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