Rapper sword

Accompanied by traditional folk music, the dancers wear hard-soled shoes that allow for percussive foot movements.

Mental alertness, in addition to physical agility, is required in order for dance participants to use the swords effectively without causing harm to themselves or the other performers.

[3] Whilst substantial evidence for the origins of the rapper sword tradition does not exist, as of 2012, since the publication of Rapper; The miner's Dance of North East England by Phil Heaton it is generally accepted that the dance was originally performed in the mining villages of the Northumberland and Durham coalfield in North-East England.

A documented account of the Tyne Valley dance has been located in a 1715 article, in which a fairly accurate description can be read.

It used to be commonly thought that the flexible version was used for removing dirt from the backs of pit ponies, but there is no available documentation to verify this theory.

During the nineteenth century, teams of rapper dancers from the pit villages of Tyneside and Wearside would travel annually to the towns of Newcastle upon Tyne, Sunderland and Durham to perform the dance for the crowds, asking for monetary consideration.

After the First World War, the revival was marked by the fierce competition between pit villages in the rapper classes of the newly instituted North of England Musical Tournament held annually in Newcastle upon Tyne.

After the Second World War, the tradition progressively declined in the original pit villages, partly as a result of social changes in the mining communities.

The dance has transformed as it moved into the twenty-first century: the pace has quickened and is performed at around 140–160 beats per minute, with different team styles using different rates.

The jigs used include local tunes and many instruments can, and have been, used to accompany rapper dances (the most popular being fiddles, tin whistles and accordions or melodeons).

Many rapper jigs used for the last hundred years are tunes that were probably imported by Irish and Scottish immigrants to Tyneside in the nineteenth century.

The costume in which the dance is usually performed, referred to as the kit, is a stylised version of the working clothes of the local nineteenth century coal miner (see photograph).

The Dancing America Rapper Tournament (DART) is an American offshoot of DERT, happening annually on the East Coast of the United States since 2010.