We have never experienced a time like this. We support the decisions that have been taken to save lives, but it is very frustrating not to be coming together to enjoy Scottish dance and music.To help cheer us up and look forward to the time we can dance again, the RSCDS is issuing this newsletter, hopefully weekly, to its members and anyone in the SCD community. It will develop and improve as time goes on and as we respond to what you would like to see and read. Our aim is to have articles, music, games, podcasts and even online classes that will entertain and connect us with our dancing friends across the globe.
You are encouraged to share Dance Scottish At Home with dancers and musicians in your club and, if you can, please print the articles for members who do not use a computer. We are all part of the Scottish dance family and now is the time to show it.
Your feedback and ideas are welcome – please click here to share them with us.
Thank you to the RSCDS Management Committee Convenors, our Music Director, Ian Muir, Angela Young, with her media background, and Clare, Kat and Debbie in the RSCDS virtual office for putting Dance Scottish At Home together. I hope you enjoy it. Stay safe and stay in touch.
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At Home Podcasts
The “At Home Podcasts” will deliver a variety of Scottish Dance Music to listen to. With something new, excerpts from the archives, recommended albums of the week, contributions from musicians around the world and much more, we’ll bring you music to keep your toes tapping wherever you are.
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Our first "At Home Podcast” is led by RSCDS Music Director Ian Muir, starting with a rendition of Woodland Polka, played by Ian and his wife Judith. Also included is the music for Scottish country dance EH3 7AF, an interview from the Archives featuring Roy Goldring, and Luke Brady reviews his "Albums of the Week” from the Scottish Country Dance backlist.
Listen online here >
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The Thursday Challenge
Keeping in touch with our dance community when we cannot see each other face to face is even more important at this time. The Youth Services Committee came up with a catalyst for sharing thoughts, memories and inspiration – The Thursday Challenge.
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Each Thursday we will post an idea for your dance stories, giving you a chance to tell us about your dancing experiences and memories on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and now through our weekly Dance Scottish - At Home. Last week's challenge was to tell us how you started to dance, and it was fun to see your responses on Facebook with videos, your first dance photos, and excerpts from letters where you wrote about your first class.
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What's next?
This week’s Thursday Challenge is about your favourite dance! Tell us all about it - why you love it, where you learned it, your favourite memory... and tell us who you danced it with. Share on social media using hashtags #ThursdayChallenge and #DanceScottish or by emailing info@rscds.org – and we’ll look forward to sharing highlights in future newsletters.
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For example, watch Samuele, Alessia, Mattia and Cammilla Graziana perform one of their favourite dances 'The Wishing Well' in their home.
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Video by Samuele Graziani | The Wishing Well
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Social media round up
Scottish Traditional Music made it into the headlines of the BBC Scotland news this week – extraordinary to see that happen on the day that “Lockdown” in the UK was announced. It just goes to show how much we all need music and dance at these times. And although our classes and dancing cannot continue in their normal form, there is a plethora of Scottish music appearing on social media around the world.
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In the last week, fiddle player and composer, Duncan Chisholm launched #CovidCeilidh on Twitter – this features many traditional musicians from young children to established professionals, and is intended to help people to connect virtually through music. With singers, fiddlers, clarsach players, accordionists and much more – there’s something for everyone.
“Tunes in the Hoose” can be found on Facebook and sees Scottish musicians from all over playing together. In a time of social distancing, technology has enabled virtual bands to be formed online. The idea was started by Peter Wood in Shetland and Martin MacLeod in Pitlochry. Duos, trios, quartets and larger bands can be found playing a wide selection of Scottish Dance Music. Spain, Denmark and all parts of the UK have been linking up to make a great sound and joining musicians together who may never have met.
Closer to our RSCDS home, Ewan Galloway has been hosting a virtual Accordion and Fiddle Club most evenings. Since last Monday, 16th March, Ewan has been taking live requests for two hours– old time, country dances, waltzes – Ewan responds to messages on his live feed and plays your requests.
Of course, that’s not to mention the host of RSCDS musicians and Accordion and Fiddle Club Players who are recording and posting daily videos with a huge variety of tunes, as well as duets and even an internet ceilidh band.
Away from the Scottish Music Scene – one of the oldest brass bands in the world, the Cory Band in Wales have worked technology magic, bringing the whole band together online while players self isolate at home, for a virtual performance of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. Across the globe, international musicians joined together for three days to create a “Stay At Home Festival” with Scottish and Norwegian fiddle music, American old-time, Bluegrass and more.
From Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber to Gary Barlow, musicians are posting, collaborating and sharing, on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and even TikTok. There truly is music everywhere, and it is fantastic to see the Scottish Music we all love right in the heart of it.
Send in your spots for next week’s Social Media Round Up, as we turn our attention to dance posts from around the globe.
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What's behind the name?
Written by Peter Knapman, Convenor of Membership Services.
The Birks of Invermay – RSCDS book 16 – originally from Skillern's Compleat Collection of Two Hundred & Four Reels and Country Dances for 1776
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The well-known tune for this dance is of unknown age, its earliest publication being in 1733 in William Thomson’s Orpheus Caledonius or A Collection of Scots Songs set to music, where its title was The Birks of Endermay. In the Orpheus Caledonius the song has two verses (written by David Mallet). By 1787 the song was published in Johnson’s ‘The Scots Musical Museum’ with the title we know today of The Birks of Invermay and with an additional two verses (added by Rev Alex Bryce).
Invermay is an estate in the Strathearn area of Perthshire alongside the Water of May, a small river that runs out of the Ochil Hills and into the River Earn. Parts of the river run through a narrow and steep gorge clothed with silver birch trees. Today much of this is fairly inaccessible but in the 18C and early 19C there were paths and bridges providing extensive views of the Water of May.The narrowest part of the gorge is called the Humble-Bumble after the noise made by the water as it rushes through the gorge.
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In the 19C the Invermay estate was a recognised natural feature being mentioned in various books of the period. It was also visited by many noteworthy people including Sir Walter Scott who stayed there in the 1820s. Sadly, now there are only faint and overgrown remnants of the path network that allowed visitors close views of the Humble-Bumble. Despite this, walking through parts of the estate is an interesting experience, even if the most accessible paths are mostly through woods that contain few birks.
To put the estate in a historical and dance context - the earliest mention of the estate was in 1362 when a Robert Stewart was granted the land by King David: at the time the estate was called Innermeath. It stayed in the Stewart family until the early 1600s. After passing through various hands it was bought by the Belsches in 1717. In the late 1700s John Belsches married Mary Hepburn and created the double-barrelled name Hepburn Belsches. This name may be familiar as you just might have danced Mrs Hepburn Belches of Invermay: originally published in a book of music and dances by John Bowie in Perth in 1789 where John Bowie seems to have misspelt Belsches. Two of the dances in John Bowie’s book have been published by the RSCDS but, unfortunately, Mrs Hepburn Belches is not one of them. It was a very popular dance in the 1970s but in recent years seems to have fallen out of favour. Shame really as it is a straightforward dance with a nice tune.
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Do you know the two other RSCDS dances published by John Bowie?
Have you ever danced them?
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RSCDS news
In response to the current coronavirus (COVID-19) situation in the UK, the RSCDS office is now operating remotely with all staff working from home via email. Please be aware that we are currently only able to process orders for digital shop items which are available as usual from Amazon, iTunes, Google Play and Spotify.
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Regrettably we have had to cancel both Summer School and Spring Fling 2020 events to ensure the health and safety of all of our dancers and musicians. All Summer School booking fees will be refunded and please note that any scholarship and examination course place can be rolled over to next year. The local organisers of the respective Spring Fling and Fringe committees are in contact with dancers, teachers and musicians.
Members can look forward to receiving the latest edition of their Scottish Country Dancer magazine next week. In light of the current circumstances, all members with an email address on the RSCDS database will receive a digital copy. For any members without an email address, we will send a postal copy of the magazine as usual (although there may be delays to mail services around the world). When the restrictions on office work are lifted, members without a paper copy can request one from the office at 12 Coates Crescent.
Please contact info@rscds.org if you have any questions.
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Coming up next week
Next week’s newsletter will feature the second “At Home Podcast”, the background to another Scottish Country Dance and we’ll be bringing you details of plans for our online classes.
But we also want to hear from you – what do you want to see and hear in this weekly newsletter?
Please click the link below!
We look forward to bringing you “Dance Scottish At Home” next week.
Meanwhile, stay safe
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