long sword dance
{{Short description|English folk dance}}
{{use British English|date=January 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
File:26.12.16 Grenoside Dance 125 (31520439070).jpg
The long sword dance (or longsword dance{{refn|group=notes|The Morris Ring refer to the dance tradition as longsword{{cite web|title=Longsword Dancing|date=17 October 2011 |url=https://themorrisring.org/about-morris/longsword|access-date=9 December 2021}} as do EFDSS.{{cite web|title=Longsword|date=20 June 2014 |url=https://www.efdss.org/learning/resources/beginners-guides/34-english-folk-costume/2470-efdss-section9-longsword|access-date=9 December 2021}} However the Goathland Plough Stots website uses long sword.{{cite web|title=Welcome To Goathland Plough Stots Official Website|url=https://www.goathlandploughstots.com/|access-date=9 December 2021}}}}) is a hilt-and-point sword dance recorded mainly in Yorkshire, England. The dances are usually performed around Christmas time.
History
Hilt-and-point sword dances, of which English long sword dance is an example, have been found across northern, western, and central Europe, with records dating from at least the fifteenth and possibly the fourteenth century.{{cite journal|last=Corrsin|first=Stephen D.|title=The Historiography of European Linked Sword Dancing|journal=Dance Research Journal|year=1993|volume=25|issue=1|page=1}} It is unclear to what extent the existing continental European sword dance traditions influenced the English long sword dance.{{cite book|last=Corrsin|first=Stephen D.|chapter=English Sword Dancing and the European Context|title=Step Change: New Views on Traditional Dance|editor-last=Boyes|editor-first=Georgina|publisher=Francis Boutle|year=2001|pages=25–26}} In England there is little evidence about the history of sword dancing before the mid-eighteenth century.{{cite web|last=Corrsin|first=Stephen D.|title=SWORD DANCING IN BRITAIN: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY BASED ON THE HOLDINGS OF THE VAUGHAN WILLIAMS MEMORIAL LIBRARY OF EFDSS|url=https://www.efdss.org/images/VWMLASSETS/PDFs/SWORDBIB.pdf|access-date=5 June 2025|publisher=EFDSS}} The first reference to the characteristic "lock" in England comes from 1777, and the earliest references to sword dancing in Yorkshire come from the early nineteenth century.{{cite book|last=Hutton|first=Ronald|title=The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in England|year=1996|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=76}} Cecil Sharp and other 20th Century folklorists believed that the dances originated from a religious or magical ceremony that was performed around Plough Monday to promote fertile soil;{{sfn|Sharp|1913|p=10}} later researchers have cast doubt on such findings.Ronald Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon Oxford (1999) Chapter 7
The long sword dance is related to the rapper sword dance of Northumbria, but the character is fundamentally different as it uses rigid metal or wooden swords, rather than the flexible spring steel rappers used by its northern relation.{{cite news|title=Sheffield sword dancers perform at Belgium festival|url=https://www.thestar.co.uk/lifestyle/culture/sheffield-sword-dancers-perform-at-belgium-festival-1-8571119|access-date=5 January 2018|work=The Sheffield Star|date=3 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170601025619/https://www.thestar.co.uk/lifestyle/culture/sheffield-sword-dancers-perform-at-belgium-festival-1-8571119|archive-date=1 June 2017}}
Location
Long sword dances are most commonly found in Yorkshire and the southern part of County Durham,{{cite web |url=http://musicattheheartofteesdale.com/longsword-dancers/ |website=Music at the Heart of Teesdale |title=The Longsword Dance Tradition |access-date=8 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711125814/https://musicattheheartofteesdale.com/longsword-dancers/|archive-date=11 July 2021}} with particular concentrations of dances in East Cleveland, the northern part of the North York Moors and around Sheffield.{{sfn|Sharp|1913|p=9}} Outliers were also recorded in the East Midlands and elsewhere in Northeastern England.{{cite web |last1=Millington |first1=Peter |title=Longsword Dance Distribution Map |date=10 December 2015 |url=http://mastermummers.org/atlas/Sughrue.php?maptype=google&rootfilename=Sughrue&go=Go+%3E%3E |access-date=15 September 2022}}
Performances
File:Newcastle_Kingsmen_performing_longsword_dance_at_Sidmouth_Folk_Festival,_2011_(01)_(video-converter.com).webm long sword dance at Sidmouth Folk Festival, 2011]]
Unlike many traditional dances in England, which are mainly performed by revival teams, long sword dances are often still performed by their own village teams, such as Grenoside Sword Dancers, the Goathland Plough Stots and Flamborough Sword Dancers.{{cite news|title=Sword dancers ready for Boxing Day tradition|url=https://www.bridlingtonfreepress.co.uk/news/sword-dancers-ready-for-boxing-day-tradition-1-8905969|access-date=5 January 2018|work=Bridlington Free Press|date=12 December 2017}} These teams generally maintain the traditions of their dances, such as traditional performances on Boxing Day or Plough Monday.{{cite web|title=Continuity, Conflict and Change: A Contextual and Comparative Study of Three South Yorkshire Longsword Dance Teams|url=http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/3425/2/247720_vol1.pdf|website=whiterose.ac.uk|access-date=5 January 2018|pages=331–338}}
Long sword dances vary in the way they are performed, with some being slow and militaristic,{{cite news|last1=Bradtke|first1=Elaine|title=Elaine Bradtke's guide to five lesser-known English folk dances|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/jan/07/morris-dancing-longsword|access-date=5 January 2018|work=The Guardian|date=7 January 2009}} such as the Grenoside or performed with pace and speed like Handsworth dances from near Sheffield. Others have different features including variations of numbers of dancers and distinctive movements.{{sfn|Sharp|1913|pp=9–14}}
In addition to performances by traditional long sword teams in their own location, long sword teams also appear at folk festivals such as the Sidmouth Folk Festival and the Beverley Folk Festival.
Dedicated long sword festivals have also been held in the UK. The International Sword Spectacular took place in Whitby, England, in May 2004 and was held again in York in May 2008.{{cite news|last1=Hutchinson|first1=Charles|title=Sword play|url=http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/leisure/theatre/2277164.Sword_play/|access-date=5 January 2018|work=York Press|date=16 May 2008}}
Gallery
Some photographs of Grenoside Sword Dancers performing the Grenoside sword dance on Boxing Day, the traditional day the dance is performed.{{cite web|title=Grenoside Sword Dancers|url=https://grenosword2010.apwb.com/|access-date=2 December 2021}}
File:Grenoside1.JPG|Boxing Day 2005 - The Grenoside Sword Dance Captain holds aloft the sword lock before placing it around his neck
File:Grenoside Sword Dance.jpg|Boxing Day 2004 - The Grenoside Sword Dance Captain is ritually "beheaded" as the dancers withdraw their swords sharply from around his neck
File:Grenoside Sword Dance final figure.jpg|The final figure in the Sword Dance
Further reading
- Rattle Up My Boys (RUMB), a print journal for those with an interest in sword dance
- Trevor Stone, Rattle Up, My Boys, 1980
Notes
{{reflist|group=notes}}
References
{{reflist}}
=Sources=
- {{cite book|last=Sharp|first=Cecil|title=The sword dances of Northern England; part 3|year=1913|edition=1|publisher=Novello|location=London|oclc= 801635200}}
External links
- [https://www.morrisfed.org.uk/magazines/rumb/#gsc.tab=0 Rattle Up, My Boys (journal archive, 1987 to present)]
- [https://sullivanssword.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Rattle-Up-My-Boys-by-Trevor-Stone.pdf Rattle Up, My Boys: The Story of Longsword Dancing - A Yorkshire Tradition] original booklet (1980).
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20041209170459/http://www.swordspectacular.org/swordspec2000/ World Millennium Sword Spectacular]
- [http://www.sworddanceunion.org.uk/welcome The Sword Dance Union]
- [https://grenosword2010.apwb.com Grenoside Sword Dancers]
- [http://www.kingsmen.co.uk/ Newcastle Kingsmen]
- [http://www.bishopgundulfs.com/ Bishop Gundulf's Morris]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20090603195734/http://www.communigate.co.uk/ne/lingdaleitshistory/page62.phtml Lingdale Primrose] – archive photos, press cuttings and other material
- [http://www.starofswords.wordpress.com Star Of Swords Sword Dance]
{{English folk music}}