Each week, our entertainments reporter tries out a new activity. See the latest How to.. This page last updated: Thursday, March 23, 2006 .
How to.. sword dance
SHARP MOVER: Duncan Hall, centre, tries his hand at sword dancing with Brian Kell, left, and Richard Jones, at Childers Club, Whittlesey. (6AL0214304) Picture: ANDY LAITHWAITE
WHEN I mentioned I was going to give sword-dancing a try for my next column there were a few wags (mainly photographers) who said I ought to check my life insurance for maiming clauses.
With my lack of co-ordination now legendary among those who point cameras my way in between giggling uncontrollably at whatever ridiculous activity I am doing, I did wonder if they might be right. I didn’t really fancy doing a piece about how to live your life as a unidexter.
When I saw the length of the swords Whittlesey’s Wype Doles Longsword Dance Team use I was already composing the first lines of that article in my head.
But, as you can imagine in these health and safety-led times, the actual swords would have difficulty carving their way through butter – let alone flesh, bone and sinew.
In fact, I soon found out I was more likely to complain of a bump on the head from the flat side of the sword than actually get a length of cold steel cut into me.
The Wype Doles Longsword Dance Team, which meets at the Childers Club, in Station Road, Whittlesey, every Tuesday, was started by the founder of the revived Straw Bear Festival, Brian Kell, back in the early ’90s.
Brian had learned to sword dance while living up in the North East as a young man. He still felt it was one of the hardest dances to perfect.
He said: “The swords are dancing – the team is moving them. Unless everybody is on the rhythm it can cause problems.
“Although the dancing looks easy it is hard to do properly when it is up to speed.”
The group walked me through some of the simpler dances and moves that the team initially took a year to learn.
Each dance is traditional and takes its name from the area it first originated from, although the team does modify the dances to their own style.
Each dance I tried involved six dancers, who all had a sword each, and finished each movement with an intricate linking of the swords into a star shape.
The first dance, which originated in the North Yorkshire village of Bellerby, was called the Bassenheller.
Many of the moves were similar to those you did in folk dancing, moving around the other dancers in turn, but the main difference was the big 4ft long piece of steel you had in your hands.
You had to remember to keep hold of the handle of your sword, and often the sword blade of the dancer next to you as you weaved in and out of different patterns and shapes.
All the time you were trying to keep a skipping motion going, with everyone trying to keep in time with the melodeon-player which provides the music. The melodeon is a small squeeze box, giving the sort of sound that fans of the cartoon series Pugwash would recognise.
The second dance we tried, a North Skelton dance called Saxon, was much more about clashing the swords and moving with a partner than weaving in and out of a circle of swords.
Both took a lot of concentration, and left you feeling quite worn out by the end.
It was easy to see how one person missing their mark could throw all the rest of the team out too, as I did several times! Perhaps it was a good job the swords weren’t as sharp as they could have been . . .
Brian said: “When the dance is done at speed it is spectacular and looks amazing.
“When you do the dance well it just makes the whole thing so much better – when you come offstage you feel 10ft tall and you get a real buzz out of it.”
Richard Exton, captain of the team, said although the team had close links with the Straw Bear Festival, which takes over Whittlesey in early January, it was an independent society that performed between six and eight dances a year at conferences and folk dancing events.
He said: “About three-quarters of the team are also Straw Bear members, so we don’t dance during the straw bear parade, but we do get a chance to dance on the Sunday.”
The team, which takes its name from an area of farmland near Eastrea, also performs demonstrations at pubs.
Their next public appearance is on Tuesday, March 28, at The Botolph Arms, in Oundle Road, Orton Longueville.