snake dance

American  

[sneyk dans] / ˈsneɪk ˌdæns /

Or snake-dance

noun

1. any ceremonial dance, such as that of the Hopi or Chickasaw people, in which snakes or representations of snakes are handled or imitated by the dancers.

2. a parade or procession, especially in celebration of a sports victory, in which the participants weave in single file in a serpentine course.

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verb (used without object)

snake danced, snake dancing

1. to perform a snake dance.

snake dance British  

noun

1. a ceremonial dance, performed by the priests of the American Hopi Indians, in which live snakes are held in the mouth

2. 1. the swaying movements of snakes responding to a snake charmer

   2. a Hindu dance in which performers imitate such snake movements

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Etymology

Origin of snake dance

An Americanism dating back to 1765–75

Example Sentences

There is just no way our puny little snake dance and locking arms blocks any of that.

From New York Times • Aug. 28, 2018

What he is referring to is the snake dance.

From The Verge • Apr. 20, 2016

Sheriff George Byers would block the road so the students could do a snake dance from the high school, through the Golden Bubble and back to the school.

From Washington Times • Jun. 26, 2015

I’m watching the snake dance from the balcony of a shabby tenement built during the long rule of Tito, Yugoslavia’s late strongman, whose death in 1980 was the beginning of its gradual and violent breakup.

From Slate • Sep. 5, 2014

And in Poe's insistence upon "beauty" as the sole legitimate province of the poem—beauty, which he defines as a special and dispassionate "excitement of the soul"—he is nearer to the mood of the snake dance.

From Colors of Life Poems and Songs and Sonnets by Eastman, Max