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Welcome to our second issue of Dance Scottish At Home.

Please feel free to share the newsletter with dancers and musicians in your club as well as any friends who may be interested in the content. If you’re aware of any members who do not use a computer please, if possible, print and send them a copy.

As you all know, this is an extraordinary time and we want this newsletter to help cheer members up and look forward to when we can dance together again.
 
The feedback on the first issue has been really encouraging and we look forward to receiving more of your ideas in the weeks to come.
In this issue you can look forward to:

The At Home Podcast
Music, a dance from the archives and another challenging quiz
The Thursday Challenge
Who can you spot in RSCDS President Jean Martin’s photo?
Social Media Round Up
This week focusing on dancing posts from around the world
What’s Behind The Name?
The Duchess Tree, a dance by John Drewry and so much more
RSCDS Online Class
The launch of our online weekly class
Dance Puzzles 
Something to get your brains ticking while your feet tap
RSCDS News
Coming Up Next Week

At Home Podcasts

Join Ian Muir for the second edition of the “At Home Podcasts” delivering a variety of Scottish Dance Music to listen to. Something new, excerpts from the archives, recommended albums of the week, contributions from musicians around the world and much more music to keep your toes tapping wherever you are.

The second “At Home Podcast” led by RSCDS Music Director Ian Muir, starts with two marches with a North East of Scotland connection, played by Graham Berry and his wife, Angela Young. There’s another musical quiz and this week the interview from the archives features Ann Dix talking about her dance, Culla Bay. Luke Brady is back to review his “Albums of the Week” and takes up your feedback requests for even more music.
Listen online here >

BBC Radio Scotland have also been listening to your feedback and start their brand, new venture this Sunday 5th April.

Take The Floor Ceilidh will be live from 5pm every Sunday evening for the foreseeable future and gives you the chance to phone or email to ask for special requests and dedications plus providing the opportunity to pick your favourite musicians and bands.
Email takethefloor@bbc.co.uk or Phone:
 08085 929500 (will only work while the programme is live).
Early requests can be emailed, or if you’re inspired to request a particular track on Sunday, email and phone in live.
       




 



 

The Thursday Challenge

Enjoy staying connected with the dance community during a difficult time where we cannot meet in person. The Youth Services Committee are devising weekly Thursday Challenges for us to share our dance thoughts and memories.
Every Thursday we will post a challenge on social media and encourage you to share your dance stories. Last week's challenge was to tell us your favourite dance, and it was really interesting to read your responses on social media. 
Photo courtesy of Joana Stausberg
"What's your favourite dance" seems a good question to consider when you have time on your hands. Although, looking at some of your responses to last week's #ThursdayChallenge, the question really should have been: "What are your favourite dances?" You have many favourites!

A number of you named Strathspeys, like The Minister of the Loch and Gang the Same Gate (or Sing the Same Gate, for when you dance it to song tunes). Many love a dance because of the tune, for example The Australian Ladies makes you happy and The Bonnie Lass o' Bon Accord is a beautiful tune enjoyed by you and used for different dances, The Saint John River, The Belle o’ Bon Accord and of course, The Bonnie Lass itself to name a few. You also wrote about great memories connected to your favourite dances – including an Eightsome Reel danced at two consecutive birthday parties - although it turned into a Twelvesome version at the second party (you're apparently good at recruiting dancers, Helen).

Chris from Mid Argyll Branch, replying by mail, puts it this way: "I have always had problems choosing my favourite anything, be it dance or whisky! So this is perhaps today's favourite. Pelorus Jack is a dance that I first came across at Tarbert. It spoke to me on several levels - had great music, interesting and, at that early stage in my short dancing career, quite challenging moves to remember. It is a lively dance that leaves me with a sense of achievement when finished. Its origin in New Zealand also connected because we have family over there and during many visits we danced with two clubs just north of Auckland who both had Pelorus Jack on their dance list while we were with them. We also visited the region in South Island where the original Pelorus Jack danced in the waters of Pelorus Sound. Yet another connection is the several occasions when dolphins have danced for us in the bow wave of our boat off the Scottish coast. Here's looking to better times when we can all dance together again. Keep healthy."

On Facebook, RSCDS President Jean Martin took up the first Thursday Challenge as to how we all started to dance. This photo shows a young demonstration team at Summer School, in St Andrews, in the late 1960s. But can you find Jean? And do you recognise the rest of the team?

What's this week's challenge?

We stay with the topic of dances for this week's Thursday Challenge, but have adapted the theme to the common feeling of "I'm really eating too much for the little exercise I do at the moment". So here is this week's #ThursdayChallenge: What's the most difficult dance to do after tea-time at an evening social? Post on social media using hashtags #ThursdayChallenge and #DanceScottish or email info@rscds.org with more details. Looking forward to your replies!
Social media round up
Following on from last week’s musical round up, this week we’re turning our attention to the wide variety of dance activity that has been springing up around social media, the internet and the world in the last couple of weeks.
Last Friday, the Ayr Branch set up their first virtual dance – giving members a break from cleaning out cupboards and gardening! Publishing a dance programme with YouTube links, sharing different groups dancing and a variety of musicians playing, dancers in Ayr and beyond joined together for an afternoon event with a difference. While near Boston in the USA, dancers in Albany NY have set up an online Sunday Dance at 7pm, for an evening of 2 couple dances. They are devising programmes carefully with special consideration for how many dancing ghosts are needed. In Lyon, technology joined a team of branch dancers from different locations together for a newly devised dance, written specifically for the challenge lots of people have faced – The Toilet Roll Reel.
And in Cambridge, Kate Gentles is running a weekly Step Class via Zoom at 2pm on Saturday afternoons. Kate says that no previous experience is required but knowing right from left does help.

So many of you have been finding innovative ways to keep dancing and using your domestic setting to effect. Just a few of those spotted include: Alone in Loch Home, a strathspey for 1 person and 2 Swivel chairs in a triangle set; The Home Alone Jig for one person and four chairs; and The Left in Isolation Jig for 1 couple and four chairs.

But, those titles also really highlight how a lot of our members are feeling, so look out for the RSCDS Online class update later on in this week’s newsletter.

There is dance a-plenty all around – with hopefully something to get everyone moving, even if you aren’t able to get outside. If you are looking for a totally different movement – Scottish Ballet will begin their online Health programme of classes on Monday with specific times for targeting attendees with Parkinson’s and Dementia.The Royal Academy of Dance  is launching free online Silver Swans ballet classes for over 55s encouraging using the kitchen counter as a ballet barre while on YouTube, every morning, children, parents and carers are joining The Body Coach Joe Wicks for a full body 30 minute workout.
And last Sunday, the Aberdeenshire Highland Dancing League hosted a virtual flash mob receiving over 600 video submissions – they set a task of dancing 16 pas de basques or a Highland Fling! Now, which do you think is easier?

Please send in your spots for next week’s Social Media Round Up – we want to reflect everything that you and the RSCDS community are finding of interest around the globe.
What's behind the name?
 Written by Peter Knapman, Convenor of Membership Services.
The Duchess Tree – John Drewry – A Duchess, a Tune and a Dance.
Although not an RSCDS published dance The Duchess Tree is popular with a dance title that leads to an interesting story linking aspects of Scottish history, a Duchess and historic architecture as well as a couple of important musical figures in the Scottish traditional music scene. The dance is named after a tune which itself was named after a tree! 
Do you know where the tree was, who the Duchess was and why she ended up with a tree, a tune and a dance named after her?
 
The Tree
Let’s start with the tree.  The ‘Duchess Tree’ was sufficiently important to be named on the 1903 Ordnance Survey map survey and was located in the grounds of Gordon castle at Fochabers, Morayshire. John Drewry’s notes for the dance indicate that the canopy of the tree was of exceptional size. (Drewry received this information from Margaret Cook of Forres).
The Duchess
Gordon castle was the seat of the Dukes of Gordon and the Duchess was Jane Gordon, wife of the 4th Duke, Alexander Gordon, whom she married in 1767.  The 4th Duke had ambitious plans which included extending Gordon castle with an impressive façade and high central tower, making it the largest house in Scotland of the period. This ambitious project also required moving the nearby town of Fochabers to make room for the new castle. 
The Duchess was a formidable lady with good looks, and was known as the ‘Beautiful Duchess of Gordon’. An enthusiastic socialite and leading figure in Edinburgh society, the Duchess enjoyed dancing and traditional music, with entertaining being an important part of her world. She introduced Scottish dancing at her parties in London, while in Scotland she was a patron of the Northern Meeting, established in 1788 to promote social intercourse in the Highlands. She also sponsored the Scottish poet, Robert Burns.
 
In 1794, Jane helped to recruit soldiers for a new infantry regiment to join the war against France - the Gordon Highlanders. It is said that dressed in a military uniform and wearing a large black, feathered hat, Jane toured the Duke’s lands, offering the King’s shilling – the payment for joining up – from between her lips.
 
It is unclear as to why the lime tree in the grounds of Gordon castle became known as the Duchess Tree.  It is easy to believe that it was a favourite spot for the Duchess and who knows what meetings took place under its large canopy. However, the marriage between the Duchess and the 4th Duke of Gordon was not an entirely happy one and in 1789 Jane Gordon became estranged from the Duke and turned her attention to the building of new summer home on the banks of the river Spey near Aviemore: Kinrara House.
 
Kinrara House is considered to be one of the finest Georgian houses on Speyside and was obviously originally designed with entertaining in mind, being testament to the Duchess’s commitment to socialising and dancing.  The polished wooden sprung floor that runs along the whole length of the house covers two large reception rooms and an interconnecting hall – reaching some 20 metres. 
 
Whilst both the extravagant edifice of the 4th Duke’s castle and the Duchess tree no longer exist, Kinrara house still stands by the river Spey as a lasting memorial to the Duchess.
 
Before leaving the Duke and Duchess of Gordon, it is worth mentioning that William Marshall, the renowned fiddle player and composer, was employed by the 4th Duke. The RSCDS has used many of his tunes: maybe a topic for a future article?

The Tune
The tune The Duchess Tree was written by the fiddle virtuoso James Scott Skinner. Originally from Banchory, Scott Skinner earned his living as a dancing master and violinist, giving virtuoso music recitals in addition to teaching dancing.  The Duchess Tree was first published in The Logie Collection in 1888 as a song: the first verse being:

Round Gordon Castle the woods are green,
And the flow’rs are fair to see
And dear is the shade of the leafy screen
When we meet by the Duchess Tree
 
The words of the song are indicated to be by W.M. – who is W.M.?
 
In the Logie Collection,
 The Duchess Tree is published in the key of Ab major rather than the key of A major which we associate with the tune today.  Three years earlier, a manuscript copy of the tune was written in a scrapbook of tunes that Scott Skinner gave to Mrs Barclay of the Gordon Arms Hotel in Keith. In the scrapbook the tune is in the more familiar key of A major and has the title The Bonnie Bonnie Duchess Tree. A copy can be found on the University of Aberdeen web site.

The Dance
John Drewry wrote the dance in 1971, it quickly became popular and has retained its popularity to this day.  One aspect of the dance, I remember from when it was first published, was the discussion (maybe controversy) that took place regarding the use of a slow air as a strathspey tune.  Prior to the dance, the Duchess Tree tune would have been typically played quite a bit slower than we would want as dancers. Today it is difficult to appreciate the range of discussion that centred round the use of slow airs as dancing tunes!   But in the words of John Drewry:
 
The choice of music is of primary importance. The music supplies the impulse to dance and ideally the music should be chosen first and the dance movements should grow out of the music”.
 
So, there we have it, a tree named after a Duchess which is now sadly no more but its memory will live on in a tune and a dance.
RSCDS online class
Join a different RSCDS Teacher each week for a mixture of basic movements, warm ups, technique and steps to keep you active. Live every Wednesday at 19:00 UK time, the class will give you the chance to dance with RSCDS members around the world at the same time.
Each week, the classes will be recorded and shared through Dance Scottish At Home for those who can’t make a Wednesday evening, especially for those in a different time zone.
 
Hosted on Zoom, the classes will give you live video and instruction, with the opportunity to post written Q&As throughout the session, which can be answered at the end of class. You can also post messages on the ‘Chat’ area of the Webinar to other dancers.
 
Link to join RSCDS Online Class:
https://zoom.us/j/780126836
 
The first class will be on Wednesday 8th April at 19:00 GMT. It may take a few minutes for everyone to access Zoom, especially for the first time, so please join at 7 and class will start after approximately 5 minutes.
Notes: You will need to register your name and an email address, but that should take you straight into the session. Your camera and microphone will not be active.
  
Dance puzzles
Do you enjoy solving puzzles? Starting this week, we are introducing a puzzle section to the newsletter, which we hope you enjoy and find interesting, as well as entertaining.
 
Our first puzzle is a dance anagram challenge. All the strange jumbled words and phrases below are anagrams of 15 hopefully, well-known dances that are mostly, but not all, published by the RSCDS.

Why not try your hand at unjumbling them?

The answers will appear in next week’s edition of Dance Scottish At Home.
Anagrams compiled by Stan Grycuk, RSCDS Aberdeen
Alternatively, please view and print off the Anagram sheet here.
RSCDS news
We will be keeping you updated with any RSCDS developments and news in response to the Covid-19 situation. You will be able to read the latest news and updates on our website blog, under Important updates.

We hope all our members are enjoying the April edition of Scottish Country Dancer. Due to the unprecedented circumstances, the Board took the decision to distribute the magazine digitally to members who had supplied an email address. This meant 80% of members gained instant access to the magazine. Members without email were sent a copy through the post as usual. When the restrictions on office work are lifted, members can request a paper copy from 12 Coates Crescent.  Please contact the office (info@rscds.org) if you have any questions or require any support.   


Next week’s newsletter will bring our online class to those who couldn’t join live, the third At Home Podcast, background to another Scottish Country Dance, Guest Album of the week and more Easter goodies.
Importantly keep your feedback coming in – 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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