past events: 2001-02 (autumn)
SUSCDF | Beginners' dance | Freshers' weekend
SUSCDF 2001
by Yoshimi
SUSCDF, the Scottish University Scottish Country Dance Festival, is an annual dance festival held on the first Saturday in December. The festival consists of a program of Scottish Country Dances interspersed with demonstrations from each university group. Each year SUSCDF is hosted by a different university on the Scottish country dancing 'circuit'. In 2001 SUSCDF was hosted by Dundee University on 1st December.
New Scotland took a coach full of both experienced and inexperienced dancers. For most of the beginners, this was the first 'away dance' they had ever been to and there was some frantic last minutes teaching of the dances on the coach!
The dance was a good mix of easy and hard dances, with lots of old favourites - well 'new favourites' for many of us! The demonstrations between the dances were very good - it was very impressive to see many complicated dances performed so well.
New Scotland had five couples dancing a medley, with the men in kilt, smarrt black jackets and bow ties, and the ladies nicely dressed in long white dresses with tartan sashed and long satin gloves.
Dundee and Glasgow's demostrations were also very good; but St Andrew's stole the show with their routine! This started with a team of woman in long white dresses dancing a very boring (made up!) Strathspey. They were promtly heckled by the crowd (as arranged beforehand!). David's choreographed heckling was so convincing tha he almost got linched by the people sitting behind him! The girls, eventually fed up with the heckling, rebelled and dragged the heckling men onto the floor. Queue Gerry Halliwell's 'It's Raining Men' and a very amusing dem! (Late note - this dem was still being talked about enthusiastically at the St Andrew's Celtic Society Ball the next February!)
SUSCDF was great fun and, with help of the experienced dancers, the beginners managed to get through all the dances and not to kill themselves in the process!
New Scotland Beginners Dance 2001
by Sarah
The New Scotland Beginners Dance 2001, was held on Saturday 24th November at St Peters Church Hall Lutton Place. Conveniently this was where we'd been having dance classes all term so there was no problem in finding the venue!
If you start dancing in first term then this may well be the first dance (as opposed to ceilidh or 'social dancing') you go to. This is scary as suddenly everyone (but you!) seems to know the dances rather than having to walk them through in detail beforehand; but don't be put off by this because dances are great fun! You'll have practised all the dances in the class or social dancing in the weeks before and 'experienced' dancers are very happy to help out if you have a mind blank (and it really doesn't matter if you make a mistake!); so you'll be able to manage all the dances.
This is also the first good excuse of the term to dress up (although if you don't have a 'suitable dress' don't worry you won't be turned away for 'not being dressed up enough'. Just make sure you can dance in whatever you wear!). And stay for the party afterwards - this year there were at least 50 people there - every surface was covered in dancers! And there was plenty of left over food from the 'bring-your-own buffet' for those after dance hunger pangs.
Freshers' Weekend 2001
by Marie
Freshers' Weekend is a weekend away which New Scotland runs in first term each year. Non-freshers and freshers alike go - recently we've had 45-50 people! - and it's a great chance for new members to get to know the old members and vice versa, and for dancing and silly games and 'refreshments' and dancing and more silly games and dancing etc.
This year (1st -3rd November 2001) we went to Ayr Youth Hostel for Freshers' Weekend. We all piled into a coach on Friday evening and were driven (courtesy of our friendly coach drive Sarah) via a chippy stop in Kilmarnock, to the old baronial style manor house which is Ayr Youth Hostel. It was great fun getting to know some older society members, and learning some different dances. There was even a real piper! We had a Burns Supper, and played silly games on the beach including wellie throwing (extra points for missing the passers-by!), sandcastle building, and limbo! On the way home we visited Electric Brae and watched Christine's car roll up the hill! All brilliant fun, even if it was a bit cold and wet (well this is Scotland in November!) Just don't expect to get much sleep!