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 back dancing .... modestly .... with children around the Maypole

 The Maypole dance is a Celtic Beltaine tradition. Covid blocked us on May 1st, so we raised the Maypole for France's National Day July 14th. Here is Claudine, beautifully dressed and surrounded by happy children holding ribbons. We used recorded Morris Music from Essex to provide a suitably plodding beat as we all marched our ribbons around the Maypole, or Maibaum, or Mât enrubanné. The bored adolescent on her smartphone illustrates the age differences. Old and Young had fun; but 300 years ago, she would have been holding a ribbon with the best of them, with us watching!

 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.

 

 

Can we start dancing in September?????

What the French call "Contre danses" - referring to the set-lines where we are standing opposite our partners at regulation confinement distance of 6 feet - means that Scottish dancers and English Country Dancers are better protected from virus transmission that other dancers. Janet McCrorie's picture "Clasp" (top) shows how we may need adjustments: her second picture "Ceilidh Spin" reduces face-to-face impact. Her dancers even seem to be wearing masks. This may be how we should dance if we want to restart in September. AND THAT IS WHAT WE WANT!!

VE Day 75 years ago was a victory for All of Europe

The defeat of nazi and italian Fascism on 8th May 1945 (Victory in Europe) brought liberty to all of Europe (except in the Soviet zone) and the birth of the United Nations. Konrad Adenhauer, Robert Schumann and Jean Monnet created what became the European Economic Community and - later - the European Union. We need to hold on to peace and friendship across frontiers. What we all need is peace: respect for Nature and for each other - symbolized by peace dancing (here in St Andrews).

 Dancing has started again after the Summer break. Dancing with young people (even with very young people) is not only important, but lovely to do. My book (below) argues that dance teachers should commit to teaching children as well as adults, or they should not receive RSCDS certificates
because we are killing the dance culture that we love if we do not teach our kids. My children Edward and Catherine (shown on the book cover) dance very well. So should all our children.
This book is full of wisdom and dancing, stories and laughter: the perfect gift for your friends.

Scottish country and highland from #Janet McCrorie

Two more beautiful pictures from my favourite dance painter, sold to support #RSCDS. 

Another beautiful dance painting BEFORE YOUR EYES by Janet McCrorie, whose art I am privileged to show you. Like my amusing book I DANCE THEREFORE I AM, sales of Janet McCrorie's paintings and elegant greetings cards benefit the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society of which we are proud members - in my own case, a Life Member since 1967 when I was still a student at St Andrews University dancing every week with the university's Celtic Society. I still send occasional donations to the Celtic Society, to encourage the art and practice and joy of DANCING among young people! I have a lifetime of pleasure on the dance floor.  My own children Catherine Leila and Edward can be seen dancing on the cover of my book: the perfect gift for a dance friend.

I am going to a family wedding tomorrow. Mentally I am getting ready for church, long country walks (to reach the church), and lots of wine (to toast Pandora and her Max).  This witty picture that I found on the internet, perfectly represents the Three Ages of Robin attending weddings. And DANCING of course: I Dance, Therefore I Am.

Fit & Healthy Scottish Dancing on ICE !!!

Have you admired the Kerr siblings John and Sinead dancing on ice at the 2008 World Championships in Sweden?  If not, don't miss the opportunity - and this is the place to see them Scottish dancing to the music of Auld Lang Syne:

https://www.sunnyskyz.com/happy-videos/7055/Scottish-Siblings-Original-Ice-Dance-Has-Everyone-Cheering-During-The-Routine

teaching children to dance

Dance is an important part of our culture. Families and communities used to dance every week. We used to create our our entertainment with music and dance and stories. Now we consume, seated and lazy. It is the wonderful experience of dance that gets children moving and gives them the belief that they are beautiful, exciting physical people. Here we are dancing with kids in Josselin.