Dancing around the World All branches and affiliated groups are invited to send in their news (maximum 200 words) to Caroline Brockbank caroline@ceilidhkids.com
Ashill’s First Birthday
Ashill Scottish dancers – Somerset Branch At the Ashill Scottish dancers we enjoyed our 1st Birthday Party and dance on 11 January. We were well supported by other dancers in the area and we all had a wonderful evening with a bring and share supper, a special three-tiered celebration cake made by one of our members, and lots of dancing. The group is led by our teacher Anita Wilson, and we have up to three sets every week and are continuing to attract new members. We are all looking forward to another year of dancing and fun. Anita Wilson, RSCDS Somerset
BASCDancers, Buenos Aires The last three months of 2019 were full of excitement for the BASCDancers. In October we held our third Scottish Halloween Party. We had two Scottish visitors, Jim Stott and Anne McArthur, and that allowed for an international jury for our fancy dress parade. Jim was kind enough to stop his holidays and teach us a couple of workshops on technique; he joined us in a beginners’ class in which he focused mainly on technique and we also had great fun dancing together. The more advanced dancers had a workshop where we not only polished technique, but tried a couple of newly devised dances as well. The dancing and rowing day at the Delta was a success, this year with a practically full house of 30 dancers! Preparations for the IB Buenos Aires workshop 2020 are on the way and so Michael Plumley and Jan Jones met us in December for meetings on organization and logistics. Michael and Jan are doing a great job and all BASCDancers are really thrilled with this event. We look forward to meeting some of you in September here in our city. Marcela Galve
Cheltenham Annual Ball We are lucky in Cheltenham to have two magnificent venues with floors built for dancing. As the Pittville Pump Room was
not available this year, we rediscovered the delights of dancing in the Town Hall. Pipe Major Sandy Walker welcomed the dancers and, accompanied by the band, heralded the start of the dancing. Dancers from across the South West and beyond danced with verve and enthusiasm to the inspirational music of Nicol MacLaren and the Glencraig Band. During the interval a light supper was served in the Pillar Room. We had a super programme, both accessible and full of much loved dances. It was social dancing at its best! Fiona Knee and Jennie Hawdon
Edinburgh St Andrew’s Day and Global Youth Week We had a fun weekend of events to celebrate Scottish dancing in Edinburgh as part of St Andrew’s Day and Global Youth Week. Edinburgh Branch, working together with CeilidhKids, Edinburgh University New Scotland Country Dance Society and Dunedin Dancers aimed to get lots of people dancing, no matter what their age or ability. Friday evening was great fun at our easy dance with a good mix of ceilidh and country dances. We had fantastic music from Ewan Galloway and his Scottish dance band. Fortunately, the simple programme and great music kept everyone on the dance floor as the temperature in the hall was slightly chilly. The heating in the hall was no match for the coldest night of Autumn and Saturday morning dawned with a heavy frost. The children enjoying dancing at CeilidhKids were undaunted, but the Mums, Dads and Grandparents all kept their hats and coats on to dance! Next up were the slightly older children, too cool for dancing with Mum and Dad and enjoying meeting new friends and new experiences away from their regular class. “A big thumbs up” (Corrin, age 4) “CeilidhKids was great because I got to help demonstrate the arms for the Gay Gordons.’ (Ayla, age 6) “I liked the Gay Gordons and the one where
I spin round Dad and Dad spins round me.” (Struan, age 8) Our taster session for new beginners drew an international audience with a Japanese teacher and new dancers from Germany, China and South America as well as those more local to Edinburgh. They all quickly got the hang of our steps and learnt lots of ceilidh and simple dances ready to celebrate St Andrew’s Day. The workshops ended with our more advanced dancers enjoying a class with Deb Lees. The weekend culminated with The Dunedin Assembly. It was a great way to celebrate St Andrew’s Day with friends, good food and an evening of dancing to lively music from Dave Hall and his Scottish dance band. Elizabeth Harry
Falkirk Branch Once again, the third week in January saw over 300 people from all over the UK arrive at Crieff Hydro for Falkirk Branch’s 27th Annual Weekend. With two country dances running at the same time (one called and one uncalled) and a ceilidh, there was something to suit everyone and the dancers enjoyed wonderful music from three top bands led by Gordon Shand, Marian Anderson and David Oswald. The dancers received expert guidance in classes during the day and at the called dances at night from the teachers, Janet Johnstone, Agnes Leighton, Angela Young and Sheila Bain. Among the many highlights was a concert on the Saturday afternoon given by Gordon and Ailsa Shand’s hugely talented children, Clelland, Inver and Blythe, with Stuart Oswald on drums. They played a lovely selection of tunes as well as providing the music for a demonstration dance, The Lea Rig. To see these young world-class musicians performing was hugely encouraging for all, but particularly rewarding for Falkirk Branch who had contributed £2,500 to enable Gordon to bring the world-class accordion teacher, Frederic Deschamps, to Scotland. He ran a one-week master class course in October 2018 for nine of our country’s most promising young accordionists. Another hugely successful weekend. George B Stevenson
Hamilton (Ontario) Branch On 5 October, 40 enthusiastic dancers from Ontario and New York attended a Fall workshop in Hamilton, Ontario. The coordinator of the workshop was J’ina Middleton and classes were taught by Claire Collier of Lewiston, New York, and Robert McOwen from Boston, Massachusetts. Lively music was provided by Laird Brown and Dan MacDonald. Participants were
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