Dance Teams Rushbearing 2002

Visiting dance teams at the 2002 Rushbearing

Rivington Morris

Rivington Morris is proud of its reputation for energy and precision in its dances, most of which were collected by the team from ladies who danced them in Lancashire with their own teams in the first half of the 1900s.

Rivington, with their straw boaters with flying red and purple ribbons, red skirts and purple sashes perform at many of the leading British folk festivals. They have also travelled to Belgium, France and Germany. However, in keeping with the North West morris tradition, Rivington are also frequently to be seen in local carnival processions such as Westhoughton, Longridge, Blackrod and Adlington.

Clydeside Rapper

Clydeside are a team of men and women who perform a range of traditional dances throughout Glasgow and anywhere else the are invited.

The sword dance team performs traditional (and some not so traditional) dances from the North East of England, using short, flexible swords called rappers. These dances evolved around the mining communities and it is thought that the swords used for dancing were developed from colliery tools. In addition to the rapper, a hilt and point longsword is also occasionally performed – a revival of an old 17th century dance from the North of Scotland.

Clerical Error

Clerical Error are a team of dancers and street entertainers who formed to resurrect a style of morris dancing indigenous to the Welsh/English border – known as Border Morris.

Border Morris has a unique style by virtue of the fact that the loud and energetic dancing is performed with sticks and the dancers blacken their faces.

Clerical Errors’ striking costume of top hat and tails is added to by the three coloured ribbons, chosen to represent the Welsh dragon (red), the Daffodil (yellow) and the Leek (green) all symbols of Wales. They have their own Dragon, ‘Mordaniog’, who dances, fools around and often frightens their audiences.

Our Local Dance Teams & Performers

Sowerby Bridge Morris Dancers

Formed in 1978 shortly after the second Rushbearing and as a direct consequence of the success of the festival, they perform their own local dances in the North West style. A woman’s side is recorded dancing at nearby Barkisland before the First World War with sticks similar to those in the photograph. When the side was revived, it was decided to dance in the style traditional to the area.