From the Chairman Helen Russell Since the AGM in November 2016 the favourite part of my new role has been to visit branches and affiliated groups in person to help them celebrate their anniversaries and other special events. It is impressive to see the commitment and energy of members as they give time and talent to enable dancers to sustain and enjoy dancing. Over the past year I have really enjoyed talking to and listening to office bearers from many different branches. Branches are so diverse in their range of activities, many of them collaborating with other branches and reaching out into the wider community. Their comments on topics like recruitment of new dancers, communication and ensuring the supply of teachers in the future are currently driving forward the work of the RSCDS committees for the next couple of years as part of the Society’s business planning process. Members are at the heart of our activity and are our most persuasive ambassadors. Have you noticed that Scottish country dancers look happier than other people? It provides everything you could possibly wish for… physical challenge, mental engagement, social contact and an emotional ‘high’. Why not do your bit to spread the happiness by encouraging your friends to get their feet on the floor and move to the music? It doesn’t have to be complicated or perfect, just simple fun. We have a range of dances from the accessible to the complicated, just as we have a range of enthusiastic dancers from the beginner to the highly experienced. To persuade more people to try our favourite hobby, keeping it simple and traditional has many virtues. I love dancing in all sorts of circumstances: it can be with children, in a ceilidh, in a display team, but best of all I like to be at a social dance where the music is exciting and the company is welcoming. I love the feeling of community, watching other people in the set, seeing the response to the rhythm and the joy it brings to people’s faces as they dance to the great range of fantastic musicians we are so lucky to have. Wherever you are dancing, it would be wonderful to see the RSCDS reaching out to the wider community, to local events, whether traditional music festivals, or other themed events, even food festivals, and engaging people by helping them make that first step on to the dance floor. Finally, Gillian Wilson, our Executive Officer, and a great driving force behind the business plan, was offered a new job, and left us on 24 March. We wish her well in her new venture and thank her for her contribution to the RSCDS.
Education & Training Committee Malcolm Brown, Convenor The times they are a’ changing! As most will know, the Board has consulted widely and produced a new business plan for the next three years. Over the coming months we will be looking at the strengths and weaknesses of our current teacher training system. If you have strong views on the subject, send them in – we are listening! Another working group is looking at a less demanding training programme in terms of dancing technique, to produce teachers more suited to
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mixed ability classes. The third group is to look at producing video material, both for training and assessment. Winter School with Luke Brady as Director was a great success with 160 dancers attending. Mervyn Short will be director for 2018. Bookings for Summer School have been available since November through the website and the Director Jim Stott has planned another full programme for the four weeks. Week 3 is again going to be a very full week, with both the Young People’s class as well as a Musician’s class. At the time of writing 19 young people had booked to attend. Medal tests are still proving popular in Scotland with tests in Dumfries and Edinburgh and they are beginning to take off overseas with tests in Toronto. The Dancing Achievement Award is proving popular with assessments in Exeter, Aberdeen and planned for Toronto, San Francisco and Sydney. Teaching Certificate courses and exams were held at the New Zealand Summer School over New Year and this spring saw one in Russia and five in North America. One of the more unusual tasks that has come my way since becoming Convenor was to be part of the group allocating Summer School Scholarships. In all, 14 were awarded and the total amount came to £10,000 with most of the money coming from the JMMF. The geographical spread of recipients was wide with younger dancers featuring prominently. If you would like to attend any of our schools (UK and overseas) and finance is a problem, then why not apply for a scholarship? Unfortunately, it is not always possible to award a grant to everyone who applies and we do wonder if branches might consider using some of their surplus funds to support the scholarship scheme.
