What is sword dancing?

Mention that one of your hobbies is sword dancing, and the usual first responses are 'do you often cut your feet? Or "do you wear a kilt?’

Throughout the UK - and possibly the rest of the world - Scottish sword dancing over crossed swords on the ground is quite well known. However, the English traditional sword dance is far less well known, even in the sword dance heartland of the North East of England.  

There are two types of native traditional English sword dancing. Teams of five men using a short flexible, two-handled sword perform the fast and furious Rapper dances of County Durham and Northumberland, and teams of six or eight men using rigid swords of metal or wood perform the statelier Longsword dances, which are mainly to be found in the County of Yorkshire. This account focuses on the Longsword dance tradition, in particular that originating from Greatham in County Durham.

Longsword dance is based on dancers working together in a circle - holding the hilt of their swords in their right hands and the person on their right holding the point. The dance comprises a number of 'figures'. Without breaking the circle, the dancers complete movements during which they either go under a sword held aloft by two of the dancers or over a sword held close to the ground. Each dancer generally completes each figure. The dance culminates in the making and displaying of the sword 'lock', with the swords interwoven in one of a variety of shapes.

With many of the dance traditions there was also an associated mummers’ play which formed an integral part of the performance. In the play one of the characters is ‘beheaded’ by the swords being ‘locked’ around his neck, and a quack doctor brings him back to life. A quack doctor being one who would, in earlier times, have been found at travelling fairs and shows offering a variety of dubious remedies supposedly capable of curing anything and everything.

Greatham is believed to be the only example of a dance and its play still being performed together.