Every second Sunday of Lent, all the morning, the group In de Kring (sword dancers) performs, for over 30 years, 5 times, their sword dance on the place Jean-Bart in the center of Dunkerque.
Sword dances: They once occupied an important place in the repertoire. In French Flanders and in the north of France, the presence of sword dances is attested in 12 localities: Cambrai (1529), Bethune (1530 and 1563), Hondschoote (1570), Dunkerque (1563, 1568, 1572, 1573, 1575 and 1601), Téteghem (1563), Socx (1568, 1572 and 1573), Lynck (1573), Esquelbecq (1575), Bergues (1615), Bollezeele (1660-1663), Crochte (1715) and Lille (1729)). In Dunkerque and Bollezeele, we find the dancers in the procession. Those of Socx, Lynck and Téteghem are mentioned in the procession of Dunkerque. The Hondschoote dancers came to Ostend. A hundred or so towns and villages were concerned with the dance of swords from which derive the stick dances that still survive today in Kempen.
For most scholars, string dances are considered a ritual initiation dance in which young men are admitted to the male community of the place. The specific feature is the formation in a circle by presenting the tip of the sword to the neighboring dancer. This circle is no longer interrupted and a series of "passage" figures are linked together. It is still found today in England, Spain, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy, Belgium and France.
"In de Kring" (In the circle): On March 11, 1990, the dancers of swords recreated, on a choreography by Renaat Van Craenenbroeck, the dance at Dunkerque. Since, they occur every year on the second Sunday after Tuesday-Gras, the sound of fifes and drums! But the dancers of "In de Kring" form their circle, on occasion, extramural: in France, in Belgium, in England....
