White Swan are former students of the Royal School of Ballet, who studied under the inspirational dance teacher Seymour Cox. Winners of the Dame Ninette de Valois and Daily Mail awards for best new coreography in 2010 and 2011, White Swan have been performing their show Golden Showers which blends tradional dance forms –  tap, clog, morris and rapper – with the non-narrative explorations of human movement of Merce Cunningham, to critical acclaim across Europe and the far east. This is their first DERT.

Exeter University have now owned SWORDS! for about a year. In between pretending to study, dancing, and singing our little hearts out we have just about worked out which end of the sword is supposed to go in which hand. After several near decapitations we revived the team in October 2011 and are proud to say that we can now dance with SWORDS!

Shawlands Hillbillies, from Shawlands Primary School, Barnsley, have been dancing together for the past three years. As well as rapper, they are also learning to clog dance and have tried their hand at longsword. They competed in last year's DERTy tournament in Oxford and in the Demon Barber Rapper Dancing Tournament, winning the latter in front of a proud home crowd. They have performed at Shepley Folk Festival and as part of the Kingstone Community Festival but as the team are all now in Year 6, this is potentially their last chance to enter DERTy.

Heage Windmillers, now into their Silver Jubilee year, are a mixed age Traditional Dance Team currently performing Rapper, Clog, Irish and Highland. Based in the market town of Belper, the team started life in the craft room at Heage Junior School and perform regularly around their county at galas, fetes and carnivals shows at hospitals and senior citizens homes, as well as putting on an annual 'Dance Extravaganza' in Belper.

Mrs Rafally’s teacup clattered in her saucer, the tension in her shrill voice made it barely audible above the sound of the trees billowing in the grounds below. A storm was coming.

“You mean to inform me that they perform without prior advertisement to the good people within the local hostelry?”

“Yes m’lady.” Walbottle mumbled into the sleeve of his frockcoat, wiping away a perpetual nasal drip with his silk napkin, “just a scream and then in they run.”

“A scream?”

Faster than a speeding neutrino, more elusive than the Higgs Boson, Stone Monkey from Long Eaton in the East Midlands remain the 8th wonder of the world. Whether the accolade is granted because it’s a wonder they are still dancing, or because indeed they dance with such vigor and panache that audiences gaze in wonder, is not clear.

HawkSword represents over 40 years of rapper dancing, but has only been dancing as HawkSword since 2008. Members from East Saxon Sword and Greengate, plus a few other dancers have stunned audiences with their brilliant new and exciting fast dances. The only mixed gender rapper side in London offer a different and impressive performance, easily being the best in their class (so we have been told by pub audiences so it must be true).

The Hoddesdon Crownsmen were founded in 1970 in Hoddesdon, east Hertfordshire. They perform three rapper dances each composed of a mixture of traditional and modern figures, and also the traditional Beadnell dance. Unusually their swords have no swivels, but they still manage to break them occasionally. They dance in black waistcoats and breeches with white shirts and socks, with tasteful purple-and-gold sashes and rosettes.

"Once upon a time, in the dreich desolate north-east neuk of Scotland there lived five lonely, timorous lassies dreaming of far flung adventures beyond the stifling grey mist of the Granite City. One particularly bleak evening, as each lass sat alone, the sweet sound of a fiddle murmured in the distance. The music began to lure each girl to a nearby alehouse where their lives would be changed forever. United by a common affection for bendy steel and with a newly developed taste for beer, huddled around a tray of tequilas, Gaorsach was conceived.

A young vibrant collection of persons, who love dancing and performing in public.
The group are always keen to influence the choice of repertoire and the activities we take part in, and do so. The aim is to make sure that they feel the group is "theirs", rather than being just members of a class.