Reel Celebrations
by Rowena M Love
75 years old and still dancing! No, I’m not referring to one particular dancer (although there are plenty of them, too) but to a society - the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society - which has been celebrating 75 years of existence recently.
The Society was formed on the 26th of November 1923 by Miss Jean Milligan and Mrs. Ysobel Stewart, with the stated aim of “practising and preserving Country Dances as danced in Scotland”.
Country Dances had been popular all over Europe in the 18th Century. By the 19th, while their popularity declined elsewhere, in Scotland they continued to flourish with the Scots adding new formations, reels and Strathspeys to make these dances very much their own.
However, by the start of this century, new rhythms were creeping into the ballrooms and the Country Dance was in danger of extinction. Without the RSCDS, this part of Scotland’s heritage might have been consigned to dusty archives.
In the 1920s, Mrs. Stewart of Fasnacloich was Guide Commissioner for Argyll. She felt it would be more fitting for her Guides to practise the Scottish Country Dances that she had always done, rather than the English folk dances popular with the Girl Guide Association. So, she wrote down the dances, complete with the accompanying music, and took them to Patersons, the Glasgow publisher. Michael Diack agreed to publish a book of them, on condition that the dances could be properly verified. This was what led to Mrs. Stewart being introduced to Miss Milligan.
A lecturer in Physical Education at Jordanhill College, Glasgow, Miss Milligan (later Doctor) had been including Scottish Country Dances in her work with student teachers. As such, she was the perfect authority to check the dances’ authenticity and an ideal partner for a venture to encourage Scottish Country Dancing.
The two ladies agreed on the publication of a book of 12 dances and the founding of a society to promote them.
Today there are around 24,000 members worldwide - a far cry from the 27 interested people who attended that first meeting in 1923.
The RSCDS has something for everyone. There are classes for children, for absolute beginners and for those that might as well be! There are technique classes for advanced dancers and general classes that do a bit of everything. Ages of the dancers range from 7 to over 87.
There are even classes which teach how to teach Country Dancing. Since 1927, teaching certificates have been awarded to those successfully completing a training course.
Then there are the day schools and weekend events, the dances and balls galore so that, in some areas, the keen dancer could go to the jiggin’ every night of the week.
If that wasn’t enough, then there is the Summer School every year in St. Andrews (first held in 1927) not to mention Country Dancing holidays abroad and on cruise ships.
There are 45 branches (now called Local Associations) in Scotland, scattered from Lochaber to Lockerbie while 29 affiliated groups increase the spread even more with clubs in places like Dingwall, Lauder and Stornoway.
The appeal of the Country Dance isn’t limited by borders. Anyone can benefit from the stirring music, great exercise and social interaction that is synonymous with the RSCDS.
Proof, if you need it, is that there are Local Associations on every continent, totalling 167 branches in all, with 459 affiliated groups swelling the ranks of happy dancers still further. It’s more successful than shortbread - although I wouldn’t dare compare it to whisky!
In 1951, the same year that King George VI recognised the importance of the Society’s work by conferring the title “Royal” upon them, the first overseas branches were established. One of them was Boston and North America has gone on to be a hive of dancing activity.
In the United States there are now branches or affiliated groups in 37 different states and Canada shows a similar degree of interest. Indeed, at one point, the Toronto branch held the record for the largest number of members in the Society.
Nor are these foreign branches passive, looking to Coates Crescent, the RSCDS headquarters in Edinburgh, for guidance on every issue. They have a lively programme of events, classes and workshops. They even devise their own dances.
These new dances are often published by the RSCDS, although competition to be included in one of their Books is fierce. There are dances like “Auld Alliance” devised by dancers in Paris, “A Trip to the Drakensberg” from South Africa or the “Whistling Wind” which blew in from Canada. New dances like these complement the work the RSCDS do in promoting the traditional dances that have been discovered in old books and manuscripts.
Many of the dances have a story behind them. There are those named after a well-known person (e.g. “Mrs. Stewart’s Jig”).
Others celebrate a special occasion such as “The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh” devised in 1947 in honour of the happy couple.
There are descriptive dances, too: you don’t have to know the name of the dance to recognise that the dancers are “Shiftin’ Bobbins”; you see quite clearly the arches in “The Dean Bridge of Edinburgh”.
Some dances are metaphorical, with the formations of the dance used to represent elements of a story such as that of the affair between Sir John Faa, who was disguised as a gypsy, and the Lady Cassilis, told in “The Faa Patteran”. The dance describes the wandering of the gypsies round the four corners of the earth before the Gypsie Laddie (the tune’s title) gets his Lady.
Throughout the world, dancers have been celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Society. There have been balls, ceilidhs and demonstrations in abundance.
In 1997, over 17,000 children took part in “Dance Scottish in the UK” organised by the Young Scottish Dancers Association which is funded by the Jean Milligan Memorial Fund.
Building on that success, last November the YSDA encouraged dancers young and old to “Celebrate in ‘98” by taking part in “Dance Scottish Worldwide”.
Statistics have still not been fully collated but early indications are that the numbers will far exceed 1997’s total. In Fife alone, there were 11,000 dancers involved. There are other snippets of information coming in all the time, like how over 90% of the primary schoolchildren on the island of Arran took part in a Day of Dance. 900 pupils from all over Ayrshire danced in one hall in the Magnum Centre in Irvine. And that’s just Scotland...
There were dancing celebrations taking place on all 5 continents. In Vancouver, for instance, 215 multicultural schoolchildren danced together. Nor was it only children: there are reports of events where dancers ranged from age 5 to over 80.
The youngsters have been enjoying dancing so much that they are clamouring to have pen pals in other branches. The value of this kind of international bonding is without price and isn’t limited to the children: holidaymakers often contact the branch in the area they are visiting, so they can take part in local activities; country dancers have helped to cement many town-twinning links.
According to the RSCDS manual, a Country Dance is “composed of formations which are arranged in a different sequence for each dance”. ‘Grand Chain’ is one such formation. It also makes the perfect metaphor for the RSCDS. The Society is a precious link to over 200 years of Scotland’s history and culture. Every new member or new dance created, adds yet another link and the chain grows. The giving of hands in the formation symbolises the social nature of the society and the new friends to be made, both at home and abroad. As the dancers move on, with a wee smile at the person they’ve just passed, we see movement towards the future while preserving our Scottish heritage.
Rowena M. Love,
16 Yorke Road,
TROON,
Ayrshire
KA10 6LB
Scotland
Tel: 44 1292 316009
E-mail: rowenamlove@bigfoot.com
Reel Celebrations
by
Rowena M. Love
1300 words First North American Serial Rights