Scottish Country Dancing

It will not surprise you to hear that dancing will not resume in September, and I am sure you will be as disappointed as the rest of us.  St Andrew’s church is anticipating reopening for its congregation in early September, but does not expect to be taking bookings from outside groups until January 2021.

The committee is keeping the situation under review, and checking the availability and conditions for use of other venues, in case it is possible to start some classes before January.

We are planning to hold our annual tea dance on Sunday 29 November at Thameside School.  Here is a crib

and if you follow this link to the Scottish Country Dance Database https://my.strathspey.org/dd/list/28208/ you will get a listing with links to cribs and videos of the dances.  The conditions currently in place at the school limit the numbers to such an extent that the event would be unviable.  However, November is some time away, and we will keep the plans in place until we know whether it can go ahead or not.

The annual ball is scheduled for Saturday 6 February 2021 at the Abbey School. Here is a crib

and if you follow this link https://my.strathspey.org/dd/list/28220/ you will get a listing with links to cribs and videos of the dances.  February is a long time ahead, and we are keeping our fingers crossed that the situation will have improved sufficiently for this to go ahead – even if you have to bring your own pudding!

Club activities are still suspended due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation.

As you know we conducted a virtual AGM and the new committee can be found here: Contacts page which lists committee members.

The old 2019/20 committee handed over to the new 20/21 committee at a meeting held by Zoom on Tuesday 16 June. How and when to resume dancing were discussed. The teachers have been consulted and all three of them are willing to continue once circumstances permit.

The revised fees for the 2020/21 season can be found here: Fees page

In the meantime you can find a variety of ways to keep in touch with dancing.

https://www.rscds.org/get-involved/dance-scottish-home gives you access to a weekly podcast with music and chat about dances. If you click on a week you will get access to that week’s email Newsletter which has a link to that week’s podcast. At the foot of the page you can access all the weekly online dance classes that the RSCDS has been putting on.

If you are on Facebook you can look for “Tunes in the Hoose”  – The original concept was thought up by Martin MacLeod Snr, a founding member of Capercaillie, inspired by Shetland accordionist Peter Wood, who was posting daily ‘tunes in his hoose’ whilst in isolation. The initial collaboration between Martin and Peter was stitched together by Martin MacLeod Jr, a filmmaker based in Glasgow, marking the start of the internationally-acclaimed community known as “Tunes in the Hoose.”