Editing Rapper sword (section)

===Twenty-first century===
[[File:Sligo Creek Sword rapper sword dance performance at Hashdance 2025.webm|thumb|A rapper sword performance by Sligo Creek Sword in Maryland, U.S.]]
The dance has transformed as it moved into the twenty-first century: the pace has quickened and is performed at around 140–160 beats per minute, with different team styles using different rates. It is nonetheless typically performed in a smooth and graceful manner, with one figure flowing seamlessly into the next. A number of acrobatic figures can be employed, including forward and backward somersaults over the swords.

The dance is now almost always performed to jigs (perhaps 90% of the time{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}), with the normal form of rapper stepping being a form of shuffle imported from the local [[clogging]] tradition. The jigs used include local tunes and many instruments can, and have been, used to accompany rapper dances (the most popular being fiddles, tin whistles and accordions or melodeons). Many rapper jigs used for the last hundred years are tunes that were probably imported by Irish and Scottish immigrants to Tyneside in the nineteenth century. The music is usually performed solo, although it can be performed as a duet; however, rapper is not usually performed to a band. There is much controversy in the rapper community over the use of any form of percussion to accompany rapper beyond the rapper stepping included in the dance.

In modern times, the competitive element of rapper sword dancing has been revived in the form of the [[DERT|Dancing England Rapper Tournament]] (DERT) competition, and in recent years its American counterpart, Dancing America Rapper Tournament (DART).