Rapper dancing involves the use of quite thin, ‘bendy’ swords (unlike longsword where the blades are thicker and inflexible). The sword has a handle at each end, and can bend right round so that the handles can be held parallel to each other. One handle is ‘fixed’, while the other handle can rotate freely. It is these two qualities that give rapper dancing its fast and furious appearance, because the sword can bend and move to the whim of the dancer. Like longsword swords, the edges are not sharp. A rapper dance will typically last around 5-10 minutes.
A rapper dance will almost always be for 5 dancers, though other combinations exist. Like longsword, the dancers are linked together by their swords. However, the flexibility of the swords means that the figures tend not to be as ‘circular’ as longsword figures. Rapper dances therefore tend to focus on a specific ‘direction’, where the dancers are mainly facing in one direction for many of the figures.
Because of the swords’ flexibility, rapper dances often contain figures which involve rapid spins, very rapid jumps over fast-moving swords (akin to a skipping rope), often with jumps done in tandem by two dancers, and ‘tumbles’ performed over the swords.
Another typical feature of rapper is a kind of shuffled stepping, often performed between each figure of the dance. Most dances will also have a ‘calling on song’ performed by one of the dancers, or a ‘Tommy’ who is essentially the MC or ‘captain’ of the dance. In addition to performing the calling on song, the Tommy will also make comments about the dance or dancers throughout the performance, join in with some of the figures, and hold up the final sword lock of the dance before the dancers march off.
Rapper dancing has its origins in the coalfields of the North East of England, and it appears to go back about 150-200 years, similar to the origins of longsword, but no one is really sure where it began. The most likely origin of the rapper swords is that they were based on a tool used for scraping the coal dust from the backs of pit ponies. This tool had a handle at each end and was made of flexible steel so that it could be shaped around the horse’s back, and the thin blade would tease out coal dust from the hair.
