche, formed on the basis of Slavic upbringing, do not allow one to come to terms with this version of a man. The female sex is more lenient towards gays, girls even somewhat like them. Therefore, the female half is, to a greater extent, the one that welcomes the Cossacks both as men and as singers. In general, the image of the Kazaky group is metrosexual. That is, it is aimed not specifically at gay men (just because of their appearance), but also at girls. But here everyone decides for themselves how to perceive these show business characters. The public was very outraged by the fact that the group was named “Kazaky”, they say, this greatly desecrates Ukrainian history. Since a Cossack is a strong warrior who loves his people and is able to repel his enemies. In this case, these are practically opposite personalities. At least according to external data and movements in videos and performances, definitely.

The Cossacks have a unique style. Muscular male athletes presenting themselves as girls, wearing leggings (or in some cases black tight jeans), bare torso (at certain points there may be a cape over the shoulders and arms) and heels (high stiletto heels, platform heels, boots etc.) – this is the whole essence of the team. A memorable extravagant image is one of the highlights of the team.

Perhaps the main “trick” of the Cossacks’ performance is the dance. The group performs strip music and jazz-funk on stage. These two female dance styles formed an opinion about the guys, they say that they are not of a traditional orientation. Not every girl can move like these dancers. For example, the team leader (Arthur Gaspard) knows how to do a flag (standing on one leg, performing a perfect split, keeping the second leg strictly parallel to the second). The guys' excellent plasticity allows them to move as the styles require.

The debut of the Cossacks took place on the Internet and on music channels. The first video for the song “In The Middle” blew up the Internet. A lot of discussions, and for the most part condemnations, were thrown at the team. The next video outraged the public even more, as the video for the song “Love” showed more scenes of guys in leggings and heels. The third video “Dance and Change” was not long in coming. In the new video, the group starred with a new lineup (Stas Pavlov was replaced by Francesco Borgato). It contained all the same leggings, all the same plastic and outrageous dances. The guys have succeeded so much in show business that they have even danced with Madonna herself! The Cossacks were invited to the filming of the video "Girl Gone Wild", in which they were backup dancers.

The music, of course, is made in the style of electro-pop, since the group's songs are created exclusively for dancing. The club sounds of the synthesizer, characteristic of this genre, just fit the movements performed by the Cossacks.

The extremely ambiguous impression of the group that has developed in society helps to form the image and establish the unusual image of the shocking group “Kazaky”. The dance, music and appearance of these artists characterize the guys as individuals who are not afraid to challenge society. With all their behavior and style, they somewhat help homosexuals and lesbians take their place in the sun in Slavic countries, where they are not particularly perceived as normal and full-fledged people.

Shocking the public is undoubtedly one of the fundamental purposes of dancing. Over the course of a month, the site will analyze various dance phenomena that once surprised the bored public. Well, let's start with dancing in heels.

Hip-hop Surprising the public with dancing in heels began in a not too shocking manner; first, a version of dancing in heels among girls was presented to the whole world. It was this version of hip-hop that showed all the beauty of movement in high heels, while giving the generally absolutely feminine phenomenon the drive and energy of this dance direction.
Andye J, one of the founders of hip hop heels, a couple of years ago, in an interview with the website, talked about how she began choreographing for girls in the Hip Hop Heels style, already working at the famous Debbie Reynolds dance school in Los Angeles.

Kazaky This project became sensational in Russia and Ukraine, and a little later abroad. The difference in sensationalism, however, was obvious. In our country, society perceived the four popular dancers-vocalists as an inappropriate option for the conservative and inflamed domestic show business. But in the West everything was completely different. The starting point in increasing popularity in the West was the group’s performance at the Dsquared2 show in Milan.

In this case, it is interesting to observe the reaction of ordinary people in different countries. Comments in Russian are filled with incredible resentment; Russian and Ukrainian users are perplexed: why were gays allowed on the dance floor? At the same time, foreign users do not pay any attention to the sexual orientation of the performers and note a successful idea with excellent execution. And, probably, only they understand that dancing in heels is, in principle, not an indicator of one or another sexual orientation.
read also: watch the video and read the comments:
"Why is everyone surprised that guys started dancing in heels. Millions of guys have been dancing ballroom dancing in heels for decades"
The successful collaboration between the designers and the Kazaky group paid dividends for both parties. The Disquire Brothers got the show, and the Cossacks got star fans and patrons. Another lover of everything new and stylish could not pass by - Madonna invited the group to film her provocative video Girl Gone Wild.

Oleg Zhezhel, a member of the group, a former famous Ukrainian dancer, spoke in an interview about the incredible performance of the singer and everyone who took part in the filming. Madonna, in subsequent interviews, emphasized the hard work and modesty of the guys.
But Kazaky, nevertheless, did not become the heroes of the video. The members of the Ukrainian quartet only appeared in the video, but the main emphasis was placed on four super popular models: Sean O"pry, Jon Kortajarena, Simon Nessman, Rob Evans. However, this is something to be proud of: the Ukrainian group created a global trend, having personally “hooked” on him the world's supermodels and the most famous singer in the world.

Dance schools and dancers Further more. After the hype that Kazaky caused, dancing in heels began to rapidly gain popularity among dance school clients. In the schedule of many large-format dance schools in Moscow and other cities of our country, new lessons appeared, which were called differently, but the name always indicated “heels”. A special highlight was, of course, the male teacher.

On the other hand, world choreographers quickly caught on to the trend. Yanis Marshall has achieved particular success in this, filling video hosting sites with his dance videos in heels. But even this was not enough for him: in the summer of 2013, he showed ordinary bored citizens dancing in heels, so to speak, “offline”. Lucky in this case, the residents of Paris.

Fakes Of course, among domestic male dancers, there are also many who have begun to master the heel style. But, unfortunately, as often happens in our country, there were some fakes. A couple of years ago, at parties and social events, presentations, guys from the group Kazzaky LTD began to appear. The organizers, one after another, for some reason suddenly decided to invite this team (either dance or music) to their events. It looked and sounded not exactly shocking, but rather dull and not entirely attractive. Thus, this group, in pursuit of dubious fame, completely destroyed our public’s already unclear idea of ​​​​dancing in heels. The final blow to the authority of the trend and the very phenomenon of “men dancing in heels” was the appearance of the group at the Comedy Club:

Now At the moment in our country, the idea of ​​men dancing in heels is very clearly divided: in a narrow dance community this phenomenon is welcomed and used in every way, for the rest of the population it is disgusting and annoying. This means that there is still something to work on and something to strive for.
P.S.: When this article was written and typed up, one of the portal users added Dance Video to the rotation of Dance Television, which perfectly characterizes what was written.

website- The non-standard Ukrainian project “Kazaky” shocked the whole world! Their first video “In the middle” already has 1,500,000 views on YouTube. Their group has everything: shockingness, sexuality, male beauty, plasticity and excellent choreography.

When I first saw them on the Internet, I was shocked to say the least. The same type of thoughts immediately came into my head: “Yes, they are gay!”, “Where is the world going?!”... However, having learned a little more about them, I realized that I was wrong.

Their dances and appearance, I agree, are unusual and overly feminine. But this is precisely what the Kazaky group rubs in everyone else’s nose. I have never seen more beautiful choreography in such high heels. Yes, these guys walk better in stiletto heels than any other girl in Bishkek or wherever!

The whole West is discussing this group, both fan clubs and ill-wishers have already appeared. Well, what did you want, guys?

“Kazaky” have staked their entire “fate” on shockingness: naked sexy bodies, in stiletto heels, with Cossack forelocks, very flexible. Sort of half man, half woman.

The Internet is full of discussions about the members of the Cossacks group. Many people ask the question “are they gay?”, but for some reason I think that they are of normal orientation. It’s just that no one has done this before! They foresaw that this would generate enormous interest in their group.

There are two guises of the Kazaky group. One of them is for “internal use,” that is, for the CIS countries, and the other is for the West. And these guises are completely different, because the group’s audiences are different.

For the CIS, where the majority of the group’s fans are girls, the members of “Kazaky” are simple guys who love women and are even planning to get married.

But outside the CIS, the main audience of the Kazaky group are people of “non-traditional orientation”. And for the West, the members of Kazaky are gays, dancing the “horizontal mamba” with each other (interview for “Fab” magazine) And “Kazaks” are completely satisfied with this.

Kazaky - In The Middle