Step Dancing Online

During lockdown, RSCDS Step dance classes have kept over 100 Scottish country dancers hopping and stepping in their kitchens each week. Andrea Re from Falkirk describes how he has learned to direct his feet to keep time in a different way.

For me the one good thing that has come out of the pandemic we are all living in is, without a shadow of a doubt, the opportunity to take up step dancing. I’ve been wanting to do it for many years, but in my area, halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh, there are no classes. The only time I could get to do a little bit was at Summer School, but this was never enough. The next thing you know is that lockdown arrived, and step dancing classes started mushrooming. This is really no surprise because step dancing is really suited to an enclosed space and to do it meaningfully the only person you need is... yourself. Why do I like step dancing? Difficult to say: for me it has the novelty factor and I think it appeals to me because I like things to be challenging, but eventually doable to, at least, a reasonable standard. Step dancing is very different from dancing in sets, as in Scottish country dancing. It explores different aspects of moving to the music. In our case, Scottish country dancing commonly uses only a couple of rhythms, 6/8 and 4/4, and only two speeds, fast and slow. The array of steps at your disposal comprises but five steps. The way you express yourself is primarily by dancing with a partner within a group of people in a set, following a choreography across the floor, which can be simple, but can become extremely intricate. In other words, in set dancing the steps are very easy to master; the difficulty lies in the floor patterns or formations you make and in learning to dance with others in time with the music. Once you reach a certain level of proficiency, it is easy to pick up new dances at a relatively fast rate, and you can expect to go through two or three or more within a class. In step dancing you have to learn a larger number of steps. Difficult to count them, I would say there are about 30 basic steps. Then you can mix and match them as you please, or indeed create new ones. While the slowest and the fastest music are roughly similar to what we are used to in SCD, you can have any speed you like in between. The same with rhythms: so far, I have come across music in five different time signatures, but there is nothing stopping you from creating a dance in, say 5/4, time with 7-bar-long phrases. All you need is to find music with that structure and be inspired to dance. I think this is the biggest difference between SCD and step dancing. In SCD you can devise a dance and then you can attach a tune to it. Barring a few exceptions, you can dance any country dance to ‘any good’ music. Bands do this routinely when choosing suitable alternative tunes to play. In step dancing, music and movement are deeply intertwined. A dance is usually devised for that particular tune, played at that speed, with that number of repetitions. The best step dances have the tune first and then a dance is devised to fit every single beat of the music. As a consequence, you cannot expect to pick up a step dance in one single session. Even for experienced dancers, time and practice are necessary to learn the steps and sequences required for a new dance. I say this so that newcomers know what to expect and do not get discouraged when they see that they struggle: everybody does with a new dance. The question that someone may be asking is why a man would want to do ‘ladies’step, as step dancing in the RSCDS used to be known, and my answer is “why not?” Unfortunately, dancing for I don’t know how many decades has often been perceived as a girly pursuit, and the RSCDS reflected this idea when classes were titled ladies’ step. Did they have any reason to suppose that it is/ was for ladies only? Perhaps they wanted to differentiate between that and ‘men’s highland’, I don’t know. One thing for sure, step dancing is not more or less girly than country dancing. It just gives you a different outlook on the relationship between music and movement. And also, as far as I know, hard shoe, tap, Cape Breton, etc. are step dancing styles open to all. I think the time has come to put the ladies to bed. In fact, the RSCDS now refers to this form of dancing simply as ‘step’ dancing. Let’s see if the name sticks.

Taking up step dancing has made me feel excited about dancing all over again. Just as I remember the adrenalin rush I felt the first time I did Schiehallion reels at St. Andrews University many years ago, or the excitement of attending my prelim class, nowadays when Saturday comes, I can hardly wait to learn, and then practise, a new dance. I know, perhaps I should get out more, but given that we can’t just now, what better way to put all this indoor time to good use? Now I am waiting for all this disruption to be over, so I will be able to do step dancing with other people too. I am sure that will be another exciting new chapter. Lastly, I must thank Atsuko Clement (RSCDS Edinburgh) and Kate Gentles (RSCDS Cambridge) for running their online classes, as well as all the other teachers who have contributed to the online classes. I can count no fewer than ten individuals, who have been so gracious as to share their knowledge and wisdom. I don’t think there has ever been the opportunity to be taught by so many different people. Off to practise now.

www.rscds.org/learn/what-scottish-country-dance-music/whatstep-dancing