Ringwood Caledonian Society – Dance Scottish

Scottish Country Dancing has been around for over 300 years and is danced around the world, and also in Ringwood!

The Ringwood Caledonian Society holds classes every week to teach Scottish Country Dancing and has been established now for almost 55 years. We also celebrate significant Scottish events such as Burn’s night (in celebration of Scotland’s famous poet Robert Burns birthday) and St Andrew’s Day (St Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland) and run an annual Barn Dance (similar to a Ceilidh).

“Scottish Country Dancing has so many benefits” according to the teacher and president Sarah Wrigley. “It’s been proven to improve people’s mental and physical health and we have a great social group as well. You don’t need a partner.

There are no swords involved. You also don’t have to be Scottish!”

Scottish Country Dancing is usually described as the ballroom or social dancing of Scotland. It’s still often danced at weddings and parties, and with the popularity of the Outlander series on television, all things Scottish are increasingly sought out. Scottish Country Dancing is suitable for men, women and children of all ages, but you need to have a reasonable level of fitness to get started.

While they welcome beginners at any time of the year, on March 29th (8 – 10pm), Ringwood

Caledonian Society is running a Come and Try Night to give people a taster of the dance form. This will be followed up by a Beginner’s course running from April 5th .”It’s a great way of finding out whether this form of dance is for you. It’s a casual night, so you just need soft shoes (like runners or ballet flats) and a smile, a general level of fitness to dance and comfortable clothes. And for an added bonus, a cuppa and cake at the end to mingle”. The night is free.

The beginners’ program starts the following week at 7.30pm and runs for 6 - 8 weeks, from which the group is integrated more and more into the general class. “It’s not a dance form you pick up on the first night. It takes a while to work out what your feet should be doing and knowing and executing the formations well. So it takes a bit of practice and a bit of time regularly attending classes to improve”.

The bonus though is that you can travel pretty much anywhere in the world after that and join a class and be generally well looked after. There are also annual schools held in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and of course Scotland, as well as Branch classes and weekends around the world. – It’s like an extended family of friends sharing a common interest.

Written by:

Sarah Wrigley President and Teacher

Ringwood

Caledonian Society

ringwoodscd.com.au