This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Tommy and Betty" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR(August 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Tommy and Betty are two roles in rapper sword dance that represent the father and mother of the dancers. The Tommy and Betty often introduce the dance to the audience and seek to engage the audience. As with so many traditional dances in England and Europe, these characters are integral to the tradition, and their role was documented in all of the earliest published descriptions of the Northumbrian dance – descriptions which pre-date the introduction of the flexible rapper sword which so fundamentally changed the dance.
In early accounts of the sword dance in the Tyne Valley, the Tommy character was generally called "The Captain", and the Betty character called "Bessy". There were often additional characters, such as a doctor, who took part in a short play before the dance, similar to a Mummers play. The Tommy was either dressed up formally, with waistcoat, tailcoat and top hat, or in a grotesque garb of animal hides; occasionally, the Tommy was dressed in women's clothing, like the Betty. Much is made of their role and clothing in the context of pagan fertility rituals; it is certainly probable that the characters and play are older than the sword dance itself, which would appear to have been appended to the older play tradition found all over England.
In the modern dance, the Tommy introduces the dancers, usually with a traditional calling-on song, and then provides a running commentary and/or jokes to entertain the audience. The Tommy and Betty characters often join in with the rapper figures.[1]
The best known Tommy and Betty characters are probably the Newcastle Kingsmen's characters, who have won the prize for best characters at several of the annual DERT competitions, including the national DERT 2004 and 2005 competitions.
The Newcastle Kingsmen's dance begins with the Tommy character singing the "Calling On Song". The Betty character then joins in halfway through the dance - this delayed entrance (which is unusual in rapper sword teams) allows time for the Tommy to work through a repertoire of jokes, before the appearance of the Betty. The Betty seeks to have a high profile entrance such as appearing through a trap door, on a bicycle or carrying a vacuum cleaner. This entrance can help re-engage the audience; this is particularly valuable in large arenas or at foreign festivals.
^"The Newcastle Kingsmen's Betty figure joining in the rapper dance". Newcastle Kingsmen Sword Dancers Website. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
Tommy Riggs andBetty Lou was a radio situation comedy broadcast in various time slots from 1938 to 1946. Tommy Riggs (born October 21, 1908, in Pittsburgh)...
people, with many including characters, such as TommyandBetty, who announce the dance, engage the audience and most importantly, collect money from the onlookers...
Tommyand Tuppence are two fictional detectives, recurring characters in the work of Agatha Christie. Their full names are Thomas Beresford and his wife...
DeVille and Lillian Marie "Lil" DeVille (both voiced by Kath Soucie) are the children of Howard andBetty DeVille. They live next door to Tommyand are fraternal...
Minton p 68 Martin, Betty, "Shaw rejoins film colony", Los Angeles Times, August 18, 1965: D10 "My Name is Legend". Tommy Kirk and Anette Funicello In...
Betty Joan Perske (September 16, 1924 – August 12, 2014), professionally known as Lauren Bacall (/bəˈkɔːl/ bə-KAWL), was an American actress. She was...
Betty Marsden (24 February 1919 – 18 July 1998) was an English comedy actress. She is particularly remembered as a cast member of the radio series Beyond...
students to achieve more than marriage. Opinionated Betty Warren is outspokenly conservative and insists a universal standard exists for what is good...
settles on Tommy Dancer, who works in a bowling alley. Tommy is quickly smitten with Earl's girl Betty Turner, but is a law-abiding citizen and rejects an...
the teams dance. Musicians compete for the Angela Lee Trophy. The Tommy andBetty characters employed by most of the sword dance teams are also subject...
Betty Lou Varnum (1931–2021), American television personality Betty Lou Young (1919–2010), American writer and conservationist Tommy Riggs andBetty Lou...
film directed by Tommy O'Haver and starring Elliot Page and Catherine Keener. The film is based on the true story of the torture and murder of Sylvia...
(born 2 July 1976), better known by his stage name Tommy Pistol, is an American pornographic actor and director. He is known for his porn parody work, most...
the Darkside (1990), Time Runner (1993), and Boulevard (1994). She is the daughter of comedian and actor Tommy Chong. Chong was born on February 28, 1961...
1936), known professionally as Tommy Steele, is an English entertainer, regarded as Britain's first teen idol and rock and roll star. After being discovered...
eventually meets and falls in love with Sandra Sue "Abby" Abbott (Betty Buckley), a widowed schoolteacher who comes to the house to tutor Tommy after he breaks...
parents. He was featured on the ABC series Ugly Betty, playing Santos, the father of Justin Suarez and love interest of Hilda. At the time of the season...
Marc Platt as Daniel and Norma Doggett as Martha Jacques d'Amboise as Ephraim and Virginia Gibson as Liza Tommy Rall as Frank andBetty Carr as Sarah Russ...
approximately twenty-four inches (609 mm) in length and one and one eighth inches (29 mm) in width. TommyandBetty Geordie dialect words Earsdon Sword Dance...
Betty Carter (born Lillie Mae Jones; May 16, 1929 – September 26, 1998) was an American jazz singer known for her improvisational technique, scatting...
Mandala Putra (born 15 July 1962), commonly known as Tommy Suharto, is an Indonesian businessman and politician. The youngest son of Suharto, the second...
Global Information