The Winlaton Sword Dance
Winlaton is a small mining village on the Durham side of the Tyne, close to Newcastle. A sword dance has been danced there every Christmas within living memory, though of late years the performances have become rather irregular.
The dance is, perhaps, the most primitive example of its kind now to be seen in the North of England. It would be difficult to exaggerate the force and energy with which it was executed when I saw it in December, 1912. The performers were men well advanced in years, the leader, Mr. William Prudhoe, is sixty-five years old and, although the dance is a short one, they were quite exhausted by their efforts.
Although its figures are few in number, and none of them, technically, of special intricacy compared, at least, with those of the Earsdon and other dances, the dance is by no means an easy one. The great difficulty is to catch its barbaric spirit, to reproduce the breathless speed, the sureness and economy of movement, the vigour and abandonment of the ‘stepping’ displayed by the Winlaton men. The movements must be absolutely continuous, and, from the conclusion of the Calling-on Song to the final exhibition of the Nut, there must be no stop or pause of any kind.
There are five dancers, a Betty, and a musician who plays a tin-whistle. |
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Above: Winlaton, 1926
Notation
The Calling-on Song
Fig 1: Ring-Clash-and-Step
Fig 2: The Nut, Rose and Ring
Fig 8: The Needle
Fig 2: The Nut, Rose, and Ring
Fig 4: The Fiddler
Fig 2: The Nut, Rose, and Ring
Fig 5: Mary Anne
Fig 2: The Nut, Rose, and Ring
Fig 6: The Roll
Fig 2: The Nut, Rose, and Ring
Fig 7: Straight Line
Fig 2: The Nut, Rose, and Ring Exhibition of the Nut in line |
