Rapper: The Miners' Sword Dance of North-East England/Rapper: History of the Miners' Sword Dance of North-East England

Heaton explores the twentieth-century dance that Cecil Sharp collected, and his analysis of Sharp's collecting technique is a valuable reminder of the intrinsic subjectivity involved in the collection of folk dance. The twentieth-century competitions are examined and their influence on the dance is considered, from EFDSS competitions which favoured simple over 'fancy' dances, to the establishment of the Dancing England Rapper Tournament in the 1980s, which created a new dancing standard and became a forum for the interchange of ideas.