A European Dancing Trip

One of the remarkable achievements of the many Scottish country dance enthusiasts who moved away from Scotland has been how they took their dancing with them and started groups wherever they lived. It is astonishing how many overseas dancers have developed a fondness for Scotland through enjoying Scottish music and dance, even although they may have no ancestral link with this small country on the edge of Europe. In this article some of these dancers in Europe share their group’s stories and their optimism about the future of Scottish country dancing.

Belgium

Anne Scobie, Brussels Dance Scottish, RSCDS International Branch, Belgium

Way back in the 14th and 15th centuries, at the time of the Dukes of Burgundy, the political, cultural and economic centre of northern Europe was the area known as the Low Countries and was the major trading route between the British Isles and the continent of Europe. The close relationship between the UK and what is now The Netherlands and Belgium continues to this day, and Scottish country dancers frequently crisscross the North Sea to attend each other’s events. Brussels is a very cosmopolitan city attracting many nationalities to work in its international organisations and this has been reflected in the dance group over the years: Belgian, French, Hungarian, German, Danish, Spanish, Italian, American - with the occasional token Scot! Many of our dancers’ first experience of Scottish dancing was at a ceilidh and they then decided they wanted to learn more.

In 1973, Renée Campbell set up a new class in St Andrews Church, separate from the Caledonian Society, as she wanted to focus on the RSCDS principles and a wider programme of dances for both beginners and advanced. Dancing was very important to her, but the social side and the tea and biscuit break were sacrosanct, as were her mince pies at the Xmas party. She went to Summer School every year and enjoyed hosting a pre-dinner drink in her room. John Drewry wrote a dance for her, Renée Campbell’s Capers, but she never divulged what the capers were. Brussels Dance Scottish has been an affiliated RSCDS group for many years and, for those who want to spread their dancing wings and attend Summer School or other RSCDS events, we encourage them to join through the International Branch and even serve on the IB Committee!

John Wembridge, Vlaams Caledonische Society, Belgium

The Vlaams Caledonische Society (Flemish Caledonian Society) was founded in 1977 with the aim of promoting Scottish culture in Flanders. In 1978, country dance classes were organised under the supervision of George Ross, a Scot living in Brussels. A couple of years later the society became an affiliated group of the RSCDS, and now has a certificated teacher, Helena Strandberg. In the early 80s, the club started organising classes in Highland dancing and tuition in playing the bagpipes. For many years, the VCS organised an annual Scottish Fair which attracted thousands of visitors and was one of the major sponsors in a project to erect a Scottish memorial monument in Zonnebeke near leper in August 2007, in remembrance of the Scottish soldiers who died during the First World War.

The Netherlands

Margaret Lambourne, The Thistle Club, Eindhoven, RSCDS International Branch

In October 1977, in Eindhoven in The Netherlands, a few members of the folk dance club Vodawiko held an advertised, introductory evening to start a beginners’ course in Scottish country dancing. One of the members, Frans Ligtmans, had gained her Prelim teaching certificate and already taught classes in Flushing, and dancers Rik and Claire de Vroome, with Ruud and Wil van Leersum, were able to assist the six beginners who turned up. This class turned into the regular meetings of The Thistle Club. Men were in short supply, despite Frans promising a silver teaspoon to the first person who brought two new men along! We advertised in the local newspaper and supermarkets for members, but word of mouth worked best. There was quite a ‘folk rage’ in the 1970s and 80s, so the time was ripe for folk dancing, and we soon had a good-sized group. We held our first Scottish dance with Bas Broekhuizen from Epe as MC. Many friends and family were our audience, but they were encouraged to join in. During the interval, Bas gave a slideshow of Scotland and he and Anita demonstrated a few Highland dances. We organised day schools (with some Irish or Highland dancing – Bobby Watson was the first teacher), inviting a different teacher each time, and in 1980 Bas and Anita taught a day school and Frank Reid’s Band provided the music for our first Ball. Over the years, members gave demonstrations and theatre shows at Scottish events and at an annual summer folk festival. All our costumes (except most of the kilts) were designed and sewn by Frans Ligtmans. Encouraged by visiting teacher Anna Holden, Frans taught a Prelim course in 1983, teaching many young aspiring teachers, several later gaining their full certificate in St. Andrews. Since then, the club has organised many Burns night ceilidhs with more than 100 people attending, but despite the enthusiasm on the night, these ceilidhs rarely produce any new members!!

Luxembourg

Stephanie Robertson, Luxembourg Scottish Country Dance Club, RSCDS International Branch

Lord Mackenzie-Stuart, the first UK Judge at the Court of Justice of the European Communities, organised an evening of Scottish dancing in Luxembourg. Two hundred people turned up, of whom only six had danced before. Despite the number of novices, the event was a success. Regular evenings of Scottish dancing, leading to the formation of the Luxembourg Scottish Country Dance Club, began on Saturday 19 October 1974 at the European Communities’ Cultural Club. A team was formed to demonstrate the dances, which would then ‘snowball’ to include those present. The first St Andrew’s Night celebration was held in 1975. The programme began with three ceilidh classics but then moved on to Gramachie, Lady Catherine Bruce’s Reel and The White Cockade. Entertainment included the Great Haggis Weight-guessing Contest. Frank Reid’s Band from London provided live music for the first spring dance in 1978, and these events continue to be highlights of our dancing year. We aim to welcome in newcomers while catering for more experienced dancers and take time to socialise at the drinks break part way through the evening. Our dancers attend events held by clubs in the neighbouring countries and we are looking forward to welcoming guests to our 50th anniversary Ball in 2025. Many of us are members of the International Branch, whose Euro bank account is with the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg!

Germany

Angelika McLarren, Berlin Scottish Country Dance Society, Germany

Scottish country dancing knows no boundaries in Europe, and there are many clubs in Germany. The Scottish Country Dance Society of Berlin was founded in October 1974 by Christopher McLarren who

had learned to dance in his hometown of Washington, D.C. When the US Army stationed him at Field Station Berlin during the Cold War, he missed the dancing and offered it as a group activity for KONTAKT, a German-American youth organization. On the first night, Angelika was there, and she later became his wife. In these 49 years Germans, British, Americans and other nationalities have all danced together, and all ages meet every Friday to enjoy their social hobby and to foster Scottish culture in Berlin.

We have given performances on many occasions: at retirement homes, village festivals and Burns Night at the Ambassador’s house. We organize Burns Night dinners with home-made haggis and dance weekends with bands from Scotland, and are looking forward to our 50th Anniversary in 2024! In the beginning, people joined us because they wanted to practice their English, they loved dancing, had an interest in Scotland, wanted to do what their friends were enjoying or all of the above. We recruited dancers by word of mouth or during our many performances at different venues. Nowadays the internet and website are very helpful in bringing new ‘feet and faces’ into the group. We have dancers among us who have been there from the beginning and some who just found us recently. We have always had dancers of all generations, all shapes and sizes, varied backgrounds, and all levels of dancing experience. The fun of doing something enjoyable together rather than perfection has been our aim. It takes a lot of personal commitment, time, strong nerves, and a good sense of humour to keep a group going!

Martin McWilliam, Potters Pairs, Oldenberg, Germany

Around 2000 via the Internet, I was amazed to discover that there were around 70 Scottish country dancing groups in Germany. I soon joined a Scottish/Irish group in our local city, Oldenburg. Shortly afterwards, the young lady who had been teaching moved away for studies, so I offered to lead the dancing. After a few weeks of repeated requests for old favourites like Mairi’s Wedding and Postie’s Jig and the like, I commented they really didn’t need a teacher. The response showed that most wanted to learn more dances. At the time, building the family house, and business, the Monday evenings were quite a strain, but the joy that flowed gave a lot back to me. When Judith Kowalczik joined and announced she was planning to do the RSCDS teaching certificate, I decided to join her. There were some worried dancers in my group when they heard this. It seems the RSCDS had the reputation here of being the ‘Really Serious Country Dance Society’ and they feared that there would be less fun in class. But they need not have worried. I had included technique in my classes, but I tended to get bogged down in trying to see improvement! That was less fun. The certificate gave more structure to my teaching, and the skills to move the class on.

The group grew. I wrote a dance Potters Pairs for my 50th birthday, and that became the group’s name. Since then, we have organized an annual weekend workshop and ball at the end of April with a minimum of four classes: advanced, intermediate, kids and musicians, with the occasional extra of Highland or step. Almost 120 dancers attended this year. For beginners we organize the occasional ceilidh and I have held regular classes in our local University sports programme. This has brought at least one new young member to the group each semester. Tobias Huenger achieved his RSCDS teachers’ certificate in 2014, and in 2017 Avril and David Quarrie joined our team, bringing with them more teaching experience than the rest of us put together. This makes it possible to split the group on occasion for beginners to work on basics or the demonstration team to practice. After Covid eased, we found a ballet hall with mirror and sprung floor available on a Monday evening. We are 35 now and feeling very welcomed as a branch of a sports club which gives us a legal status which is very comforting.

Kirsten Steinbach, Freiburg Scottish Country Dancers

Scottish Country dancing in Freiburg goes back almost fifty years. Returning from a tour of the British Isles, Herbert Lechner and his wife Sigrid brought with them Scottish dances which were then taught in their international folk dance group. Contact was soon made with Scottish dance groups already existing in Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Switzerland. The dances were such a hit that in 1978 it was decided to form a group dedicated exclusively and intensively to Scottish country dancing. The Freiburg Scottish Country Dancers were born, and an application was made to the Society to be recognised as an Affiliated Group. Some members have attended St. Andrew’s Summer School and completed the Preliminary Test and the Teacher’s Certificate.

In 1980 the first ball was organised and before long the Freiburg Midwinter Ball became a popular annual event for dancers from near and far. In 1990 we danced to a band from Great Britain for the first time. In the past it had never been a problem to recruit new dancers. Popularity was spread by word of mouth, and people came via evening classes or had experienced dancing during their studies in Scotland. Nowadays there are not so many younger dancers, and the average age is higher. What has not changed, however, is the undaunted enthusiasm for an evening’s dancing followed by a happy meeting at a nearby inn.

Sue Bollans, Munich ScottishAssociation, Germany

The Munich Scottish Association, which is affiliated to the RSCDS, began 50 years ago by accident rather than design. The then German-English Society put a ‘Scottish evening, with haggis, whisky, pipes and dancing’ on its programme, without having the slightest idea how they were going to do it. The British Council and the British Consulate rounded up any Scots they knew about

and put them in charge. The Consulate gave them a room to practise dancing in and the evening proved a great success. So much so that another similar evening was planned, and regular dance classes started in a school. What really enabled this to take off was that by an enormous fluke the Scots who were involved just happened to include experienced Scottish country dancers, as well as a piper. As a result, that there were already people who could teach and could offer demonstrations of Scottish dancing on public occasions such as those involving the twinning arrangement between Edinburgh and Munich.

While the original programme included more social and cultural events relating to Scotland, the focus of the association gradually shifted to the dance classes and evenings. We now have two classes, one weekly for everybody and one fortnightly for more experienced dancers. Our weekend courses are held every two years, staffed by internationally known teachers and musicians. Although we no longer have teachers of Scottish origin, our teachers have been trained in St Andrews and our members attend courses elsewhere, going to Summer School and taking part in the Newcastle Festival. For some time now our own weekly class and other events have been accompanied by musicians, of whom there are six in all. We even have a teacher and three musicians who have been invited several times to teach and play at Summer School. In 2015 we became an ‘eingetragener Verein’, a registered association. This year we celebrated our 50th anniversary with a weekend course and ball; next year, at the invitation of the city of Munich, we will be organizing a ceilidh to mark the 70th anniversary of the Edinburgh-Munich partnership.

Ute Scherrenbacher, Rechberg Scottish Dancers, Germany

The Schwäbisch Gmünd group, originally known as ‘Tanzkreis Willberg’, was part of a wider club in Stuttgart. Founded by Karin and Hans Willberg at the end of the 1960s, they danced various international folk dances, but after meeting David Morton, a student with Scottish roots, they very soon focussed on Scottish country dances. He persuaded them to attend the St Andrews summer school for the first time in 1965. Karin Willberg was group leader and taught the classes, for which she was awarded the RSCDS Scroll of Honour and recognised by Schwäbisch Gmünd’s department of culture. The encouragement of younger members was particularly important to Hans Willberg. His engaging manner recruited many young dancers who were instilled with an enthusiasm and love for Scotland, encouraging them to reach a very high standard of dancing.

The first few weekend courses in Rechberg were taught by teachers from Germany, but in 1970, Bill Hamilton from Scotland, was invited to teach. The Rechberg weekend courses then became international and a highlight of the European Scottish dance scene. In 2003, our group became the Rechberg Scottish Dancers eV, an independent club which remains active to the present day. The popular Rechberg Weekend took on a new format in 2016 and became ‘Autumn in Gamundia’, taking place in Schwäbisch Gmünd for the first time. The weekend was a great success and attracted dancers from afar. It will take place once again in 2024, and you are warmly invited to attend.

Hungary

GáborTuri, Budapest SkótTánc Klub, Hungary

What attracts Hungarians to Scottish country dancing? Read our story and decide! In the 1980s the Scottish dance scene in Hungary was very patchy, based on a few people’s Scottish or ceilidh visits. As far as we remember, the first point of attraction was a band called MÉZ, formed in 1988, which played mostly Irish pub music. During breaks between concerts the enthusiastic youth would try out various ceilidh dances to Irish jigs and reels. From 1990 onwards, it became a weekly dance event with musical concert interlude. Not long after then, the naive but enthusiastic ‘teacher’ team first got their hands on an RSCDS publication, complete with a cassette. This became a vital part of the club’s life: the content included strathspey music and dances, unlike any Irish pub music! We also came across the address of the RSCDS. A snail-mail letter was sent to let them know about us and to say that we would be grateful for any help they could give us (for example, could someone explain what strathspey is?). A few months later we received a reply informing us that the nearest RSCDS Branch was in Vienna and giving us Susi Mayr’s contact details. Susi immediately took the Hungarian dancers ‘under her wing’, inviting us to their international weekend in Vienna. Little did she know what she had undertaken. Some kilt-less Hungarian dancers saw for the first time some real Scottish dancing and the strange strathspey.

This great event allowed us to make personal contact with many people, and the most intensive development phase of Scottish dance life in Hungary really began. We became an official association, Budapest Skót Tánc Klub, affiliated to the RSCDS, and started to organise European trips of Hungarian dancers, to gain experience and make new friendships. We organised our first international dance weekend in 1999, and we have had an international weekend in Budapest every other year since then. Our first fully certificated RSCDS teacher graduated in 2001, and now we have 5 club members with teaching diplomas. We currently have 80 members, with an average age of between 30 and 40, but with an age range from the under-20s to over-70s. There is still an extensive folk dance scene in Hungary, with mostly Hungarian traditional dances; many people try out a wide variety of folk dances and each group tries to attract an audience. Scottish dance is successful because of its communal nature (set dances), its excellent music, its constantly changing dance partners and, last but not least, its varied formations, which require a team that can build and sustain a community where newcomers feel comfortable from the first moment. Scottish dance in Hungary remains vibrant with a continual arrival of young dancers. At the very beginning we set up rules ensuring the inclusion of all levels of dancers. Every month we hold a ‘dance house’ with live music where anyone can join in (tickets at the door). Any enthusiastic dancers get invited to join the beginner classes, which start in September and those who ‘pass’ can participate in Tuesday classes for improvers, then more advanced Thursday classes. Some join the demo team. (There are many Budapest videos on social media). The Budapest Scottish Dance Club celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Happy Silver Anniversary BSTK!

Portugal

Roger Picken, Lisbon,RSCDS International Branch

SCD is alive and well in Lisbon, 70 years after it all started, being represented by no less than three groups! The first group was founded in the 1950s by Helen Davidson, the Scottish Minister’s wife, and danced in the Church Hall. It then changed venues a few times before finally settling in the Estoril coast area to the west of Lisbon, where it became RSCDS affiliated under the grand name, ‘The Scottish Country Dance Group of Portugal’. According to Jane Fernandes, the Scottish-born leader of the group at the time, this was encouraged by Lesley Martin’s RSCDS-sponsored visit to Spain and Portugal.

Despite ups and downs, and continuing to change venues, the group never disappeared and is currently affiliated to the RSCDS under the name The Lisbon (Carcavelos) group, named for its penultimate location. It now dances in São João do Estoril in a hall owned by a residents’ association, which has undoubtedly helped attract new members from the local community. Meanwhile several overseas dancers have been with the group for many years, including Barbara Gray, the group’s principal teacher. Roger Picken and his wife Sue Willdig started dancing with the original group in 1989 and were introduced to Scottish country dancing at the annual Iberian dance weekends, which began in 1994. Roger was so inspired by these, and visits to Summer School, that he worked hard to become a fully qualified teacher..

A second group, the Grupo de Dança Escocesa da ART (Associação de Residentes de Telheiras -Telheiras Residents’Association), was made possible due to the efforts of Filomena Luís, a keen dancer and member of ART, located in North Lisbon. She persuaded them to offer their tiny headquarters as an initial venue and hand out sufficient publicity to ensure a successful launch. Unlike the original group, whose members remained mostly international for many years, the new group was virtually 100% Portuguese. Again, getting better venues proved to be problematic, but in 2007 a neighbouring parish council, Carnide, came up with a very good (and free!) room for the group, following a successful dem and ceilidh at one of their events. Since then, the group has participated in numerous council events, as well as ART events, and Roger and Sue have given workshops at local and national festivals. Retaining the connection to ART allowed the group to get access to a second venue from 2017, and this has been used to hold beginner classes as well as ceilidhs. All these events, plus a detailed website, and an active presence on Facebook, have helped to publicize and expand the group, along with the traditional methods of word-of-mouth and paper posters. RSCDS membership has been encouraged by persuading people to go to Summer School.

Remarkably, in 2012 a third venue became available. By this time, two talented members of the ART group, Joana Gomes Ferreira and Isabel Monteiro, were well on their way to becoming teachers and so this was the perfect opportunity for them to start their own group. The new venue, was, appropriately enough, the Scottish Church where everything had started back in the 1950s! The Church Hall had been restored and the Minister was looking for occupants, as it were, and so a third Lisbon SCD group was born, the Lisbon (Lapa) Scottish Country Dance group, which has gone from strength to strength and became affiliated in 2022. The Lapa and Telheiras groups worked together to organise two weekend music courses in 2014 and 2016 (led by Mara Shea and Dean Herington) and a music workshop in 2022 (led by Phill Jones), allowing us to achieve our dream of having live music by local musicians. The three groups in the Lisbon area have their main classes on different days, and so it is possible to dance three times a week during the dancing season, and a handful of dancers do in fact do this. The groups all take a summer break, but the pandemic led to a search for places to dance outdoors, and one of the best was a holiday camp near the beach in the Sintra area, discovered by maths teacher Isabel Neves. Isabel had already gained a lot of experience teaching SCD to young people at her school, and her ‘seaside’ classes have now become a regular summer activity.

Portuguese people love all kinds of dancing and so perhaps it is not surprising that SCD has taken root in Lisbon given the discovery of some good venues, the emergence of some excellent teachers, and the publicity options opened up by the internet. The upshot is that there are now enough local dancers to hold successful events such as the March Weekend in Lisbon (2022) even at a time when the pandemic was still affecting travelling. The 2024 Iberian Weekend will be in Portugal (in Évora, about 130 km east of Lisbon), and promises to be chock-a-block with enthusiastic dancers