Swords and Stars: Rapper Sword Dance for Primary Schools

English Dance and Song Spring 2017

EDS, the magazine of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, is the world’s oldest magazine for folk music and dance. First published in 1936, EDS is essential reading for anyone with a passion for folk arts. The following sample article is copyright. You are welcome to share it in the format supplied and accompanied by this title page, but you may not reproduce it, in full or in part, by any other means.

Swords and Stars: Rapper Dance for Primary Schools

Gold Badge holder Phil Heaton reviews this teaching resource, part of EFDSS’ The Full English Extra Resource Bank.

It was always a grand plan to have a set of rapper instructions for schools.

All credit to EFDSS: they have produced a magnificent resource that should be read and used by every adult with an inkling of teaching the dance to children and teenagers.

This new PDF resource, available on the Full English website as part of the Full English project, was written by famed rapper names Lucy Huzzard (Star and Shadow) and Bryony Griffith (Newcastle Kingsmen), with an excellent set of graphics by Will Hampson (Newcastle Kingsmen).

This rapper production was based on a series of lessons aimed at schools in the Yorkshire coalfield area, where mining was once so strong and now has completely disappeared. It is part of an ongoing hands-on history approach much lauded by OFSTED inspectors but not, as yet, taken up by too many teachers.

This PDF is an excellent way in to encourage schools and teachers to put their charges on a right track and give them a solid base of relevant and worthwhile experiences.

The instructions go through warm ups and games – especially good is the section called Relating to the Space, which is very descriptive: ‘Another key part of rapper is getting used to dancing close together… you could make the dancing space smaller and smaller like fish in a crowded pond so they have to be more aware and careful of each other…’.

The instructions then move on to explain the various stages of the dance – Walk On, Coach and Horses, Single Guard, Moving Fixy and Curly and into The Lock – and each topic is accompanied by some excellent diagrams.

The main instructions move into an advanced section which includes stepping, again very descriptive for children: ‘Imagine there is something on the ball of your shoe (eg dog poo, chewing gum, etc) and that you want to get it off…’ and it then moves on to the important aspect of Tommying, where most classes, like most rapper teams, have ‘...pupils who otherwise would not be able to participate’.

To accompany the resource are tunes and songs from Bryony and a list of useful online links and neat advice hidden in gems such as ‘Hosepipes can be used creatively’.

This is a brilliant teaching resource and should have a place in every rapper teacher’s heart – not just on the bookshelf or in the phone. Many current teams, including one or two Dancing England Rapper Tournament (DERT) participants, could take these lessons and, beginning at the basics, build a better performance.

To access Swords and Stars: Rapper Dance for Primary Schools, or any of our Resource Bank materials, visit www.efdss.org/efdss-education/ resource-bank