Teaching Children to dance on St Andrews Day !

 Happy St Andrews Day, folks !

St Andrew was crucified on a cross of this shape, and he became the Patron Saint of Scotland when the Greek missionary St Regulus landed in 345 A.D. on the East Coast of Fife with St Andrew's bones  in a bag. A whole series of miracles: firstly, that the Emperor Constatine decided to send a missionary to Alba. It was a miracle that St Andrews's bones were available; and that the Holy Roman Empire wanted to send them to Northern Europe. A miracle that St Regulus (also called St Rule) reached Scotland. A miracle that he decided (and was able) to sail past Arran, Mull, Skye and Orkney to reach Fife .... so many unlikely miracles that the city of St Andrews (where he landed) deserves its worldwide fame.  

If you can spin this yarn, the story should motivate children to listen .... and maybe to dance!  Kids live a bit of gore and torture. so offer them this Spanish Inquisition version of St Andrew's martyrdom. 

At the RSCDS Autumn Gathering on Nov 5th, there was a meeting of the Youth Committee which provided some helpful insights on teaching young people:  children will find it tough to attend a weekly class because they have so many other things going on. Young people will enjoy a day-school; a dance camp; a Ceilidh.with a bonfire ...  And they should also enjoy dancing with their families. That is how I learned dancing: dancing with my parents because dancing is a part of our Scottish culture.

In France, I link dance to English teaching. I visit school classrooms to tell them about Scotland and kilts and dancing. I use two songs with vocabulary useful for 9-year-olds: You canna shove yer Granny off the Bus and Ten Green Bottles Hanging on a Wall ....  taught with illustrations drawn on sheets of paper.  Other verses: You can shove you silly sister off the train. You can push your boring brother off his bike. You can throw your ugly uncle from a plane. All good vocabulary, with laughter.

The kids enjoy the songs and they love dancing! I start by dancing a circle using slip-step. We get the feel of reel-time music by clapping. Then we dance The Cumberland Reel. with pas chassé = the traveling step in reel time .... but I spend very little time on footwork. We must focus on The Joy Of Dance and Music.  To reinforce this, I move on to The Virginia Reel and Thread The Needle. Everyone enjoys those dances. 

Try it yourselves.

Teaching our Chrildren to Dance keeps them healthy and anchored in their culture.

 

 

This delightful picture from the website of the CLUARAN website (the Scottish dance group in St Louis, on the Golfe de Morbihan in Southern Brittany) shows both the joy of dancing, and my passion for teaching children to dance. Dance brings children great fun, joyful laughter, a sense of achievement, good body posture and healthy exercise. What's not to like?  Dancing has been enhanced by the success of TV programs like Dancing with the Stars (USA) and Strictly Come Dancing (in UK) and films like Billy Elliot about a boy who wanted to dance .... and maybe by huge stage successes like Hamilton, The Lion King and West Side Story that include dancing as an integral part of their whole story. Even boys!

 

We have forgotten the cultural importance of dancing - which was traditionally linked to the masculine skills of fencing -  in European life. In Africa dancing is an integral part of daily life. This used to be true in Europe. Entertainment was poetry and music, song and dance. Now we consume entertainment on a box, while sinking unhealthily into our armchairs. In the New Year : teach children to dance! 

Here is an RSCDS picture of The Triumph danced around 1841. Our heritage!
 

 

 

we are dancing all over Brittany - most nights of the week there is Scottish dancing somewhere !

Last Sunday I danced on the coast of the Côtes d'Armor. This next Sunday I shall be dancing in Josselin, in the centre of Brittany, where the RSCDS Breton Branch will have its monthly dance : easy dances from 10am and more complex dances in the afternoon. Friday I danced in Lannion; Tuesdays I dance in Guingamp or in St Quay Perros; Mondays I sometimes dance in Rennes .... and we have a monthly Ceilidh (on the Last Sunday of every month) in Pordic, near St Brieuc. naturally, our whole approach seeks to place Scottish culture in Europe, even if the English prefer their Brexit.

Dancing is good for you.

Dancing is the most complete exercise for the body and the brain; and to these physical assets, the music brings psychological soothing while the dance groups provide social health and conviviality.  Scottish dance improves balance, while the teamwork involved in dancing the formations together contributes a different type of balance and adds very beneficial social interactions. 

Researchers have proved than DANCING IS GOOD FOR YOU !!!!!

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.