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The following article was written by members of Orion Sword after their trip to the "Sword Spectactular" in May 1996.

In May of 1996, Orion Sword travelled to the north of England for a sword dance festival held in Scarborough. The gathering included over 40 teams from England, the Continent and North America. The festival included formal displays by all the teams as well as a procession through the city, a ceilidh, and pub tours. We saw displays by the Handsworth Traditional Sword Dances, Grenoside Traditional Longsword Dancers, and Flamborough Longsword, all of whose dances are what we think of as longsword when it is taught in the United States. However, there were many English teams who had made up their dances, sometimes based on sketchy recollections of the few facts that were known. For example, Clydeside Sword (Glasgow) had made up a 5-person dance because the only known fact about the Elgin Sword Dance was that 5 dancers were arrested for dancing on Sunday. The Kirkburton dancers dance longsword in clogs because they come from Lancashire where everyone wore clogs, so they thought it natural that the local dance would be done in clogs as well.

Sullivan's Sword was doing a version of the Salton Longsword Dance, which Orion dances. We had learned the dance at a workshop with Trevor Stone, the chief organizer of this Sword Spectacular, who had reconstructed some figures from old notes. The interpretation of the notes by Sullivan Sword showed just how many ways there are to do the same thing.

Handsworth Traditional Sword Dancers were impressive in both their speed and precision. Although not a youthful team, their dancing was so exciting that they danced eight rounds of each figure and it left you wanting to watch it one more time. Their dance was substantially as it is presented in the US.

One composed dance we really liked was performed by Wype Doles. It had a single step and several reversing figures. In fact, we liked it so much that our newest dance (to be debuted at the New York Sword Ale) owes several features to the Wype Doles dancers. It was interesting that in England, bastion of traditional sword dances, there were many teams who had made up dances with no traditional sources. They liked sword dancing, it may not have been traditional in their area but they found a tune and made up a dance. US dancers tend to stick to the traditional dances. Orion had been apprehensive of taking a dance of our own creation to England, land of tradition. We were pleasantly surprised to realize we were in good company with the many English teams who had composed their dances and didn't find it unusual at all (although our being a mixed gender team raised a few eyebrows). Our own composed dance, North Shirley Volunteers, was appreciated by many English dancers. The quality of our dancing was also commented on favorably which may have redeemed our Americanness and our mixed gender side.

There were a number of rapper sides as well. The rapper dancing matched our American expectations more closely than the longsword did. The high energy figures, crowd involvement and flashy moves looked a lot like rapper dancing in the States. One exception was Dorset Buttons, a rapper side who danced in clogs.

One aspect of tradition that was unusual to an American perspective was the continuity of the dancing in the towns. Flamborough has been dancing once a year with whatever side showed up on their traditional day of dance, and so the dance has kept on going. Goathland Plough Stots had a boys side of 6-8 year-olds. The dance is in the North Skelton family and the boys did two lock and draw figures, including over your own, doubles, and a hey. Including the older boys team (who was not at the festival), there were grandfathers and grandsons dancing together.

The Continental teams presented quite a contrast to the English styles. There were teams from the Czech Republic, Germany, the Basque region of Spain who presented a whole show, including a sword dance, social dances, traditional dances, singing, and large numbers of musicians. For several of these teams, the sword dance was a dance with swords as part of the costume rather than integral to the dance. The French team from Dunkirk and the Belgian teams more closely resembled the English style of sword dancing. And then there were the Italians. Several teams from smaller villages were people doing their local dances. They did not seem to have travelled much and most did not speak English.

The Belgian dances and the Dunkirk dance were constructed by a Belgian dancer, Renaat Van Craenenbroeck, from old descriptions and scenes captured in paintings. They used strikingly large swords (4 ft. long), and some of the dances used stepping in place as well and circular and column figures that resembled English-style figures. However, they ended in Continental fashion with a dancer hoisted on the lock waving a flag. One Belgian team wore tall boots with bells around the knees. The Dunkirk team's music was beautiful, French bagpipe and two flutes. The other Belgian team's presentation included traditional characters of the hobby horse and the fool.

The Basque dancers (Markina Sword) did a high-kicking dance that looked suspiciously like morris dancing. Most of their figures were dancing in place, not the circular figures of traditional English dancing. In one dance, they processed on with the swords, carefully put them down, danced, picked up the swords and processed off. Their group included women who did some social dances, and a traditional sickle dance that we understood had not been performed outside of their village before.

Bagnasco Bal do Sabre (the Italians) were very theatrical. Their dance is supposedly from the era of Turkish occupation during the Ottoman Empire so their costume is Saracen dress: pantaloons, vests, turbans, and curved swords. They danced only to drum, no melody instrument, and their full dance includes a mummers play with a beheading and resurrection. At the festival, they performed line figures, tunnel figures and window-type figures, and a basket-style lock. They also did the most militant maypole dance ever seen. They were from a small village which is having trouble supplying enough dancers to keep up the 25-person sword dance.

North America was represented by Longwood Rapper (Boston), Half Moon Sword (New York City), Toronto Women's Sword (Toronto, Canada), and Orion Longsword. The North American teams provided the majority of women sword dancers. There was one English mixed longsword side, and one Norwegian mixed rapper side, and one English women's rapper side. The huge majority of sword dancers was male. Some of the adjunct dancers (country, traditional, singing) were women, but as sword dancers, the North Americans were conspicuous.