Directory of Sword Resources

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There are two distinct styles of sword dancing native to England. Longsword is mainly from the Yorkshire in northern England and is characterised by men holding flexible metal or wooden swords and weaving complex patterns. The other popular style of sword dancing is Rapper. This uses flexible steel swords and is similar to Longsword, except generally danced very much faster, with more complex figures and with intricate stepping. Rapper developed in the coal mining villages around Newcastle upon Tyne in the North-East of England. As with many English traditional dances, both are now also performed outside England, especially in the USA and other English-speaking countries, but even in more surprising locales such as Norway!

Resources in This Category

• Addison Rapper

  http://www.addisonrapperandclog.org.uk/
  Contact details for this men's team from Tyneside.

• Black Adder Rapper

  http://www.blackadder.totalserve.co.uk/firstpage.htm
  Diary and photos of this women's team From Yorkshire.

• Claro Sword & Morris Men

  http://www.clarosword.org/
  Contact details, photographs and events program for this longsword team from Harrogate in North Yorkshire.

• Highside Longsword

  http://website.lineone.net/~teddodsworth/hl/highside.htm
  Photographs and contact details for this team from Kirkby Malzeard, North Yorkshire.

• Newcastle Kingsmen Sword Dancers

  http://www.kingsmen.co.uk/
  Information, dance notations, music, history of rapper, photographs and links.

• Norton's Guard Longsword

  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nortonsguard/
  Emperor Norton's Fire Brigade and Hose Company #2, based in Berkeley, California, performing Longsword from England and Europe.

• Rapper and Longsword Manufacturer

  http://rapper-swords.co.uk/
  Handmade swords for Rapper and Longsword by Frank Lee.

• Rapper Online

  http://www.rapper.org.uk/
  The internet guide to English Rapper Sword Dance.

• Rapscallion Rapper

  http://www.amherst.edu/~bdahill/rapscallion/
  Rapper team from Massachusetts

• Southport Swords

  http://www.southportswords.org.uk/
  From Southport in Lancashire.

• The NUT on the Net

  http://www.the-nut.net/
  Internet edition of The NUT, the journal of the Northumbrian rapper sword dance

 

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