The Britannia Coconut Dancers or Nutters are a troupe of Lancastrian clog dancers who perform every Easter in Bacup, dancing across the town and surrounding areas after blackening their faces. There are eight dancers and a whipper-in, who controls the proceedings. As the application of blackface is considered offensive and racist, the group is controversial. History Some say the custom was brought to the area by Moors who settled in Cornwall in the 17th century, became miners and then moved to work in quarries in Lancashire. A similar performance occurred in Portuguese-speaking communities such as the Afro-Brazilian "Dança do Coco", a dance form precursor to the iconic Brazilian Carnival dance troupes, it is also present in the French-speaking communities dances – the Danse des Coco – are performed in Provence. This troupe was formed as the Tunstead Mill Nutters in 1857 when it was one of a group of five which performed in the Rossendale valley. According to the Burnley Gazette, a man named Abraham Spencer (1842–1918) was one of the founders back in 1857, at only 15. They passed on their tradition to workers at the Britannia Mill in the 1920s. Their dances feature floral hoops or garlands; the musical accompaniment is provided by a concertina or the Stacksteads Silver Band. Costume Their name refers to the wooden nuts worn at their knees, waists and wrists, which are made from the tops of bobbins. They are protective work gear for the hands and knees, essential in mining work involving crawling. The waist nut is a spare in case of breakage or loss of the others. These are tapped together like castanets as a percussive accompaniment to the dance, the nuts on the hands striking the nuts on the waist or knees in an intricate and dextrous rhythm. They wear white turbans with blue plumes, dark jerseys and trews, a white baldric, red and white skirts, white hose and black clogs. Blackface The group's performance in blackface is popularly explained as either due to the origins of the dance in the mining community, a reference to the dancers' ancient origin as Barbary pirates, or as a disguise to ward off evil spirits. Theresa Buckland's (1990) research discusses the likely origin of the tradition in minstrel shows. She argued that over time the dancers have developed and passed on an alternative history of their tradition, one that does not include the