Pondering TAC Summer School in Nova Scotia more experienced benefit as well as beginners. d) Encourage those who aspire to become the next teacher. I note how successful the Spring Fling events for those aged under 35 and younger have been in getting young dancers together.
David Wasson attended the Teachers’ Conference Weekend and Summer School of TAC (Teachers’ Association of Canada) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Rather than write a summary of the rigorous and happy nine days of dancing, he shares the personal thoughts that preoccupied him then and still do. First, I was impressed, in truth stunned, by the austerity of the after-parties—no wine, no whisky, no ale allowed at Kings College in open spaces. I really wondered how I would, without a glass of wine, unwind and ease the pain after dancing hard at night. To my surprise I managed with bare potato chips, Ibuprofen and going to bed early, and got up early, fresher than typical, for challenge classes at 9am in the morning. I left the first after-party concerned the week was setting up to be really severe. Instead, I relearned what I had forgotten - that if you have to choose between the two, dancing is far better than drinking, especially with a cast of extraordinary musicians, teachers, dancers and classes that bring out our best dancing. The second thing that struck me as I looked around the dance floor was how old we are, collectively, and how close Scottish dance is in age profile to other ethnic dance groups I know—Irish, English, Scandinavian, Greek, Polish. All are close to fading out. As many others have expressed, I feel alarmed but confident that Scottish has the vitality and the time yet to rebuild its ranks. But how? Throughout the week I thought about what I could do to recruit younger people to my home group. a) Keep encouraging young dancers with a drive to learn steps and formations. b) Be clear that Scottish dance can be more than an exercise class; it can aspire to high performance standards. c) Allocate teaching time wisely so the
On the matter of inclusiveness, I thought a lot about the workshop led by Ron Wallace during the Teachers’ Conference. We had talked about gender and using gender-neutral terms like lark and robin to replace referring to men and women in giving dance instructions. We also discussed ways to teach figures saying, for example, first diagonals change by the right, instead of 1st man and 3rd woman. We broke into smaller groups and practiced briefing dances without using man and woman. We noted that ladies’ chain could be called a right-hand chain and mens’ chain, a left-hand chain. As the week unfolded, though, I noticed the teachers pretty much used the familiar terms - man, woman, woman’s side, man’s side. I suspect it’s going to be hard to remove man and woman from our dance vocabulary. What is changing is the ease with which men dance on the woman’s side and dance with each other. As a new teacher, I plan to dance on the woman’s side to learn how to better teach the allemande and tournée. Moreover, if I can watch or partner another man who dances well, that more clearly imprints a picture of the dance form that I aim to reproduce, in some measure, in my own dancing. I began to wonder what the difference was, if any, between dancing J.B. Milne with a woman and a man, both equally excellent dancers? I’m not sure, but I think if I see another man dance with style for all 64 bars of music, I’m driven harder to try to achieve the same and to get really serious about the hop missing from my strathspey.
Summer School in Canada! July 28 – August 4, 2024
SAVE THE DATE
Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario Only 20 Minutes from Niagara Falls and 1 hour from Toronto
Welcoming, supportive classes t for for dancers of all levels s u j Not chers! basic | intermediate | advanced tea
Registration opens March 1, 2024 For more information: tac-rscds.org Sponsored by Scottish Country Dance Teachers’ Association (Canada)
The RSCDS and TAC summer schools virtually linked up to dance simultaneously on 1st August.
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