{"id":5108,"date":"2015-02-27T15:15:48","date_gmt":"2015-02-27T15:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/?p=5108"},"modified":"2015-02-27T15:15:48","modified_gmt":"2015-02-27T15:15:48","slug":"on-a-knifes-edge-would-you-dance-with-swords","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2015\/02\/27\/on-a-knifes-edge-would-you-dance-with-swords\/","title":{"rendered":"On a knife&#039;s edge: would you dance with swords?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_5112\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5112\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Sword_dancing.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-5112 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Sword_dancing-1024x896.jpg\" alt=\"Taff Rapper sword dancers get their swords in a twist\" width=\"1024\" height=\"896\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5112\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5112 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Sword_dancing-1024x896.jpg\" alt=\"Taff Rapper sword dancers get their swords in a twist\" width=\"1024\" height=\"896\" \/><\/noscript><\/a> Taff Rapper sword dancers get their swords in a twist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><em>Last night Heledd Pritchard of The Cardiffian joined a sword dancing team, the Taff Rapper, for a sword-wielding traditional folk dance.<\/em><\/h4>\n<p>PEOPLE always say you shouldn\u2019t play with knives. But nobody mentioned anything about swords. Just as well I guess because last night I joined a group of four people I had never met before and put my life in their hands as I got tangled up between steel weapons.<br \/>\nMy greatest fear was myself. Known for my clumsiness I was petrified a good evening dancing at the Owain Glyndwr would end up in a bit more blood, sweat and tears than I was hoping for.<br \/>\nBefore I had even caught everyone\u2019s names I nervously asked Edwin, the leader, what could possibly go wrong. \u201cWell, it doesn\u2019t happen very often,\u201d he said. \u201cBut once I fell on my forehead on a sword. There was blood everywhere, dripping down my white shirt.\u201d<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5112\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5112\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Sword_dancing.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5112\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Sword_dancing-300x262.jpg\" alt=\"Taff Rapper sword dancers\" width=\"300\" height=\"262\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5112\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5112\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Sword_dancing-300x262.jpg\" alt=\"Taff Rapper sword dancers\" width=\"300\" height=\"262\" \/><\/noscript><\/a> Taff Rapper sword dancers<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nGreat. Just what I wanted to hear. I took to the dance floor, more unsure of their safety than mine.<br \/>\nEach of the five team members were given a number, representing their dancing position. I was number four and so had to mirror everything dancer two was doing. Sounds easy. But with a sword in your hand things instantly feel a little less comfortable.<br \/>\nWe danced around to a beat of eight and I ended up with my fist locked in between two long pieces of steel, twisting in and out of the circle to technical moves called Mary Ann, Coach and Horses and Fast and Loose.<br \/>\nI was gripping onto my sword like my life depended on it. To be fair, it probably did depend on it.<br \/>\nThen, before I had finished shuffling my feet, hoping they wouldn\u2019t notice my steps were all over the place, number three was somersaulting\u00a0backwards holding on to the other end of my sword.<br \/>\nAs I got used to the moves I started to relax and half way into the evening I had forgotten what I was holding onto. Although I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s a good thing.<br \/>\nThe team was great, encouraging me to learn my way around. I wasn\u2019t sure how the evening was going to pan out but I had a fantastic time. A great group of people who, in between learning a traditional mining village dance, had a great social atmosphere.<br \/>\nTwo hours later it was time to go home. No injuries, no blood and no missing body parts. Success. It goes to show you don\u2019t have to be a natural to join in the fun and also enjoy.<br \/>\nTo join the Taff Rappers visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.taffrapper.co.uk\">www.taffrapper.co.uk<\/a> or go along to the Owain Glyndwr at 7.30pm on Thursday. They are always looking for new dancers and welcome people of all ability.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last night Heledd Pritchard of The Cardiffian joined a sword dancing team, the Taff Rapper, for a sword-wielding traditional folk dance. PEOPLE always say you shouldn\u2019t play with knives. But nobody mentioned anything about swords. Just as well I guess because last night I joined a group of four people I had never met before and put my life in their hands as I got tangled up between steel weapons. My greatest fear was myself. Known for my clumsiness I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":5112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[2628,2629,2488,2630],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-longer-reads","tag-folk-dancing","tag-sword-dancing","tag-swords","tag-taff-rapper"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>On a knife&#039;s edge: would you dance with swords? - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2015\/02\/27\/on-a-knifes-edge-would-you-dance-with-swords\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On a knife&#039;s edge: would you dance with swords? - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last night Heledd Pritchard of The Cardiffian joined a sword dancing team, the Taff Rapper, for a sword-wielding traditional folk dance. 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Known for my clumsiness I [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2015\/02\/27\/on-a-knifes-edge-would-you-dance-with-swords\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-02-27T15:15:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cathyduncan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cathyduncan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cathyduncan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2015\/02\/27\/on-a-knifes-edge-would-you-dance-with-swords\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2015\/02\/27\/on-a-knifes-edge-would-you-dance-with-swords\/\",\"name\":\"On a knife&#039;s edge: would you dance with swords? - The Cardiffian\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2015\/02\/27\/on-a-knifes-edge-would-you-dance-with-swords\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2015\/02\/27\/on-a-knifes-edge-would-you-dance-with-swords\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-27T15:15:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/41c76b1e66d8cf6e57cba8550c3772b1\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2015\/02\/27\/on-a-knifes-edge-would-you-dance-with-swords\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2015\/02\/27\/on-a-knifes-edge-would-you-dance-with-swords\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2015\/02\/27\/on-a-knifes-edge-would-you-dance-with-swords\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2015\/02\/27\/on-a-knifes-edge-would-you-dance-with-swords\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"On a knife&#039;s edge: would you dance with swords?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/\",\"name\":\"The Cardiffian\",\"description\":\"Just another JOMEC Sites Network site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/41c76b1e66d8cf6e57cba8550c3772b1\",\"name\":\"cathyduncan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/d4d0895f6e1f7ccb86d04236a870a18b\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cd1b1b63598c25c15d3e0d390366ec2ba1c99865b1a23c34339be8c5c396a81?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cd1b1b63598c25c15d3e0d390366ec2ba1c99865b1a23c34339be8c5c396a81?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cathyduncan\"},\"description\":\"Lecturer, Cardiff University News Journalism MA. 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