Global Youth Week

Facebook competition

The winning photograph, sent in by Lyon Branch. Back row (standing): Aymeric Fromherz, Melissa Meunier, Laure Gardelle, Florence Burgy, Nolwenn Rousselot, Aline Falcon, Aliénor Latour, Alizé Besson, Berenice Martin. In front: Vincent Gauthier, Raphaëlle Orgeret, Corinne Hilpert, Olivier Lecuze

Global Youth Week was an initiative of the Youth Services Committee, the idea being to encourage dancers in branches or groups around the world to bring somebody they consider ‘young’ to their dance class one week in January. There was no age limit. What exactly is “young”? Well, it means different things in different circumstances. The suggestion to groups was to consider the average age of the group and anyone younger than that is ‘young’ for the group! The aim was to encourage younger people to come to the class that week. If every class member brought someone younger there is a chance young people would not feel out of place, and may stay! To give the idea a boost, Youth Services organized an optional Facebook photo contest. If any group wished to take part they were invited to send their favourite photos of the event to the Society, where it would be published on Facebook with the promise that the one with the most ‘likes’ would be published in this issue of Scottish Country Dancer magazine! The winner of the Facebook competition was Lyon Branch, who organised a ‘youth and whisky night’ during the week. Anybody taking a young person to the class had the chance to win a bottle of whisky. Ten new young(er) people went to the class that night and had lots of fun! The hope is that some of them will come back, although it is recognised that some won’t. The main thing is they all went home with a smile and good memories of what an evening of Scottish country dancing is! CeilidhKids in Edinburgh ran a school age Family Ceilidh in Portobello, in Edinburgh for their ‘graduate families’ who have grown out of the preschool sessions but still enjoy dancing together. Over 100 people of all ages came together to enjoy themselves to some excellent music, to get warm on a very cold day and share leftover Christmas nibbles in the interval! CeilidhKids also ran two family dancing sessions at the National Museum of Scotland as part of ‘Burns Unbound’. This was a family event celebrating contemporary and traditional Scottish music and the spoken word of Burns. More families than were expected turned up to skip, jump and twirl in this iconic building – from toddlers to grandparents and all ages in between! Marilyn Healy

These boots are made for dancing

One of the family dancing sessions at the National Museum of Scotland as part of Burns Unbound (Ruth Armstrong Photography)

Enjoying the family session at the National Museum of Scotland (Ruth Armstrong Photography)