Who is performing?

The final list of performing teams is:

Confirmed Overseas Teams

• A Series of Unfortunate Rapperettes (Germany)
• Bal Da Sabre Fenestrelle (Italy)
  

  In Fenestrelle, on the occasion of the patronal Feast of St. Louis IX, king of France (25th August), it's possible to appreciate the "ballo degli spadonari" or "Bal dâ Sabbre" (the local dance). This originates in the traditions of the mountain people of Provence and the Dauphinois on the French side of the Alps, and of Cuneo and Moncenisio on the Italian side.

  The history of the dance is unclear, but it was well-known throughout the 20th century, and in 1935 the dancers travelled to London to take part in an international folklore meeting. This was so successful that they were invited to perform at the Royal Court in Brussels on their way home.

  The team is composed of 15-20 men with their leader, and followed by a Harlequin. In the past they wore a white shirt, red and white trousers of Turkish style, and a felt hat of various colours; the leader was dressed all in white, with a white scarf across the shoulder like an officer. The costume has now changed. The trousers today are red and green knickerbockers, the socks are white, as is the shirt, while the hat is like a little turban in stripes of the colour of the national flag and all the dancers have the tricolour scarf across the shoulders.

  This will be their first visit to the International Sword Spectacular, and we look forward to it.

• Boerke Naas (Belgium)
• Charles River Rapper (USA)

  Charles River Rapper (CRR) is a Boston-area rapper sword team. The team was founded in 1996 by Margaret Keller Dimock, a former member of Chesapeake Rapper from 1993-1995. She began to learn rapper there and more at Pinewoods during CDS and CDSS sessions. When she moved to Boston, she discovered that there were relatively few rapper teams and decided to start one. The team began with just one routine, and focused on that for several years.

  Currently, the dancers are all women; our musician is male. We are very proud that we are truly an intergenerational team; we have had grandmothers on the team, and currently range in age from teenagers to adults with grown children. We also have a mother and daughter on the team. All of this provides us with a wonderful community within the team, which is a real strength. We see that most other rapper teams are comprised of all adolescents or all adults. The team welcomes new members, inviting people who have expressed interest to attend practices for a few weeks so that they may explore this dance form more closely.

  We also have a tremendous background in dance and the wider folk community. Some of us have been involved with the folk community since childhood; others have become connected in the past several years as adults.

• Clownfish Rapper (USA)
• Jack the Rapper (Norway)
• Kezka (Basque Country)

  Kezka dance group was founded on 1958 in Eibar, Basque Country. His first director was Gregorio Santa Cruz, teacher of Basque traditional dance born in 1898 and that was masterful of dance from 1930 to 1965. Gregorio Santa Cruz instructed to the group in the knowledge of the traditional dances that have come making in the Basque Country during several centuries.

  Kezka dantza taldea develops to an intense work of investigation and diffusion of dances and traditional customs in Eibar and its environs. From 1994 the group is the responsible of the execution of "soka-dantza" of the day of San Juan in Eibar, a chain dance which is danced since century XVIII performed with the participation of the mayor and the main authorities of the town.

  The group is the devoted also of the execution of the dances in honor to the Virgin of Arrate. A repertoire of traditional dances that are the 8 of September annually, and that include the traditional dances of long swords characteristic of many Basque choreographic traditions.

  Close 35 dancers and musicians comprise of Kezka dantza taldea, and the group manages a school of traditional dance with more than 100 students. The main instrument that interpretes the musicians is "txistu eta danbolina", a set of pipe and tabor characteristic of the Basque folklore.

  The sword dance of the Lady of Arrate

  Arrate is a small rural district belonging to Eibar who maintains a rich festive tradition around the Lady of Arrate that is celebrated on September 8. A celebration dy that includes all kinds of religious and folk arts among the dance has occupied a privileged place for centuries. The group Kezka carries nearly half a century charge of the dances of Arrate including the sword dance. In 2005 the group Kezka has conducted a research work on these dances for which has recovered coreografics elements of the Basque tradition.

  The sword dance of Arrate, is a beautiful example of the basque sword dances. It is organized on four rows of dancers whit long swords, led by a captain, and four soloists dancers who display the characteristics kicks and "cabrioles" of the Basque dance. Figures such as bridges, roses, grills and tunnels make up this spectacular sword dance in which take part a minimum of 21 dancers, but which can collect more than 50 dancers.

• Komna (Czech)

  Komna is a town in Moravia (Czech Republic). The sword dancers have been strong supporters of the various International Sword Spectacular festivals, and along the way they have formed strong links with the Goathland Plough Stots. They are a very hospitable group, and you are strongly advised to take with extreme caution any offers of plum brandy.

• Lange Wapper (Belgium)

  Dansgroep Lange Wapper was founded in Antwerp in February 1958. The mission of the group was to concentrate on traditional dances and music of the area covering Vlaams Brabant and De Kempen. Antwerp is situated in the middle of this area, which is to be found in the centre and North - North-East of the Flemish speaking part of Belgium.

  As time went by and the knowledge of dance techniques increased, Renaat Van Craenenbroeck, co-founder and late Dance Leader of the group, started to create a number of new dances based on the traditional techniques and traditional music. These were and are used in a still increasing number of dance courses very well appreciated within and outside Belgium. At the same time he got interested in Sword dances. This led him to get in contact with people with the same interests all over Europe and even in the USA. He became known in many places as an authority on Sword Dancing.

  Over the years the group had ups and downs with numbers of members varying from 30 to 15 and up again. Today the group has about 50 members. The Traditionele Antwerpse Zwaarddans got its revival in 1970 when it was danced in front of the Cathedral in Antwerpen, for the first time in the previous century. Since then the dance has been performed every year on the Sunday of Half Lent (= 3 weeks before Easter). The dance is based on notifications found in city archives and on a drawing from a contemporary painter of Pieter Bruegel de Oude.

  Traces go back to the 13th century. The dance represents the introduction of young men within the men's society in the Middle Ages and the following centuries. It also means a symbolic celebration of the end of the dark winter time and the start of Spring with the return of the Light (= more sun light).

  The shape of the dance today is regarded as one of the most monumental examples of Sword dance. The dance consists of 9 main figures and lasts about 25 minutes. The recreation of the dance was a life achievement of Renaat Van Craenenbroeck. He spent most of his life researching for the origin and the source of sword dances, their significance, the spread all over Europe and the possible relationship of characteristics between dances in different countries.

  The team also has what it calls "our small sword dance", danced by 6 people wearing clogs, and without music. Furthermore, Dansgroep Lange Wapper has a women's sword dance danced by 6 (or more) girls of the group. This dance includes characteristics and figures similar to the ones of British Sword Dances.

• Les Pas d'la Yau - Quevaucamps (Belgium)
  

  In our region, this dance celebrates on one hand the end of winter and on the other the passing over of the young people (teenagers) to the men’s community.

  And what is the sword dance?

  Much more than just a show, it is a ritual dance in circle; the various figures are linked together and follow each other for the spectators’ pleasure.

  The sword dance is a men’s dance.

  Going over the swords at very precise moments, each dancer undergoes an initiation which gets him fully in the men’s community.

  The sword dance is the expression of the solidarity among the group of which each member must give the best of himself to get a perfect performance.

  The wolf refers to a legendary animal called Galouche in our region and especially in Quevaucamps.

  Through his acting and his costume he stands out immediately among the dancers and tempers the formal nature of the dance and, if he dies at the end, is it not to be better re-born in the mind of people?

  The Group

  Where can you see us?

  Each year, our ritual outing takes place 2 weeks before Easter in various places in the Beloeil area.

  And a proverb says: Whoever touches the head of Galouche will get love and chance.

• Orion Longsword (USA)
• St. Martin in Sulmtal (Austria)
• St. Sebastiaansgilde Westerlo (Belgium)

  The Sint-Sebastiaansgilde Westerlo,

  The guild originated for the protection of the castle. We still have a group of archers that practise and compete every week. We also have our group of dancers, flag-wavers and professional musicians.

  The dance group performs traditional folkdances from Flanders (the north / Dutch-speaking part of Belgium). Our programme includes the oldest traditional stick dance, 'The Trawantel', a men's dance original from our village.

  We wear traditional clothes from the region and sometimes dance in wooden clogs. Our musicians are professionals and semi-professionals; they create a traditional atmosphere with accordion, violins and songs.

  The programme will be a mixture of : original very old traditional dances, new creations and flag-waving.

  The group has been participating on different festivals all over the world. Most of them were Cioff-festivals. We have been to Syria, Austria, Portugal, Mexico, Rumania, Greece, Ireland, Ecuador, England, Turkey, Germany, Norwegian, Holland...

• Überlinger Schwerttanzkompanie (Germany)

  The sword dance is an age-old guild dance, whose roots are to be found in the Überlingen Shrovetide customs. The first documentary evidence of the dance occurs in the minutes of the council of the Imperial cities, dated 8th February 1646.

  The true origin of the dance is unclear. The local tradition is that it was granted by the Holy Roman Emperor following a military encounter in the 15th or 16th century.

  Within the sword dance a special role is played by the Hänsele, the central Shrovetide figure in Überlingen. The local tradition explains his appearance thus: the Imperial City of Überlingen had to supply the Emperor with 100 men for his war. Before they marched away they all went to Mass, all except for one, who went to the pub instead. After the war they all came safely home except for one townsman who had fallen in battle. He is the one, the fool and apostate, who is commemorated by the Hänsele. The people of Überlingen also call him “den Töten”, the dead man.

  The dance was originally performed by all the unmarried young men on Shrove Tuesday, but the privilege was quickly taken over by the Vintners, the largest and most powerful of the guilds in Überlingen.

  The custom gradually changed during the nineteenth century. The link with Shrovetide was loosened and it became a separate tradition, taking on new elements as it did so. It is now performed on special occasions, and in particular on the second Sunday in July for a local religious festival known as the Sweden procession (this commemorates the struggle against Sweden in the Thirty Years War of the seventeenth century).

  In the sword dance the piper and drummer play a tune called the “Maidlintanz” (maidens’ dance). Every sword dancer requests a dance from one of the women who are dressed in traditional costume, and while the pairs are dancing the Hänsele entertains the public with mime and practical jokes.

Confirmed UK Teams

• Black Rigg Rapper
• Black Swan Rapper
• Carlisle Clog & Sword
• Castleford Longsword
• Claro Sword & Morris Men
• Coventry Morris Men
• Coventry Mummers
• Durham University Rapper Team
• Flamborough Sword Dancers
• Gift Rapper
• Goathland Plough Stots
• Grenoside Sword Dancers
• Handsworth Traditional Sword Dancers
• High Spen Blue Diamonds
• Hoddesdon Crownsmen
• King Stone Rapper
• Larks Hill Sword Squad
• Mabel Gubbins Rapper
• Maltby Phoenix
• Mons Meg Rapper
• Newcastle Kingsmen
• North British
• Pately Longsword
• Pengwyn Rapper Sword Dancers
• Plymouth Morris Men
• Rapper Rascals
• Redcar Sword Dancers
• Rockingham Rapper & Step
• Ryburn Longsword
• Ryknild Rapper
• Sallyport Sword Dancers
• Snark
• Southport Swords
• Stone Monkey Sword Dancers
• Sullivan’s Sword
• Triskele Sword
• Whip the Cat