Origin of the term 'Sand Dancer'

[cartref]

I'm doing some research on the origins of the term 'Sand Dancer'. I'd be particularly interested if any folk on the forum can recall when they first heard it being used to mean someone from South Shields. Also, does anyone have any evidence of it in written texts from the 1980s or earlier? Any thoughts would be much appreciated. I work at the University of Sunderland, by the way.

Oh, and another thing ... does anyone know when the Sand Dancer pub got its name?

[Granty]

Nobody knows for sure where it came from, but I was first called a Sanddancer in 1979 by someone from North Shields.

[Pilot]

I used to drink in a pub in Jarrow in the very early 1970s and when the locals found out I was from Shields they started calling me Sandy

[Sanddancer]

Heard a long time ago that that the term originated from the days when the local fishermen lived on the beach in dwellings known as "Shiels" and the term "Sandancer" came from the dances that they held on the beach

[Westoe Wanderer]

As a small child I was told by my grandmother that the term comes from the actions of people possibly in the victorian era? (bit lost with the era) dancing and drinking in the open air dance hall ontop of Marsden Rock and then dancing across the sands back to the shore in their ballgowns ect at low tide when they could get back off the rock, she could have been pulling my leg but from what I have been told by others there was a dance held up ontop of the rock in the good old days and the old iron steps up to the top could still be seen when I was a kid. Loved my old grandma so it must be true.

[memor]

I can tell you why Wearsiders are called Mackems though.