Trepak

For other uses, see Trepak (disambiguation).

Trepak (Russian: трeпак) or tropak (Ukrainian: трoпак) is a traditional East Slavic folk dance (Russian and Ukrainian).^[1][2]

Trepak on a 19th-century postcard

The dance is included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, whose form is preserved in Tacheng.^[3]

In music

The dance is a brisk allegro in ²
₄ time in a major key. Accompaniment is usually on two alternating chords; dominant and tonic.

One of its best known representations is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "Trepak" (also known as the "Russian Dance") from the ballet The Nutcracker. The dance music was also used in the last movement of his Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35. The third of Modest Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death is named "Trepak".

In dance

The characteristic element is a simple walk with a syncopated stamp, often done to a quick duple meter rhythm.

On So You Think You Can Dance (Season 4), Joshua Allen and Stephen "Twitch" Boss performed a Trepak routine, interpreted as a dance duel, in Week 9 (August 6, 2008).