DERTy Teams

DERTy runs separately from the main competition. It’s for dancers aged 12 and under (junior category) and 13-17 (youth category). Young teams compete against other young teams rather than performing alongside adult sides.

Teams perform once in the morning without scores, just to get feedback from judges. Then they have time to work on the comments before performing again later. The second performance gets scored properly. There’s a prize ceremony before the evening showcase, then youth teams perform again for the full DERT audience.

Red Hat Rapper

Current DERTy champions, Red Hat Rapper are a young rapper team based mostly in Yorkshire. After meeting at Whitby Folk Week’s Yoof Club, they were inspired to form a team of their own, winning DERTy in their debut year. Look out for their stripy black and red socks and red sashes.

NYFTE

NYFTE (pronounced nifty) is the National Youth Folklore Troupe of England comprising about 36 young people aged 10 to 18. The team performs a complete range of English traditional music, song and dance. This year, NYFTE will be putting two teams forward for DERTy as well as a team in the main competition.

Young Miscellany

Young Miscellany have revived our Rapper Team and the new team are looking forward to our debut at DERTy 2026. Our dancers, more used to dancing Border, Cotswold and Northwestern together, have taken on the challenge to reform the YM Rapper team, which hasn’t danced out since any of them became members of YM. With a new set of swords delivered in September, and under some expert guidance from a former member, the young people have learnt their new dance together from scratch.