Dancing Swords and Somersaults

Abstract

The short sword dances, known as rapper dancing, that originated in the mining villages and towns of North East England at the height of the Industrial Revolution are the focus for this article. The currently thriving rapper dance retains clear links with its historic roots but has also injected energy into the processes by which dances change over time. This is achieved through multi-dance genre collaboration that exposes traditional dance to new influences and new audiences thus better reflecting the current diversity of the dance practices of a multicultural society. By taking the term ‘amateur’ as a conceptual lens, the article re-views the dance as a form that has consistently been challenged by the precariousness of stepping into commercial stage performance, while simultaneously embracing the affordances offered by its amateur status. The distinctive interdisciplinary nature of amateur performance studies, which draws on social geography, leisure studies, art and craft, performance and theatre studies as well as dance scholarship, offers potentially fresh perspectives on this traditional dance practice.Stephen Knott's research into amateur craft, specifically for his definition of the amateur as a ‘time-space state, or zone’ (2016: n.p.), proves useful in illustrating how dances can move, even if precariously and uncomfortably, between the amateur and the professional. Precarity surfaces in other forms within rapper, and by drawing on fieldwork (2016-19) with particular reference to three groundbreaking dance sides (groups) I consider how amateur status is both a challenge and an incentive. Precariousness is evident in rapper dancing, embedded in its risky movements, its street and pub crawl performance and in its relationship to the professional stage. I examine how risk is intertwined with thrill and pleasure, contributing to the continuing appeal of rapper for dancers and spectators alike. The dance sides’ focus on the swords dancing rather than solo spectacular moves generates cohesion that, when combined with energetic attack, in turn creates a sense of assertive rebelliousness and joy of disrupting the status quo through performance.