Chairman and Convenors’ Reports

From the Chairman,Lorna Ogilvie

Little did I realise when I learned Scottish country dancing as a child, at Mary Erskine School in Edinburgh, that I would have the honour, and responsibility, of becoming RSCDS Chairman in 2020. Looking back on the intervening years what stands out for me is the sheer enjoyment I have had from dancing, and the many lifelong friends I have made.

I am happy to announce that details of the Core Training for Instructors programme are now on the RSCDS web pages. The call for teachers to assist the leaders of classes to become instructors, which was mentioned in DSAH and on the RSCDS website, has already generated a significant response. We will have short online training sessions for those interested. We will not be able to roll out the entire CTI programme until dancing classes resume. The register of RSCDS qualified teachers has been collated and we are compiling some other suggestions received. On-line Scottish Step classes are being well attended throughout lockdown and the Wednesday Scottish country dance classes proved popular. I wish to thank the individuals concerned for their enthusiastic efforts to keep us motivated at this difficult time. The RSCDS office staff are working from home and I thank them for being so helpful during these restrictive times. I hope we will meet again, whenever and wherever that might be. I am confident that we will be back on the dance floor and enjoying the pastime we all love and enjoy so much. Keep dancing

For many years I attended Summer School at St Andrews, and I rarely missed an AGM weekend, even when living in London over a period of 20 years. These were opportunities to catch up with dancing friends from around the country, to have fun on the dance floor, and to enhance my dancing skills thanks to being challenged by superb teachers.

After studying Geography at Edinburgh and Calgary universities, my teaching career took me from Inverness to Croydon, then back north to Perthshire and Aberdeen, finally returning to Croydon for my second Headship, before retiring to Scone near Perth. During these years I taught extra-curricular Scottish country dancing to all ages from 8-18 and saw just how much dancing meant to these youngsters. Entering Aberdeen teams for the festival, and taking seniors on music tours to the USA, were highlights for both the girls and me.

Each time my job took me to another location I would join the local RSCDS branch. This gave me not just the dancing which I love, but the perfect way to make new friends.

Over the years I have enjoyed Scottish country dancing at formal balls and village hops, and with wildly enthusiastic boys and girls at school dances. There have been demonstrations at grand venues such as Blair Castle and Scone Palace, alongside more challenging surfaces like grass at local village events and, whilst in Aberdeen, on visiting cruise ships. There were truly memorable events such as dancing on the football pitch at Wembley, with teams from all over London, and of course the nerve-wracking highly competitive Aberdeen Music Festival!

Serving as branch Chairman in Aberdeen and Croydon, and Secretary in Perth and Perthshire, gave me a unique insight into how tirelessly branch committees work organising classes and dances. Additionally, my two stints on the Management Board, prior to becoming Chairman Elect, were undoubtedly invaluable preparation for the next two years.

I am a natural optimist, but there are immense challenges ahead for the RSCDS. There are financial pressures on the budget emphasising the need to retain memberships whilst we await a return to the dance floor. The Society will have to adapt to operating in the ‘new normal’ even after the vaccination rollout. Whilst fully appreciating that dancers would like specific advice on how to approach this return to dancing, ongoing regulations at both local, and national level, make this almost impossible. We all recognise that a gradual build-up towards full fitness on the dance floor will be advisable.

My role, working with the Management Board, Committees and Working Groups, and supported by Clare and the office staff, is to take the Society forward looking especially at how we can modernise our approach to communications, building on the achievements of the past year. Marketing will play an important role in this as we return to dancing and prepare to celebrate our Centenary in 2023. If ever there was a need to have such an exciting year to look forward to, it is now!

Youth Services

Joana Stausberg

Hello from the Youth Services Committee - we all are as keen to dance as ever, and keep our fingers crossed that you are, too! The AGM brought us Abigail Brown as a new member. Margaret Lambourne and Olga McIntosh ended their terms on the committee in November and we thank them for the time, love and effort they have invested.

Another year, another Spring Fling event cancelled. This time, however, we’re prepared. These times do prepare us for all kinds of things, don’t they? We’ll turn the disappointment into something exciting: A Virtual Spring Fling. The Aberdeen Spring Fling committee together with the Aberdeen Branch are presenting a day of various online sessions, including country dance and step classes, fun theory sessions and a ceilidh evening. The event will take place on Saturday, 17 April. We look forward to ‘seeing’ you there. Thank you, Angela and the DSAH team, for your support of the venture!

After the beautiful and fun contributions to the 2020 Virtual Festival, we will host another one this year. We want to encourage you to engage with dancing in new ways again, at least for all those of you who cannot (yet) dance together. Please wait until the Virtual Spring Fling for further announcements. Other plans for this year to keep us busy include raising our social media profile and creating a calendar for 2022.

Membership Services

Peter Knapman

Now that vaccines are being rolled out there are some slight signs of optimism that we might just get back to dancing sometime this year, but in the meantime many of us still find life very restricted and have been far more reliant on digital communication. Following the Society’s first ever digital AGM I am pleased to see that Keith Rose and Ainslie Dunnett are now both officially elected to Membership Services and that Angela Young has been elected as Convenor Elect. Luke Brady has taken up his position of Music Director and in that role is an important member of MS. Luke has established a music subcommittee to advise and assist him in his new role. I suspect that Luke will wish to expand on the role of the music subcommittee and his thoughts about music in a future edition of the magazine.

Unfortunately, we are still officially short of three members, which may impact on how much we can achieve this coming year. Maureen Daniel has agreed to fill one of these positions as a coopted member for this coming year and I would like to thank her for agreeing to give up some of her time to help us out.

The committee is still heavily involved with the production of DSAH which takes a considerable amount of time and effort for all of those involved – I trust you enjoy these regular communications. The Saturday evening Autumn Gathering seemed a great success, presenting music, dancing, pictures and information in an entertaining manner – a big thanks to Angela.

Alongside DSAH the committee has been continuing with our normal workload but, yes there is always a but, publishing timescales have slipped. The next combined volume covering books 39 to 45 is well underway and undergoing final reviews. The formation index is being updated – no timescale has been set for this but much of the initial work has been completed. The first batch of videos in the video project has been edited and uploaded onto the RSCDS YouTube channel.

One of the most interesting projects being undertaken by Membership Services is the book of dances associated with Sir Walter Scott. One of the most fascinating aspects of the project is reconstructing the dances – they need to be both authentic and, hopefully, also fun to dance. This is being done in conjunction with the research group and you can find out about some of the challenges involved in Jimmie Hill’s article in this edition of the magazine. We are aiming to publish this in time for this year’s Autumn Gathering, by when we will, with luck, be able to meet again and dance in some sort of normality. As well as reconstructions of these historic dances the book will contain a myriad of information about Walter Scott and the social life in Edinburgh at the time. Walter Scott was born in 1771 and the ‘Heart of Midlothian’ booklet was originally published in 1820 – republishing these dances just over 200 years after they initially saw the light of day and 250 after Walter Scott was born seems highly appropriate.

Education and Training

Anne Taylor

It is sad that once again I write this report with little or no Scottish country dancing taking place. Who would have thought that, over a year ago, we would all still be in some form of lockdown? I do not think we realised that we were in this for the long haul and that its effects would be felt world-wide.

During lockdown and with meetings online, the Education and Training team members have been working extremely hard. I refer to them as a team as they work very well together with everyone sharing views and decisions.

We were concerned when we had to postpone the Teacher’s Certificate Unit 1 Examinations earlier this year. This was due to the restrictions put upon us by the Governments in the UK. However, branches and organisers did notify us to say they were experiencing a variety of problems in trying to implement their planned Unit 1 Examinations. We hope these will now take place in the middle of 2021. The committee is looking at other ways of tackling examinations during lockdown conditions. News of any new development will come soon.

Sadly, also in February, Winter School had to be cancelled for 2021. The Co-ordinator, William Williamson, has agreed to coordinate Winter School 2022 along with his duties as our new Chairman Elect. We hope to see many of you there.

Once again, for the second year, Summer School in St Andrews, has had to be cancelled. We sincerely hope that you will all return to Summer School in 2022. We look forward to meeting you all again or for your first time.

I am happy to announce that details of the Core Training for Instructors programme are now on the RSCDS web pages. The call for teachers to assist the leaders of classes to become instructors, which was mentioned in DSAH and on the RSCDS website, has already generated a significant response. We will have short online training sessions for those interested. We will not be able to roll out the entire CTI programme until dancing classes resume.

The register of RSCDS qualified teachers has been collated and we are compiling some other suggestions received.

On-line Scottish Step classes are being well attended throughout lockdown and the Wednesday Scottish country dance classes proved popular. I wish to thank the individuals concerned for their enthusiastic efforts to keep us motivated at this difficult time.

The RSCDS office staff are working from home and I thank them for being so helpful during these restrictive times.

I hope we will meet again, whenever and wherever that might be. I am confident that we will be back on the dance floor and enjoying the pastime we all love and enjoy so much. Keep dancing