Mary Isdale MacNab - A Collecting Legacy

Stephen Webb describes his journey to discover and collate, for the benefit of us today, the known and previously unpublished dances in original form as taught by Mrs MacNab in her classes and for festivals.

Several years ago, I became interested in the ‘The Missing MacNaberries’, this being what many Canadians affectionately called Mrs MacNab’s collected dances. Looking at the combined RSCDS 1987 two-volume publication of Scottish Dances collected by Mary Isdale MacNab, I noticed that it had omitted two of the original 29 dances because they were not actually said to be collected by Mrs MacNab, yet they formed part of the original Sets. These two dances were eventually reprinted and published by 2014, the last being Tir nan Og. A book of Pilling style diagrams for all these dances, prepared by Angus Henry of Darwin, Australia, had been published by the RSCDS in 2006. Incidentally, The MacNab Dances in Diagrams was the Society’s first publication to include dance diagrams in this complete dance form.

From a passing conversation in St Andrews in 2018, Fiona Grant told me that Chris Brady, a traditional English step-dancer, dance researcher and member of Reading Cloggies had given her for safekeeping and publicity purposes a box of about five reams of dances and letters collected by Mrs MacNab. He made these photocopies when visiting Mrs MacNab’s niece, Elizabeth Sutorius (1915-2009), in the 1980s, with the idea of publishing them. The originals were lost after Mrs Sutorius died. Chris was keen that the documents should be on open-access and Fiona agreed to scan these and distribute them to anyone interested.

Mrs MacNab’s Last Will and Testament (registered June 1967) in subclause 3b states: To deliver unto my niece Beth Sutorius of…. Santiago…. All my books, records, documents, articles and materials dealing with dancing. It was her niece’s wish expressed here that this new archive resource, endeavours to honour: Mrs MacNab left all her records, rights and title to her niece, Mrs Elizabeth Sutorius, of San Diego, California, who intends to make the dances from this famed collection available to teachers of Highland dancing throughout the world, thus establishing a living memorial to this wonderful lady. And I would interpret this to mean really, the wider Scottish dancing world.

Mrs MacNab in the 1930s

Photo: Sharyn Elder

The Collection’s Story Unfolds

Fiona kindly sent me these records as pdf files, whilst also lodging the originals in the RSCDS Archive. I have read most of these files that run into just under three hundred and found it fascinating being transported back to an earlier time from 1953 up to 1991 in the then Scottish dancing world when communication was by ‘snail mail’, especially when it was transatlantic. Some dances were typed, some handwritten - as was most of the correspondence. In one, Miss Milligan, writing to Mrs Sutorius in March 1967, not long after her aunt had passed away, explained that there could be no copyright on ‘tradition’ and that she had created rough notes of the dances from what Mrs MacNab had told to her ‘by word of mouth’ on which the printed dances were based (presumably, 1st to 9th Sets). Mrs MacNab often said to Miss Milligan when watching one of her dances being performed, ‘That is not exactly as I meant, but it is very nice.’ Miss Milligan expressed affection for her saying, ‘Mrs MacNab whom we knew and loved, has gone ...’

Adding, ‘I will be glad for you to use my material in any book you intend to print … I hope you get a wonderful memorial for Mrs MacNab whom we shall never forget.’

Hence the idea of a Mary Isdale MacNab Collection then formed and is available now as a new interactive online dance resource for teachers and dancers to explore and use at: http://www.rscdslondon.org.uk/mary-isdale-macnab-dances/

It is clear that Mrs Sutorius wrote to Dr Hugh Thurston in Vancouver, a friend and dancer in Mrs MacNab’s Braemar Group demonstration team (1958-1962), and a teacher and deviser in his own right, seeking assistance in collating a collection of her aunt’s dances. He replied offering, ‘to help in any way that I can’, listing Mrs MacNab’s dances which were then being danced at tattoos and the like. His knowledge of the dances was clearly prodigious. Dance descriptions were not written down by Mrs MacNab, as her teaching was from memory and her rough notes - an example of which can be seen on the webpage in section H01-H16. Her classes were expected to memorise them too and pass them on to other pupils. In a letter written in 1950s from Dr Hugh Thurston to Dr Tom Flett in England, describing Mrs MacNab’s dances he says, I think exaggerating to make a point, ‘Mrs M’s memory of the dances as collected is just about nil, moreover she occasionally alters them because of forgetfulness … the nearest one gets to a definitive version is what she teaches her senior girls’ class’. Presumably, recalling his earlier exchange of letters, Dr Thurston suggested to Mrs Sutorius that she involve dance collector and historian Dr Flett in this initiative. Everything it seemed was coming together. It is emphasised that Mrs MacNab, in the main, didn’t devise dances but collected them, just in the same way as the Society had begun. The Society ranks collecting as one of its main Objects and devising isn’t directly mentioned. It is at this point the reader might like to read the excellent detailed and extensive tribute that Dr Thurston, the then editor, wrote in the Vancouver dancing newsletter, The Thistle (No. 33) now uploaded and available from the RSCDS London Branch MacNab page.

The purpose of this article is not to set out Mary Isdale MacNab’s life, as the reader can find links to that by reading Rosemary Coupe’s excellent tributes and history of Scottish country dancing in Vancouver, also uploaded to the above link, but to describe what London Branch’s webpage hosting the Mary Isdale MacNab Collection Archive offers the user. Before I do that let me complete the story of the ‘Complete Collection’. Dr Thurston typed out many dances and sent them to Joan and Tom Flett for verification and any amendment. These are the dances on the webpage mainly to be found in section T01-T16. There may be others yet to be discovered.

From the initial burst of enthusiasm after Mrs MacNab’s death we now see an airmail letter from Mrs Sutorius dated October 1985 to Chris Brady in England acknowledging she is finding it ‘hard to sit down to it’. I suspect she had been overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task and it had stalled. She would look forward to his visit. In this letter both Ron Wallace (San Francisco Branch) and Colin Robertson (then in Reading, England) are mentioned as being interested in her late aunt’s dances. By the beginning of February 1986, Chris writes to Mrs Sutorius explaining Colin has devised a plan to collect dance descriptions of the dances that were in note form adding that Joan Flett was about to publish her late husband’s description of The Dirk Dance which Mrs MacNab had ‘sold’ to them, (Traditional Step-Dancing in Scotland was eventually published in 1996). In writing to Chris Brady later that month, Joan Flett says, ’it should be included in a collection of Mrs M’s dances for completeness.’ The month becomes busy as Mrs Sutorius writes to Colin thanking him for his plan and adding, ’I’m really excited over the prospect of my aunt’s dances in truly published form’. Colin’s plan involved locating ex-pupils to gain their recollections of how the dances went; sadly, for various reasons this idea gained no traction. Despite ‘The Collection’ being no further forward Chris and Colin continued with the idea until 1990 when Colin retired from the project. Therefore, I have decided to take this forward myself by creating an interactive archive where users can add or amend information, the intention being to make it as complete as possible.

Appreciation

This work is a tribute to the following people who have all contributed to the collection: Eizabeth Sutorius of San Diego, Hugh Thurston of Vancouver, Joan and Tom Flett of Sheffield, Chris Brady of Hayes, Colin Robertson, latterly of Oregon, Chris Metherell of Newcastle Cloggies and Mats Melin of the University of Limerick.

Using the Archive

The Mary Isdale MacNab Collection webpage has a list of 68 dances with descriptions in original form to view, or an indication where to find descriptions together with, where possible, videos. These include the original nine Sets of dances 1948-1966 (S01-S29), Leaflets (L01-L11), Festival dances (F01-F12) and Typed descriptions (T01-T16). Then there are a further 16 dances (H01-H16) which are incomplete and mainly in Mrs MacNab’s handwriting which I would like to see ‘resurrected’ by devisers familiar with ladies’ step and highland dancing to create a ‘best guess’ dance. You can obtain the original notes for these incomplete dances from RSCDS London Branch at macnab@rscdslondon.org.uk by requesting a particular dance title. Finally, by clicking on the ‘List’ link there are a further 54 dances (M01-M54) simply mentioned by name in historical correspondence, where you may have information to provide. The Archive would be pleased to receive any additional dance information and any new videos of dances not so far recorded.

I feel privileged to have put together this living archive, with the able assistance of Meryl Thomson, which will, I hope, remain as the ‘wonderful memorial’ expressed by our joint founder, Jean Milligan, whom I too knew for her last five years.