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October 4 & 5, 2008 |
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Bartley Ranch Regional ParkCeltic Dancers |
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The dances of the Celtic countries include the more athletic and difficult Highland dances and Irish step dancing as well as the country dances. Confirmed dancers this year are: Selkie in the Bay The Merrie Pryanksters more to come... |
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Dunsmuir Scottish DancersThe Dunsmuir Scottish Dancers are dedicated to keeping alive the spirit and form of Scottish dances, old and new. Their repertoire spans four centuries of dance tradition. Period costumes and musical stylings bring the past to the present. They offer a wide variety of Scottish dancing. You will enjoy lively country dance reels, as well as elegant strathspeys. They perform works from the 18th Century, as well as dances created by contemporary devisers and are accompanied by a small band of musicians.
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Silver State Scottish Country DancersThe Silver State Scottish Country Dancers are affiliated with the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society in Edinburgh. That’s official but less exciting and important than the fact that they really enjoy dancing. The group was started in Reno by Martha Norrie, a fine Scottish lady, and has grown in number of dancers and classes. They now have classes on Wednesdays and Thursdays and are always looking for new members. Ask a group member for details. |
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The Merrie Pryanksters A group from Northern California, with chapters in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Davis, the Merrie Pryanksters is a dance and theatrical group that performs a mixture of street dancing (with audience participation) and stage shows which combines their own special form of English Country Dance and bawdy plays. This lively group will get your feet tapping along.
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The Merrie Pryanksters on YouTube |
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About Scottish Country Dancing by David Wilson Seems to me I'm supposed to say that Scottish Country Dancing is the ballroom dancing of Scotland, but that doesn't make much sense to me. I found a quote from Robert and Joseph Lowe, Teachers of Dancing, Glasgow, 1822: "... in them (Country Dances) all are alike partakers of the pleasure, - there are no silent, envious gazers, - no sullen critics to mar the amusement, or intimidate its votaries, - joyous gaiety animates every countenance, and, while pleasure beams in every eye, the young and old are equally employed in forming the mazy circlets of the dance." Now THAT makes sense. Nobody knows for sure but Country Dance probably in Scotland in the early eighteenth century picked up, dare I say it, from the English. As would be expected from the Scots, it quickly began to develop a Scottish character. Another form of dance at that time in Scotland made it's own contribution – the Reels. From Captain Edward Topham, a visitor to Edinburgh, 1774-75 we hear: "The general dance here is the reel which requires that particular sort of steps to dance properly of which none but the people of the country have any idea. The perseverance which the Scotch ladies discover in these reels is not the less surprising than their attachment to them in preference to all others ... the moment one of these tunes is played, which is liquid laudanum to my spirits, up they start, animated with new life, and you would imagine they had been bit by a tarantula ... The young people of England only consider dancing an agreeable means of bringing them together. But the Scotch admire the reel for its own merit alone, and may truly be said to dance for the sake of dancing." Yeah! Then there was the French influence - all over Europe but perhaps especially in Scotland - the Auld Alliance and all that. We use a bunch of French words and attempt foot positions from the French ballet. But that doesn't get too much in the way of our joy in dancing. Following the First World War Scottish Country Dancing faced an uncertain future. Not only did ragtime and such things continue to expand, but the War had more than decimated (a misused word - but much more than a tenth in this case) young Scottish manhood. |
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Fortunately, a determined group of Scottish women, led by Mrs. Ysobel Stewart of Fasnacloich and Miss Jean Milligan, a college lecturer in physical education, founded the Scottish Country Dance Society in 1923. It became "Royal" in 1951. There are now branches of the RSCDS all over the world. Lots of them in the United States. So what is Scottish Country Dancing? Lots of things to lots of people. To me it's a highly social team sport done to wonderful music. It's joy!
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This program has been funded, in part, by the Nevada Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. |
Host Hotel for Reno Celtic Celebration |
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Copyright © 2008 Reno Celtic
Celebration |
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