RSCDS Breton Branch danced in Josselin on Sunday 13th June 2021 HURRAH!

 

WE DID DANCE AGAIN : RSCDS Breton Branch danced in Josselin on Sunday 13th June 2021

As soon as French government rules allowed outside gatherings, the Breton Branch members came together to dance in the beautiful medieval city of Josselin, where - as ever - Branch President Dr Penny Gibbs was a generous host.

Dance teacher Anne MacLennan provided a set of easy dances suitable for beginners with slow feet, and also for advanced dancers using their rusty feet undanced for the past 18 months. Dancing outside on an earth surface with small pebbles, we chose to wear sports shoes instead of ballet pumps or ghillies. This was a good surface for dancing.

 

 

 

 We shall dance again !!!!  Nous allons danser! On Sunday June 13th in Josselin, in the centre of Brittany, the Scottish Dancers of the RSCDS Breton Branch will be dancing out of doors, in open-air safety with masks for some and clean hands for all. Here is our core group of RSCDS demonstration dancers at the Cours Josselin de Rohan in 2019. We last danced on 19th  Jan 2020. Sigh!

 

We will start dancing Sunday at 11am on the medieval tilting yard, now called La Promenade but traditionally known as the Cours de Josselin de Rohan, where the Dukes of Rohan organized their jousting from the 1100s until the late 1500s. This illustration is from de arte athletica in the 1540s:

                                Renaissance era illumination from Paulus Hector Mair (Wiki)

We are ATHLETICA people ourselves, for dancing is real sport: although I doubt if our muscles will function very precisely after 18 months without any jig, reel or strathspey. The fact that we will be dancing on hard earth, and not on a ballroom floor, will not matter much. I shall wear gym shoes, not dance ghillies, through which my feet would feel every pebble. Come and join us if you are near!

We hope everyone will soon be dancing again. Dancing in the open air has a long and happy tradition.

We will be dancing clothed. I will shake out my kilts and loosen my belt to allow space to accommodate my "Covid Bonus" of five or six pounds (I no longer trust my scales to tell me the truth), and drive over to the beautiful medieval city of #Josselin to renew my love of Scottish dance. Here is the castle.