In my opinion

by Gary Coull

Gary dancing with Mo Rutherford, RSCDS Music Director, at the Conference weekend 2009.

On re-reading the interview with Sinclair Barbour in Scottish Country Dancer 8, and drawing on my own personal experience, I have come to the conclusion that while technique is a key aspect of Scottish country dancing in the RSCDS world, it is certainly not the be all and end all. I have spoken out on the need to encourage young people to dance since I joined the Society at the age of 16, and many people I speak to say exactly the same thing. However, speaking about it and making it happen are two very different things. I remember being at the first Scottish Branches Conference and during one of the break-out sessions the topic of how to get more young people dancing was raised - a common discussion point in the RSCDS. The whole room looked to me for the answer and the answer I gave them was very simple, “Make it fun.” Sinclair said in his interview, “Perhaps if I insisted on more technique, they wouldn’t have as much fun or enthusiasm.” I accept that not concentrating on technique is difficult to avoid. I see myself do it when I teach a primary school class or a Girl Guide troop preparing for the local dance festival. Instead of trying to get them interested in taking up Scottish country dancing, I am drilling, “Hop, step, close, step,” into their heads and, “Make sure your feet close up in third,” all just to impress an adjudicator. For 10 - 14 year old dancers the intricacies of technique are boring. We need to get youngsters hooked on dancing before we spend loads of time on technique. Miss Milligan said, “Dancing is a joyous thing and must never be so drilled and detailed as to lose the natural gay social spirit.” I think that’s what we need to remember with youngsters in particular.

I am passionate about encouraging young people to take up dancing but I am just as passionate about encouraging new adults. One way in which we can do both is through Dance Scottish Week. I feel that on a national and international level, and particularly in Scotland, the RSCDS needs to put more resources behind this initiative so there is a more high profile campaign aimed at people who don’t know what Scottish country dancing is. I realise that there may be a few gasps from people outside Scotland who are reading this when I say “particularly Scotland”. However, I say it with good reason. While Scottish country dancing is done all around the globe it did originate in Scotland and has many distinctive Scottish characteristics. However in Scotland it has slipped behind other forms of dance and many youngsters and adults in Scotland do not know about Scottish country dancing. It is a sad state of affairs that we are losing such a huge part of our heritage, and we need something like Dance Scottish Week to get us back on the radar in Scotland. Dance Scottish Week gives us a prime opportunity to take Scottish country dancing to the nondancing world. Instead of organising balls and dances for those of us already in the RSCDS or organising a “come and try session” we need to go out to the public. We need to promote ourselves to everyone out there and to do that we must come up with new, imaginative and out of the ordinary ideas. With the Society making a big national push and the branches making a big local push, hopefully we would see new dancers “springing up” all over the place. At the same time we should make sure that we are promoting Scottish country dancing the pastime and not the RSCDS the organisation. It’s the same as my earlier comments about young people and technique - get people hooked on dancing first then encourage them to join the Society. That way we may keep them longer. I fully recognise that membership is a huge issue for the Society, not just recruiting new members but also maintaining the current numbers. Obviously without a membership the Society would not be able to function practically or financially. I believe that a centralised membership would help with this problem. This is where memberships would be dealt with by HQ with a percentage of the fee coming back to branches. HQ would deal with renewals meaning that branches could focus their efforts on recruiting new members rather than renewing current ones. It would also mean that a member would get a full year’s membership whenever they join. A centralised membership would allow us to use direct debits as a method of payment, which in other organisations usually means that members stay longer. Quite often we get tied up in running the Society and debating opinions over how best to move the RSCDS and Scottish country dancing forward. However we should all remember why we dance - for fun! Through Scottish country dancing I have met some great people and enjoyed opportunities I never thought I would have experienced. These are really the things that make Scottish country dancing such a wonderful hobby.