New Zealand Summer School

Duncan Laidlaw

RSCDS NZ Branch held its 59th Summer School from the 28th of December 2015 to the 5th of January 2016 in the Mount Wellington suburb of Auckland. In addition to opening and closing social dances we provided variety in the evenings with a concert, Hogmanay, First Foot and Toast to 2016 and the formal President’s Ball. The Youth night held on the 29th of December was a hit. Helen and Claire Wyeth devised the programme and briefed the dances on a night themed around “A Few of My Favourite Things” from The Sound of Music and the break featured a popular demonstration from the Ellerslie Youth Group. A feature of the second half of the school was the Ceilidh night on the 3rd of January, when members from the Musicians Course joined the band, and 28 musicians played for an evening’s dancing, interspersed with a variety of acts performed by Summer School attendees. We were fortunate enough to bring out the eight members of Reel of Seven from California. Their arrival was preceded with excitement and they did not disappoint those attending evening functions or classes. Pairings from Reel of Seven played for dance classes, shared the Musicians and Teachers Class, and ran the afternoon Musicians Course. With such a number of musicians on stage we hired a professional sound and lighting team and were thrilled with the results. Sam and Amber worked long hours moving and configuring sound and lighting gear for the eight evenings as well as some classes. We ran ten classes at Summer School this year. For adult dancers there were classes at elementary, intermediate, advanced, very advanced and advanced low impact levels and Junior JAM and Senior JAM classes (Junior Associate Members are dancers up to age 19). In the afternoons we ran a Teachers Preparation class and a Musicians Course. We ran a new initiative for the NZ Branch – a Teachers and Musicians Class for certificated teachers and musicians in the mornings, with tuition from Debbie Roxburgh and members of Reel of Seven. The focus of the class was to give teachers skills and experience of working with live music, and musicians the skills and experience necessary to play for classes. The class was practical in nature with participants teaching formations, steps and dances, playing for the class and dancing. Reports we have had back have been very positive and we look forward to offering the class again at a Summer School. I would like to thank all those who helped with Summer School: the teachers, the musicians, our sound and lighting team, all the helpers and the Summer School Committee Liz Hickey, Helen Greenwood and Grant Oldfield.

The Eightsome and Thirtytwosome at the Hogmanay Jig (Photo: Miriam Laidlaw)