What’s on 5

Sunday Socials with Dunedin Dancers

Sundays 1 October, 5 November, 4 February and 3 March

Craigmillar Park Church Hall, Craigmillar Park, Edinburgh, EH16 5LZ

Dancing to Màrtainn Skene, Ewan Galloway, Iain MacPhail and Matthew Maclennan

Join us for a fun afternoon with our friends at Dunedin Dancers. All ages are welcome at these events, so long as you have a reasonable knowledge of basic formations.

Christmas Dance

Saturday 9 December

Greyfriars Charteris Centre, 138/140 Pleasance, Edinburgh, EH8 9RR

Dancing to Matthew Maclennan and his Scottish dance band

We've a programme of popular dances and fantastic music from Matthew and his band. Always a favourite on the dancing calendar!

Christmas Party

Tuesday 12 December

Barclay Viewforth Church Hall, 1 Wright’s House, Edinburgh, EH10 4HR

Musician to be advised

Our Christmas Party Night is always a fun evening no matter how long you have been dancing. It’s a great chance to meet dancers from our other classes at this relaxed and friendly evening.

Our classes for Young Dancers are back at Greenbank Church Hall on Saturday mornings

P1 and above 9:30 - 10:15 am

Our youngest dancers learn music, rhythm and movement to music, offering children the chance to enjoy Scottish country dancing and ceilidh music in a fun environment, meeting new friends and learning the basic shapes of formations and some fun easy dances.

P5 and above 10:15 - 11:00 am

Leading on from this, as the children gain more experience, they develop their knowledge of Scottish country dance formations and steps while continuing to expand their knowledge of dances.

Join us online and enjoy soft shoe Step Workshops from the comfort of your home

Saturday mornings 10.00—11.30 am UK time

Online Step (soft shoe) Workshop for those with some previous experience.

Sunday evenings 6.00—7.30 pm UK time

This class is aimed at dancers with no or little previous experience although some knowledge of Scottish country dancing or ballet will be helpful.

All classes are taught by Atsuko Clement, and a recording of each class is available to participants so you can practice at home.

Find out more at www.rscdsedinburgh.org

The musicians view of the Centenary Concert from Tim Macdonald, fiddler:

Miss Milligan told us that ‘The music is the stimulus of the dance’, and so it was wonderful for the Branch to complement all the dancing of the Centenary Weekend with a concert in Canongate Kirk. Dancers (and non-dancers!) had a chance to rest their feet and focus on the Society’s wonderful tradition of tunes without the extra responsibility of dancing. However, this proved to be a programming challenge for us musicians! Squeezing a hundred years of music into an hour-long concert, representing everything we thought should be represented, and doing it without the guideposts of programmed dances was a fun new problem to consider.

Muriel Johnstone bookended the concert with two historical medleys one of Book One tunes, the other a ten-tune mega-set with one tune from each decade of the Society’s existence. The rest of us chose tunes to highlight various music composers, dance leaders, and tune genres that have made Scottish country dance music what it is. As someone who’s only been fiddling for dances since Book 45 was published, it was special to work with musicians who have such a deep history with the RSCDS, learn about older tunes and traditions, and get to play such stimulating music with such fine exponents of the genre!