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Description: | There are records of sword dancing on Tyneside from the 1700's. References to sword dancers are made in a number of Tyneside songs, one of the earliest being in John Leonard's 'Winlaton Hopping' (circa 1814). Rapper dancing (short sword dancing) has always been associated with pitmen and by the end of the nineteenth century, a large number of pit villages in Northumberland and Durham had their own teams. Winlaton is thought to be one of the earliest, if not the first, rapper teams and one of only two thought to be in existence before 1850. On this film we see a mature, but energetic, team performing for the cameras. This clip was taken from a selection of film made by the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library in the early 20th century. The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library was established in 1958 following the death of composer, song collector and President of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, Ralph Vaughan Williams. It was previously known as the Cecil Sharp Library because it chiefly comprised Sharp?s personal library, which he bequeathed to the EFDS in 1924. Its first permanent home was established with the opening of Cecil Sharp House in 1930, and Sharp?s daughter Joan was the first librarian. With the amalgamation of the two societies and subsequent bequests, donations and purchases, the library has developed considerably over the years, most notably with the addition of the literature, sound and manuscript collections of other eminent folklorists and collectors of the twentieth century. Sharp was one of the first people to study rapper dancing in the region and made detailed studies of the individual dances in the area, publishing them in his Sword Dances of Northern England, between 1911 and 1913. This clips form part of a selection of clips of local rapper teams performing their unique dances and steps. It is not certain when the film was made, but we can probably assume that it was around the time Sharp visited the area. ; Early 20th film of local rapper teams. | Publisher: | producer : Vaughan Williams Memorial Library | Rights holder: | rights holder : Vaughan Williams Memorial Library | Subjects: | rapper & dancing | Temporal: | start=1901;end=1940; | Source: | Folk Archive Resource North East | Identifier: | farne:V0100300 | Go to resource |
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