past events: 2000-01
French Exchange part 1 | trip to Belgium
French Exchange part 1: New Scotland visits France, summer 2001
by Gary
After several months of organisation, the first part of the New Scotland-La Traversée exchange eventually took place.
Between the 29th of June and the 1st of July 2001, La Traversée dance group in Burgundy welcomed 24 New Scotland dancers and 3 musicians for a cultural exchange. The programme included traditional dancing and music from France and Scotland, of course, but also sightseeing of the town of Auxerre; visits to traditional and industrial wine cellars, and discovery of the Burgundian culture and cuisine.
All the New Scotland members were accommodated in host families and we had most of the meals together in the village hall
The atmosphere was particularly friendly and it seems that everybody enjoyed the exchange whatever their age or nationality!
Dance trip to Leuven, Belgium, Easter 2001
by Rachel
During the long weekend over Easter (11-17th April) 2001 a group of New Scotland with assorted Highland dancer and musicians travelled to Leuven (the home of Stella Artois) to an international folk dance festival (sponsored by the brewery!).
We were hosted by families from several Belgium dance and flag-waving groups; and as well as ourselves, there was an Israeli group and an Italian group (the Georgian group unfortunately never made it as their bus broke down somewhere in Turkey!).
The festival involved a number of performances including several outside (yes of course we ended up dancing on cobbles!). Luckily the weather was dry, if rather colder than usual on dance trips which are more commonly in the summer than at Easter! There was plenty of time to socialise with the other groups in the central venue where we did our main performance of the trip, and a reception in the amazing gothic 'town hall'. We were also treated to guided tours of Leuven and Brussels.
Many thanks to our wonderful hosts!
Here are some of the things people particularly remember about the trip:
Margaret - Dancing in the street blocking the traffic.
Yoshi - On the dancing side, the Schiehallion on the pedestrian zone was
the height of fun. We made up 2 square sets instead of the usual one set
(who had rehearsed properly) ready to dance Schiehallion. After the first
chord the "real" team gracefully retreated to leave us (the 'scratch team')
on the street to dance it. The 'real' team then walked on again in time
for the final; bow!!!
Paul/Yoshi - The pipers playing in a very small pub while our 'tame' policeman
(assigned to us for our tour of the city) stood patiently outside.
Nora - Neil E falling asleep over his beer has to be high on the list.
Nicki - Finding out our hosts owned a chocolate shop!
Stephen - Learning 'Macdonald of Sleat' (the 2 couple version!) on the
fly because only two couples and the accordionists had turned up at the
venue... We later found the rest of the team waiting patiently for us OUTSIDE
the hall!
Rachel - Neil E on taking the orange juice rather than the wine from the
proffered tray at about 11:30 am one day : 'Don't tell anyone!'
Paul - The pipers tied together with a saltier marching down the street
and outfacing the traffic (it stopped!).
Various - The Belgium beer!
Yoshi - The late night pub crawl on the day we had a free evening with
our hosts. We occupied the entire pub and danced on the tables with our
Belgian hosts and the bar man.
Margaret - Neil E and Alastair going into the CD shop and being forcibly
removed by our guides.
Various others - The Belgium chocolate (well it was Easter!).
Nic - Margaret's mini, I mean micro-kilt!!!
Rachel - The chicken dance (Nic, Corin, Paul, Amanda!)
Lea - Ralf on stage in the Feileadh Mor after several beers.