Quietly and unobtrusively, branches and members of the RSCDS in Scotland are involved with the education system through their local schools: teaching country dancing; helping schoolteachers teach ; and helping to organise festivals and days of dance. This work is seldom given the publicity it deserves. In this feature we give a flavour of the contribution the RSCDS makes in seven d ifferent parts of Scotland. Many more branches are involved in their local Music Festivals and in running Country Dance Festivals. We hope to cover these in a future issue .
The Annual Ayrshire Days of Dance "Brilliant! Fantastic! I loved it! Excellent! Better than Highland dancing.You get to do all different dances. We got to meet new people . Fun-packed! Exciting! " These were just some of the many comments recorded in 2005 by primary school pupils from all over Ayrshire who attend the two separate Days of Dance held annually in November. The venues are the Magnum Leisure Centre in Irvine and the Concert Hall in Troon Both halls offer a new and thrilling experience as they are large enough to accommodate the 1,500 junior dancers who, along with their hard-working teachers , eagerly attend each year.
opened the event. The dances were: The Gay Cordons, The Dhoon, Watson 's Reel. Espie McNabb, The Dashing White Sergeant, The White Cockade, Simon's Dance, A Jig for Mrs Dunn, Rabbie's Reel, Virginia Reel, Joe MacDiarmid's Jig, A Highland Welcome , A Reel for Jeannie, Flowers of Edinburgh and The Flying Scotsman . The day is financed by a grant from the Angus Council Community Grant Scheme. The Angus Active Schools group were very helpful , as they have primary coordinators in each of the clusters of primary schools . They encouraged more schools to participate, and dealt with the disclosures necessary for our volunteers . Members from Carnoustie Branch, Forfar Branch , and East Angus Branch go into the schools from January to March to help teach the dances. Some lucky schools have a member of staff able to teach the dances . The problem we anticipate in the future, as the effort to expand the scheme to more children takes effect. is lack of sufficient volunteers . The Montrose Sports Centre is not big enough for the numbers involved . For the second year running, we had to limit the number of children per school to 16. It is obviously desirable not to turn children away, so we are planning next year to have two venues. We hope that this expansion will lead to more children taking up SCD in adult life . East Angus Branch would also like to stimulate SCD activity in the secondary schools and try to encourage schools to form out-of-hours SCD clubs .
The three Ayrshire branches of the Society (Ayr, Kilmarnock and North Ayrshire) provide volunteers and teachers to assist. not only on the day, but in the preparation of the youngsters. Our branches participate by sending out instructions and music on CD as well as running workshops for the schoolteachers themselves and going into the schools on a weekly basis to give support and guidance. In South Ayrshire, the schools also very much appreciate Ayr branch subsidising their expenses . Both events , with live music from local SCD bands, consist of a mixture of ceilidh and simple country dances including The Gay Cordons, The Dashing White Sergeant, St Bernard's Waltz, The Happy Meeting , Joe MacDiarmid's Jig, Ladies' Fancy, A Reel for Jeannie, Espie McNabb and The De'il Amang the Tailors, with The Piper and the Penguin becoming very popular year on year. (Oluf Olufsen)
Angus Primary Schools Now in its ninth year, the annual Children's Dance for Angus Primary Schools is held every March . Over 400 children from 28 schools take part . This year Sue Porter, RSCDS Youth Director,
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Our advice to branches yet to initiate SCD in schools would be that it is essential to bring the local Education Department and the Active Schools groups on board. This essential activity is an area where the RSCDS can cooperate very fruitfully with local authorities. (Mark Noble)
