apache dance

American  

[uh-pahsh, uh-pash, uh-pach-ee] / əˈpɑʃ, əˈpæʃ, əˈpætʃ i /

noun

1. a vigorous dance representing a Parisian apache dancing in a rough, domineering way with his woman.

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apache dance British  

noun

1. a fast violent dance in French vaudeville, supposedly between a Parisian gangster and his girl

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Example Sentences

Advertisement Here, Mr. Shepard’s apache dance of a drama comes across not only as exciting theater but also as world-class literature, the kind that balances in-the-moment detail with an echoing sense of eternity.

From New York Times

He’s Dad the destroyer, who mapped out the steps for the apache dance that defines his children’s lives.

From New York Times

Sometimes they skip about as blithely as Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds in “Singin’ in the Rain,” but their natural form would seem to be the apache dance, with its all-out brutality.

From New York Times

But the broken, jagged heart of this production belongs to Ms. Rodriguez and Mr. Cannavale, who turn their characters’ relationship into a bruising, tragicomic apache dance of love, betrayal and indecision.

From New York Times

There is nearly as wide a distance separating the courtly dances of the eighteenth century from the cake-walk, and the apache dance from the Irish reel.

From Project Gutenberg