More about Rapper
A Rapper dance involves five people connected by short, two-handled, flexible swords (rappers) forming an unbroken chain. Without breaking this chain the dancers weave in and out of one another twisting the swords to form locks and breastplates, sometimes even jumping or somersaulting over the swords.
The dance commences by the five dancers forming a circle each holding one sword in his right hand, often clashing their swords together before grasping in their left hands the free end of the sword held by the dancer in front. The only time this chain is broken is to present a star of five interlocked swords. The dancers step or “jig” in a characteristic way throughout the dance. There may also be one or two “characters” (sometimes known as “fools”) known as “Tommy” and “Betty” (historically as “The Captain” and “Bessy”).
Intricate figures are danced with the dancers passing between and around each other, under and over the swords, seemingly into an irretrievable tangle which resolves at intervals into open circles with the swords linking the dancers or into a closed circle with the swords interlocked into the star which is presented aloft to the audience. The Tommy and Betty caper around and amongst the dancers carrying out their own dialogue and even private warfare.
The feature of Rapper dancing which cannot be disputed is the unique “swords” and no matter how the dance may vary in any other respect, without rappers it is simply not Rapper dancing.
Rapper dancing is a form of folk dancing traditionally associated with coal mining communities in the North-East of England. Its links with the coal mining communities of North-Eastern England are well known, and in the few years up until the Second World War (1939-45) it was specific to those communities. Of course very few coal mines now exist in England, with only one working colliery remaining in the Northumberland and Durham coalfield. Rapper dancing is now performed throughout the United Kingdom and in countries as far afield as Norway, New Zealand and the USA.
The links with coal mining
Rapper's earliest occurrences were in Earsdon and Winlaton, with Winlaton being the likely contender for the original location of Rapper dancing. Coal mining had been carried out at Winlaton since 1366. By 1636 there were 22 pits on the south side of the River Tyne. Although there is no evidence of sword dancing on Tyneside prior to about 1830, the earliest records of (rigid) linked sword dancing in England (in the Tyne Valley) from the eighteenth century clearly state that the sword dance was only performed by miners.
In German-speaking areas, the sword dance is also strongly associated with miners, so it can be speculated that the custom of linked sword dancing was imported by the German miners who were brought over to England in the early 1600s for their expertise in mine engineering.