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A few years ago, Graham got a mystifying call from an Eastern European media mogul on his way through Boston. His English was extremely poor, and Graham's Croatian was nil, but gradually Graham understood that he'd found our name on the Intersnafu in connection with the team. He promised us a big career-recordings, television and film appearances-if we'd come and record some of our American rap songs for him. Graham let him down as gently as he could.
Rapper sword dancing is indubitably dance, but the swords are swords by courtesy only. They are flat, flexible strips of steel with two handles, one stationary and one fitted with a swivel; they are not "bladed" or sharp. Dancers can be hurt by them, but most often as a result of pinching of the sharp edge of the swivel housing, or by scraping along the hands or shins (though Cindy once sustained a concussion from being hit in the head with a swivel handle; we my love each other, but we dance rough!).
Rapper dance is a linked-sword dance; dancers have a sword end in each hand connecting them to each dancer around the ring. The dancers work their arts remaining linked to their own swords, and so to the other dancers, throughout. There are exceptions, but linkage is the basis and the first rule.
The origin of rapper sword is still disputed, but the usual story is that the swords themselves derive from implements used to scrape coal dust and muck sweat from mules and workhorses after they and their masters had finished the day's work in the mines of Northeastern England. The name of the genius who first looked at the scraper in his hand and thought of dancing with it is sadly lost.
Obviously, rapper sword's figures are related to those of longsword, but the pliancy of rapper swords lends itself to greater speed of movement, and figures unthinkable with the stiff swords of the older form.
With the suppleness of the swords has come the quick double jigs and rapid running step that now characterizes the athleticism of rapper. There is evidence that not all traditional teams in the later nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries placed a tap on each beat of a 6/8 meter, but the running step is now standard for most teams.
Rapper dance is now strongly associated with morris dance and other ritual dance forms, but they have rather different origins. Morris dance's roots go back into the Middle Ages, and efforts to link it with pre-Christian festive recognition of natural cycles are not necessarily far-fetched. Rapper dance is, by contrast, very young, and cannot predate the technology of sprung steel (not before 1800). Morris is usually danced outside; rapper may well have begun in pubs and taverns, where one of the challenges was not to smash the chairs or crack anyone's noggin.
Rapper dance is also associated with a very ancient and world-wide tradition of Pyrrhic sword dance (theatrical or ritual non-bloodletting exhibitions with swords), but we think the connection, while interesting, is not very strong, as our rapper swords were never formerly weapons. Still, longsword, rapper, and some Pyrrhic dances share some figures, and it was our great pleasure to make reference to our connection to ancient sword dances by beginning one of our routines with a bit of comic swordplay.
The derivation of the word "rapper" itself, in this context, is also disputed. There is a popular theory that it is a corruption of "rapier," but I think that, especially if the usual origin story is correct, a corruption of "scraper" is more likely.
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