RSCDS BANFFSHIRE'i filiaal
Asutatud 1929. A
Filiaali 90. aastapäeva tähistamine
1929 kuni tänapäevani
BRANCH NEWS APRIL 2023
The first of the ‘Classes with a Difference’ by Alice Archibald
02 April 2023 in the Institute Hall, Portsoy
Report by RSCDS Teacher: Alice Archibald
I decided that I had to check out all the 15 books of dances devised by John Drewry a former Lecturer at Aberdeen University and to make some of the formations he devised the subject of the Class with a Difference. These formations have been used by many devisers of dances. I did not have time to do a dance with Set and Rotate, Half Turn and Twirl and La Barratte.
I started the Class with the dance Glayva, a jig, that was devised in 1977 with the new progression The Espagnole and then I did the dance The Kenora Reel with Petronella in Tandem. In The Bon Accord Book, published in 1968 is the dance The Silver Tessie which contained the new progression which was named by Miss Jean Milligan, Rondell The Courage Reel published in 1977 and containing the new formation Dance to Each Corner and Set! I had first encountered this formation in Gothenburg’s Welcome published in RSCDS Book 37.I then did The Lantern of the North, a jig, which contained the formation Pass and Turn with Corners. I had no idea that this formation which is in a lot of modern dances had been devised by John. The next dance was the reel, Ferla Mor [or the Big Grey Man) which contained tandem reels and having been published in1981 was certainly the first use of Tandem Reels I have encountered. The strathspey, Cherrybank Gardens, which contains the formation Petronella in Tandem. The last dance of the afternoon was Mrs McPherson of Inveran a lively reel and a dance which is fairly common on dance programmes locally which finishes with a circle which I particularly wanted to end the afternoon. I felt it was a successful afternoon and all enjoyed the programme I had prepared. I think it was a fun programme.
A thank you message from Dianna Baillie, Chair of the RSCDS Banffshire Branch
A big thanks to Alice for leading us through a very enjoyable dance class on Sunday.
The theme for the afternoon was that of formations which first appeared in John Drewry dances - Espagnole, Petronella in tandem, Dance to each corner & set, Corners pass and turn, & Tandem reels were included in the dances Glayva, Kenora Reel, Silver Tassie, The Courage Reel, Lantern of the North, Cherrybank Gardens, Ferla Mor and Mrs McPherson of Inveran. All lovely dances & interesting to hear the story behind them.
Looking forward to the next one on 5th May
Check out Celebrating 100 Years of Scottish Country Dancing on our Centenary page here
Dianna
'Class with a Difference' 4th June 2023
Report by Isobel Turner
First dance was "The Queensferry crossing", devised by Moira Stephen from the Dunfermline 90th anniversary book, a 4 x 32 bar jig; simple but slightly unusual progression from 1st to 3rd place at the start with an allemande later to finish 2 3 4 1.
Next was "The triumph", a 24 bar reel from Book 1 so tying in with the centenary - lead down and up with a twist (and some extra ones not in the instructions!) and very unusual 1-couple poussette from 1st to 4th place.
"Mary Hamilton" is a 4 x 32 strathspey from John Drewry's Canadian book; simple progression in last 8 bars (set advancing to pass facing couple) but unusual start and finish to grand chain bars 1-8.
I think we then did "Ready aye ready" from Ewan Galloway's "Ship ahoy!" booklet, devised by Sarah Horne (and Judy Grimsey?), a 5 x 32 reel (square set with 5th couple in the centre). Again, a simple progression 5th and 1st couples in promenade hold passing by right, the 1st and 4th couples passing and so on till 2nd couple are in the centre to start again but a new dance to most.
We also did "Fare thee well", a 3 x 40 strathspey from "Tom's book of dances", devised by Tom Kerr (Capetown), ending with "untying the knot", which I think was a new progression for all of us.
I did have another dance from a Ewan Galloway booklet, "Sarah's stamp party" but we didn't get round to that one (I always have more ready than we can actually do - it gives flexibility depending on numbers, ability, etc.)
Report by Anne Taylor
The theme for the afternoon was 'Progressions'.
I began with a well known dance from RSCDS Book 49, The Countess of Dunmore’s Reel which has the Promenade Chaperon Chain.
My second dance was The Athenaeum by Alistair Brown of the Glasgow Branch from the Glasgow 100th Anniversary book. This had the Rose Progression in the dance and it posed a little problem but we made it to finish the dance.
My next dance had more local connections – The Blacksmith of Elgin from the Imperial Book. Wendy West thought that the Blacksmith of Elgin was her Grandfather. This dance has a Snowball Grand Chain and was well received.
Salinas Grandes from the Argentinian Collection 2020 by Jim Stott was my next offering. This contained an unusual figure of a Promenade Pass which is just like a Promenade for 3 couples but has a slight twist in its tail.
I would have liked to do a couple more dances but time was running out and we had to finish.
All the dancers said it had been a good day and quite a challenge which is what it is meant to be.
Anne Taylor
21 January 2024
Class with a Difference
By Anne Taylor and Dianna Baillie
A brief lull between severe weather warnings (the snow had disappeared overnight & storm Isha wasn’t due till evening) meant the class at Spey Bay was good to go. Anne & Dianna took it turn about to teach the dances (which all had ‘New’ in the title, as it was the first class of the New Year).
We started off with ‘The New Forest Circle’ (New Forest SCD) as a warm up, then Newburgh Jig (Bk48). Anne took us through New Abbey (Roy Goldring) where we were encouraged to cover across all the sets and New Amsterdam (Chris Ronald, Big Apple Coll.) had a couple of new formations there to challenge us - a very enjoyable dance once we got it.
The Newholme Jig (Ian Barbour, Magic Medicine), followed by ‘A Guid New Year’ (Maggie & Duncan Keppie) taught by Dianna and Anne finished off with ‘Ways in New Hall’ (Bk42) then ‘The New Opera’ (John Drewry, Australia Bk.)
Ladies’ Chain, Espagnole, Set and Rotate, Rondel. The new ones - Celtic Cross Progression, Swing Corners and a modified Corners Pass and Turn (half turn & twirl instead of Turn) were formations covered.
A very enjoyable afternoon had by all and can’t wait to see what Bill and Rosemary have in store for us next month.