Two New Branches
Founding members of the Herts and Borders Branch
Scottish dancers in Josellin, Brittany
Herts and Borders Branch
The Breton Branch
What an unbelievable time to start a new RSCDS Branch! We received affirmation that the Management Board had approved our application to form the Herts and Borders Branch after their meeting on 21 March, just as we went into lockdown. It will be easy to remember our anniversary in future years!
Summer School 2018 saw a dozen dancers from Brittany enjoying fabulous dancing and music, international friendship and excellent food in beautiful St Andrews. From Rennes came Penny Gibbs and Anne MacLennan. Huguette Fréreux travelled from St Quay Perros with her driver Robin Poulton. A group of beginners from Séné, near Vannes, arrived with their teacher. France had just won the Soccer World Cup, and, with friends from Montpelier, Grenoble and Paris, we presented a ceilidh sketch based on the dance medley Market Square plus a football and goalposts, with Jeremy Hill’s piano improvisations. After 4 goals, Summer School Director Jim Stott presented a ‘trophy’ to our ‘captain’ Michel Hance. Meanwhile, Anne MacLennan, our qualified RSCDS teacher, was finding her old friend Janet Johnston, who qualified the same year as Anne.
So why a new branch in Hertfordshire? A group of dancers from east and west Herts met at Summer School in 2019. We realised that there was a significant gap in our county, just north of London and that whilst Scottish country dancing thrives with a total of 15 clubs, three dance schools and a U3A class, there is no umbrella organising structure helping co-operation, ensuring continuity and offering a local branch through which dancers could join the Society. We came away from the meeting excited to be on our journey to start a new branch. After consultation with local groups, we decided that our area should include the three clubs who fall just outside the county border and who were keen to be involved, hence our title – Herts and Borders. We planned our inaugural event for 10 October. We found a central venue not currently used by any of our local groups – we don’t want to step on anyone’s toes! – Iain MacPhail agreed to come from Edinburgh to play for both our family afternoon and our evening dance. We applied for and were awarded a National Lottery 25 Grant. Things were looking so positive, but then Lockdown and Covid-19! Now we feel lucky to have enjoyed this period of calm as we have accomplished so much. We twisted a few arms to organise a committee and have met – virtually. We produced our boring but necessary policies and opened our bank account. We currently have 17 members, despite no dancing. We also built our website. We have enjoyed working on our branding, finding appropriate photos, and the local groups are gradually sending us information for their pages. Please do take a few moments to have a look, we would love to hear from you via our contact page. www.rscdsherts.org
St Andrews was so much fun that we decided a Breton Branch would strengthen dancing in Brittany. The RSCDS hierarchy encouraged us, saying they were relaxing branch requirements instituted back in the 1930s. New rules were published in March 2019 and we contacted people around Brittany, inviting them to create a branch. Not everyone is on board: some groups want to protect their independence. We have several dance groups in Brittany with very good teachers, often people who have not had the time or the desire to obtain an RSCDS qualification. Some of our local teachers may not speak English well enough to feel comfortable with the rigours of the examination process.
We intend that our new branch will, as far as possible, help everyone to dance more and work together in Herts and Borders for the enjoyment of Scottish country dancing.
Lyon and Paris Branches are wonderful, but Scottish dancing elsewhere in France is largely invisible. More than half a dozen dance groups exist. Forming a branch will improve inter-group coordination, increase mutual support, and bring greater visibility. We will build on the strengths of each group, such as the June Ball in St Quay; the Burns Night in Guingamp; workshops in Séné; and classes in Rennes. Through the Cercle Celtique de Rennes, we aim to build bridges with other dance groups, pipe bands and Celtic musicians. We aim to start in September 2020, Covid permitting, with 22 founding members holding regular meetings in the beautiful central city of Josselin. In 2021 we plan our first Day School in Rennes; and encourage dancers to take the DAA. Several groups have already taught Scottish dance in primary schools, and given demonstrations to parents. We have created a Branch ‘School Membership’ category, to encourage Breton elementary schools to make Scottish dance an integral part of their geography, history and English language teaching
Jane Rose
Robin Poulton
Going forward, our focus will be on events that are not currently undertaken by local groups such as family and children’s dances, musicians’ workshops and a display at Herts County Show that could involve all local dance groups. We plan to hold a Basic Teaching Skills Course and a meeting of representatives from all the local groups when government guidelines allow and finally hold our inaugural event in October 2021.
www.rscds.org
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