"Sabre Dance" is an orchestral movement from the final act of Aram Khachaturian's 1942 ballet Gayane, in which dancers display their skill with sabres. It is Khachaturian's most recognizable work worldwide and is considered one of the signature pieces of the 20th century popular music. The composition is a fast-paced work, lasting about two and a half minutes, and incorporates elements of Armenian folk music.

The piece achieved widespread popularity in the United States in 1948, becoming a classical hit with orchestral recordings and a piano version by Oscar Levant, and a jukebox sensation with charting versions by pop artists like Woody Herman. It has been widely adapted across genres and instruments, including for violin by Jascha Heifetz, for piano by György Cziffra, and in a hit rock cover by Dave Edmunds. Over decades, its extensive use on screen and in popular culture has made it a "global musical shorthand for cartoonish urgency" and a staple for variety acts. It is also used in sports by the Buffalo Sabres ice hockey team and in figure skating. Khachaturian expressed ambivalence about the piece overshadowing his other works.

"Sabre Dance" appears in Act IV of Gayane, a ballet written by Khachaturian based on his first ballet, Happiness (1939). With a libretto by Konstantin Derzhavin, Gayane premiered on December 9, 1942 at the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre. Set on a collective farm (kolkhoz) in Soviet Armenia, it centers on Gayane, a patriotic young woman, and her husband, Giko. The drama unfolds when Giko betrays the Soviet regime by joining a band of smugglers and setting fire to the farm. In a mounting frenzy, he nearly kills his wife and daughter before they are rescued by Kazakov, a Red Army border patrol commander. After Giko's capture, Kazakov, who loves Gayane, marries her. "Sabre Dance" occurs at the wedding party, an "exuberant celebration of folk dance", along with Armenian Shalakho and Uzundara, Caucasian Lezginka, Russian plyaska, and Ukrainian Gopak (Hopak). This deliberately multi-ethnic programme symbolises the Soviet concept of the friendship of peoples.

Khachaturian wrote "Sabre Dance", originally called the Dance of the Kurds, after completing the score of Gayane. He did so at the Kirov Theatre's request, during its World War II evacuation to Perm (then called Molotov). He later recounted that it "came into being quite by accident." The director's request for one more dance led the composer to create a contrasting warlike and lyrical piece in just eleven hours, which was then orchestrated, staged, and rehearsed within two days. He wrote in November 1942 that it "immediately impressed" the orchestra, the dancers, and the audience during a full dress rehearsal. Khachaturian initially wanted to end it in a long and gradual diminuendo, but Nina Anisimova and the dancers persuaded him to end it with a gradual crescendo.

Several sources of inspiration have been proposed. Soviet musicologist Georgi Tigranov suggested that the piece embodies the "manly and heroic" essence of Armenian male folk dances and "the fiery temperament [and] raw energy" of "the warlike dances of the Transcaucasian peoples." Pianist Mariam Kharatyan argues that while "Sabre Dance" is neither inspired by nor musically related to the male martial dance Zinapar from Msho Shoror, a suite transcribed by Komitas, it reflects traits of that folk tradition through Khachaturian's individual style. Critics have also pointed to Russian orientalist precedents. Yuri Slonimsky compared it to the "Polovtsian Dances" from Borodin's Prince Igor (1890) and Balakirev's Islamey (1869). Tigranov and Victor Yuzefovich likewise cited the "Polovtsian Dances" as a prototype for its energy and "emotional frenzy," Steven J. Haller suggested influence from the "Sword Dance" in Glière's 1927 ballet The Red Poppy.

"Sabre Dance" is a fast-paced (marked Presto) orchestral work lasting approximately two and a half to three minutes. It follows an ABA form with a transition and coda. The opening section presents the main theme. The middle section features woodwind instruments accompanied by timpani drums. The transition features repeated patterns on the xylophone and dramatic glissandos on the trombones. When the initial theme returns, it is interrupted by a cymbal crash, and then played at an even higher pitch. The work concludes with a descending melodic line followed by an upward climb to the final note.

The orchestration employs an array of percussion instruments, including the tambourine, snare drum, and particularly the xylophone, to emphasize the dance rhythms characteristic of folk music. The score calls for several specialized woodwind instruments, including piccolo, English horn, and bass clarinet. The harp plays throughout most of the piece, while the celesta appears only in the final three measures.

The brief slower section incorporates Armenian folk music and features a cello solo and alto saxophone. The saxophone, along with violins, violas, and cellos, presents a lyrical melody, enhanced by gentle flute counter-melodies based on a melodic motif from "Kalosi prken", a folk male dance from the Shirak region. Tigranov suggests that the saxophone evokes the distinctive sound of traditional instruments like the duduk and the zurna, while Tigran Mansurian suggests that its idiom "seems to come straight from America."