The Morris Federation

UK's largest Morris & traditional dance teams association

How to Make Rapper Swords by Frank Lee – online talk

The Morris Federation launched a series of online workshops, talks and demos over Winter 2020-2021.  Here is a review of a demonstration & talk by Frank Lee in December 2020 to over 60 people on how he makes rapper swords.

The rapper sword he made in the filming for the demonstration was sword number 2549.  He has made 433 sets to date which have been sold worldwide.

Frank Lee
Frank Lee

“Frank went through all the steps and covered how he resourced his materials, and how to make the tools, as well as how to actually make the swords. He used videos and photos to make the process clear and, naturally, included many anecdotes along the way.

“Fascinating to see how every storey of his house is used in the process, along with many of the rooms. There were more steps than I thought there would be and quite a few required an adaptation or making of jigs to ease the job along. The ultimate justification for us hoarders of spare this-and-that in case it might come in useful one day.

“Afterwards he kindly answered additional questions from the audience.

“Remember:

  1. Never unbind a coil of spring steel in your kitchen, and
  2. Look after your sword – a lot of skill, ingenuity, love and hard work has gone into making it.

“Of course we (Ripon Spur Rapper) have a set of Frank’s swords.

“Now where did I put that spare lorry brake drum …

by Bob Barker of Ripon Spur Rapper in North Yorkshire

The demonstration was kindly run by Frank Lee, whose website is http://rapper-swords.co.uk.  Frank is a member of Carlisle Sword and Clog, Hexham Morris, Feet First Appalachian Cloggers, and Flag and Bone Gang.

Donations from participants raised money for Halsway Manor, National Centre for Folk Arts in Somerset.

DERT Rapper Tournament 2020 #DERTnotDERT

On the weekend of Saturday 4th – Sunday 5th April 2020, the DERT-not-DERT rapper tournament was unleashed into our homes.

Rapper teams from across the country, and over the pond, were planning to compete at DERT 2020 in Lincoln, hosted by Whip the Cat Rapper and Clog. Unfortunately, along with so many other events, DERT 2020 has been cancelled. Instead, we had DERT as it has never been seen before (and hopefully never will be again!) with everyone able to enjoy it from the safety of their own homes. Teams were invited to enter some long-distance competitions under the following categories:

DERT 2020 Tower Ravens
Tower Ravens solo
  • Solo Rapper
  • Stepping
  • Music
  • Character
  • Buzz Factor
  • Best use of Steep Hill (a steep hill in Lincoln – does what it says on the tin)

These categories were very much open to interpretation, and there were many inventive and surprising entries!

DERT 2020 resultsSee all the competition entries and results on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rappertournament/

For more info on the hosts, see: Whip the Cat Rapper and Clog

#DERTnotDERT, #IMProvising, #DERT2020

Giddy Up at Whitby children’s book

Giddy Up at Whitby illustration
Giddy Up at Whitby

Morris dancing parents and grandparents! Lovers of Whitby! Horse fans! If this is you, then watch out for this new book Giddy Up at Whitby – a morris dancing adventure for children.

Giddy Up at Whitby tells the story of Giddy, a lovable but somewhat foolish morris horse who gets lost at Whitby Folk Week.  As Giddy roams around the town trying to rejoin his lost side in time for a big performance, he meets dancers and musicians from all kinds of morris traditions, as well as a few other interesting characters.

The book is written by Katie Palmer Heathman, and illustrated by Geoff Roberts, who are both morris/sword dancers based in the North East, where Katie is squire of Black Gate Morris and Geoff is squire of Hexham Morris Men.  As well as a love of morris, they share a fondness for bad puns and Dad jokes, so Giddy’s story became an obvious way to teach tomorrow’s future dancers about both.

If you wish to order a copy and have it posted to you, the book is currently seeking funding via Kickstarter to finance the first print run, with the campaign running until 9th April 2020, see: Kickstarter campaign for Giddy Up at Whitby

A bit about the morris and sword dancing backgrounds of the author and illustrator: Katie grew up watching Mendip Morris Men and always wanted to dance. She started dancing in 2007 with Pigsty Morris in Bristol, before moving on to Cardiff Morris – Y Morys Caerdydd – during her university years, followed by Lady Bay Revellers. Geoff started dancing in 1993 with Woodside Morris Men, quickly joined by Chiltern Hundreds North West Morris, and then Rockhopper Morris.  Since moving to the North East he has joined the newly-formed Amble Sword Dancers, Hexham Morris and Black Gate Morris, where Katie and Geoff met as founder members.

 

New teams in Ripon and Newcastle

Read in the FedExtra magazine about two new teams:

Ripon Spur Rapper

Ripon Spur Rapper, a new mixed Rapper dance team in North Yorkshire, had their first dance out in April 2019.  They thank Frank Lee for making their swords, and Vince Rutland for his tuition.

Black Gate Morris

Black Gate Morris, a new mixed Cotswold dancing team in Newcastle, is named for a gate of the castle from which the city takes its name, and had their first dance out in summer 2019.  They thank Hexham Morris for their assistance and support.

Read about both teams in the FedExtra magazine, Summer 2019, page 8, and pages 12-13

For more information on the teams, see: Ripon Spur Rapper and Black Gate Morris

 

 

Joint Morris Organisations’ Day of Dance 2016

The JMO Day of Dance is a collaborative event organised in turn by one of the three morris organisations in the UK – The Morris Federation, The Morris Ring, and Open Morris.

Each year the JMO Day of Dance is held in a different location. The three organisations rotate the organisation of the event with a member side offering to plan and host the day.

The day of dance is a celebration of morris and traditional dancing. Groups from the three organisations, and performing many different types of traditional dance, will be present in one location for one day only. This is probably the biggest annual gathering of morris dancers in the world.

This year’s host side Minster Strays were formed in 2003 by two couples wishing to dance mixed morris. They dance Cotswold and border morris and have a wide repertoire of dances including many in the border style that they have made up themselves.

Details of the day are available from the JMO Day of Dance website.

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