Meets
THRALES WEEKEND
The second weekend of November is Thrales Weekend. We celebrate our birthday with a two-day rapper dance spectacular, one of only a few annual events in the sword calendar.
Every year we host a fellow sword team as our special guests for a marathon pub tour of London on Saturday.
On the Sunday we hold a day of dance at a city centre pub, joined by around a dozen other teams. The event is always open to the public and entry is free. Sadly the beer is not.
The very first Thrales Weekend was only a one-day event; a circular tour of Southwark, starting and finishing at the Anchor pub via a curry house near Tower Bridge.
See our diary listings for current details or contact us if you or your dance team would like to get involved.
It's a melancholy duty. See, it's not the winning, is it? It's the competing. Cos we never win...
— Grandma Thrale
COMPETITIONS
From the days of two pit-teams dancing in a pub for bragging rights and beer, to modern dance contests, rapper has always embraced competition. It has fed innovation and helped the dance develop as a living tradition.
DERT
The Dancing England Rapper Tournament (DERT) attracts sword teams from around the world. Each year the competition is hosted by a different team in a different part of the UK.
DERT transforms a number of pubs into rapper arena where the teams battle it out. The event also serves as the rapper world’s annual get-together, moot or big meeting.
Thrales have had their share of DERT victory over the years, and we've twice hosted DERT in London. The first was in 2000, and the second, nicknamed the “Rapperlympics” coincided with the 2012 olympic games.
Details for this year’s DERT competition can be found here.
DART
The first Dancing America Rapper Tournament (DART) was held in Boston, MA, in 2010 and it was judged and organised along similar lines to the DERT competition.
Thrales were delighted to be the first winners of the DART trophy with this dance.
Details on forthcoming DART events can be found here.