8 minute read
Chairman and Convenors’ Reports
From the Chairman
Lorna Ogilvie
I write this at a time when the prospect of returning to the dance floor, here in Scotland, is at last a reality. How envious we have been of those already doing so, in far flung locations such as New Zealand. Additionally, what inspiration we got from the many imaginative ways groups of dancers invented to stay socially distant whilst completing all the figures of cleverly selected dances! The Society has continued to be very active since November, despite the lack of dancing in person, and some very challenging periods of lockdown. The Dance Scottish at Home newsletter, and virtual classes, have provided a highly valuable link with members, as have the many branch newsletters and virtual events locally. Few of us would have believed eighteen months ago how competent we would become at Zoom, Facetime and chat rooms! These new technical skills have been a wonderful way of keeping us in local contact and, equally importantly from a Society perspective, they have brought the RSCDS ‘family’ closer together than ever before. Future communications will build on these foundations as we continue to innovate and find new ways to share news and ideas linked to our love of Scottish country dancing. This has also given me the opportunity to ‘meet’ dancers in far flung corners of the globe, including Hawaii! Many teachers, musicians, and dancers contributed to the 2021 virtual Winter School, Spring Fling and Summer School. Whilst filming in St Andrews for the virtual Summer School I shared in the sheer joy of the dancers, not just at meeting old friends for the first time since early 2020, but also their excitement at dancing together once more to live music. Meeting up in person in Pitlochry and St Andrews in 2022 will be very special. This autumn brings you more news about our new virtual dance lifestyle. Malin, Abbie and Philippa are working on a Virtual Dance Display, and by the time this issue arrives in your mailbox/ inbox, you will be able to see the result yourselves on the RSCDS website - fingers crossed!
The RSCDS Board and Committees have been working hard during lockdown and one advantage of this period has been the opportunity to review and update our operational systems as we aim to work more efficiently heading towards our second century. Marketing will play a large part in how we continue to attract new members, and we owe an immense debt of gratitude to Ewan Watt, our Interim Marketing Director, who completed his six months with us in August. Through fresh eyes, he has given us invaluable advice on modernising and simplifying our highly complex decision-making processes. As he hands over to Lyndsay Walker, the new Marketing Officer, we face the challenge of ensuring that we do not lose the tradition which our founders worked so hard to preserve, yet also become more inclusive so that more dancers can enjoy the fun and friendship, in addition to the physical and mental health benefits of Scottish country dancing. We are also looking for contributions to this year’s Virtual Festival on the theme of ‘Ceilidh: dancing and beyond’. Pick your favourite ceilidh dance from the Aberdeen Virtual Spring Fling creations, form a display around it and send in your video to info@rscds.org by 20 November. Everyone is invited to vote on their favourite video during Global Youth Week, from Sunday 28 November to Saturday 4 December. Winners will be announced before Christmas.
For the centenary year, we will publish a free children’s booklet on Scottish country dance. Peppered with quizzes, colouring-in pages and lots of pictures, it aims at introducing children to the world of Scottish dancing. The ideas of what to include keep coming, and it’s a fun process to think of the best way to present music, key formations, RSCDS history and dancing worldwide. Since this is my last column as convenor, I’d like to thank the office staff, my co-convenors, Management Board members, the DSAH team and the committee for their ideas, support and many interesting, friendly conversations. I wish the new convenor and committee all the best for their work - keep up with the enthusiasm and engaging projects!
I look forward to welcoming many of you to our Autumn Gathering weekend in Perth in November, including those who will watch the AGM meeting remotely. Friendships will be renewed that weekend, as at many dancing gatherings during the coming year. Our Honorary President, Jean Martin, will be retiring and I add my personal thanks to Jean for all she has done for the RSCDS over many years, not just in this role but also as a past Chairman and teaching ambassador. Also retiring is Bill Cant, Treasurer for the past six years. He deserves both praise, and grateful thanks, for managing our finances so calmly and professionally, especially during the budgetary challenges of the last eighteen months. What has been so reassuring, as Chairman over these long months of lockdown, has been the enthusiasm and passion from dancers who have been determined to ensure that the RSCDS will be in good heart when dancing returns, and we approach our Centenary year. Thank you to you all.
Youth Services
Joana Stausberg
Membership Services
Peter Knapman
This is my last report as convenor of MS and I must admit that things have not been quite as I expected when I volunteered for the role. Events over the last 18 months have, of course, slightly altered our plans - however, from adversity there also comes opportunity. When Andrew Kellett suggested in March 2020 that a regular newsletter and weekly online classes would help the Society keep in touch with our members, little did we anticipate that this would still be taking up a significant amount of the committee’s time some 18 months later. By the time you read this you should have received issue number 40 which is planned to be the final DSAH. However, don’t despair, there are plans for a replacement members’ newsletter. Details will be revealed in due course. The response to DSAH has not only been rewarding, but made the committee reflect on what constitutes a service to our members. We have been considering the type of publications that are appropriate for the RSCDS now that most of the information you need for Scottish country dancing is readily available somewhere on the internet.
MS has continued to undertake its original planned duties and by now the next combined volume covering books 39 to 44 should be available. Progress on the formation index is progressing well and edited videos from the video project are being uploaded onto the RSCDS YouTube channel as they become available. We are still on course to publish the book of dances associated with Sir Walter Scott’s novel The Heart of Midlothian – appropriately 250 years after his birth. Reconstructing historic dances is not always straightforward and interesting decisions have to be made! One of the aims of the book has been to explore and discuss some of these challenges. The Walter Scott book is more than ‘just a book of dance instructions’, it also sets the dances and their music into their historical perspective. It will be available at the Autumn Gathering along with accompanying music, recorded by Màrtainn Skene and his band, using a line up and arrangement in keeping with the early 19th century. As I finish my term as Convenor, I would like to thank the committee and the office for their help in what have been some testing times and wish Angela all the best for the future as she takes on the role of Convenor.
Education and Training
Anne Taylor
I am very happy to report that the Teacher’s Certificate Unit 1 examination, which had to be postponed in February and rescheduled for 26 June, has taken place. The next Unit 1 examination will be on 16 October 2021. Other teaching certificate courses, which had to stop during the restrictions on meetings, have almost all resumed, and examinations have begun again. Our regular Education and Training Committee meetings have taken place online, and the members have done a great job over the past two years updating the Dancing Achievement Awards, Medal Tests, Examinations and working on the new Core Training for Instructors. This programme is based on teaching a class, but without the rigours of the current examination system. The new system will not replace the current Teaching Certificate Units.
Several qualified and experienced teachers undertook a training programme online and are now working with wouldbe Instructors, where classes are being held once again. If you think you would be interested in either becoming a Trainer or an Instructor, contact Moira for an application form: moira.thomson@rscds.org Information can be found on the website here: www.rscds.org/learn/teacher-training/coretraining-instructors-cti We had a wonderful time making Virtual Summer School 2021 for you and if you haven’t already seen it you can tune in again by visiting: www.rscds.org/events/virtual-summerschool-2021.
We hope that you will get in the mood to visit Summer School in St Andrews in 2022. Before Summer School there is Winter School in Pitlochry in February 2022: something else to look forward to. If you have never attended, you are in for a treat: the hotel is as great as is the company, and the views from your room and from the dining area are spectacular. If you are lucky enough to experience the snow falling, this just makes it feel like being in a snow globe. Can’t wait! My role as Convenor of Education and Training comes to an end in November 2022 and prior to that I hope that we will have a Convenor Elect to work alongside me for the next year. Wherever you are, I hope that Scottish country dancing can resume in the form which we all love, in a set, on a dance floor, with the sound of great music driving us on. All our plans were Up in the Air, but we hope that these will now all come to fruition. However, we must be flexible in this and take our chances and hopefully ask our partners once again to Take the Floor.
