past events: 2005-06
Dunedin Festival | Slovenia trip | Channel 4 dem | Dunedin Summer Dance | Dems the Gardens | Summer Dance & BBQ | trip to Millport | Castle Ceilidh | trip to Firbush | Aberdeen Dance | Newcastle Reelers Spring Dance
18th Dunedin Dancers International Folk Dance Festival
by Remco
The 2005 Dunedin Festival took place in the last week of July. Apart from Dunedin and New Scotland, who were officially co-hosting this year, there were folk dance groups from Belgium, Germany and Serbia. They were staying with Dunedin and New Scotland members, and the festival's head quarters were in George Watson's College.
The dance element of the festival consisted of outdoor performances in the gardens of Falkland Palace, on the grass outside the Scottish Parliament (doing a broad swords highland dem a couple of weeks after the Parliament had banned swords was a minor political statement!) and in the gardens of Stirling Castle. The performance in Dunfermline was cancelled because of the rain. The performance highlight was a grand show in Church Hill Theatre.
The four groups had very different styles. There was the energetic and bouncy Balkan dancing by the Serbian semi-professionals, the Belgians were equally energetic and had put some comedy in their shows, the Germans were very formal and classic, and the Scots... well, I think we impressed them by having four different styles of dancing, and doing most of them at the same time.
There were also workshops where each group would teach the others the basics of their style of dancing. Serbian dancing definitely takes some time to get your head and feet around (literally!), and the Belgians had a great success with their kissing dance and the infectuous tune that went with it.
But of course there was also an important social element to the festival. We all got to know each other during a treasure hunt organised by Nic and Alex, followed by a night in the Three Sisters. This also involved "dressing up Scottish" with the help of newspaper and binbags. Among all the fake kilts and a short alternative here and there, Vera's Nessie costume really stood out and was the rightful winner. The overall winner was Rachael's group, although there were accusations that the judging may not have been entirely unbiased there!
Most of the other nights were also spent socialising and the bar staff soon learned a lot about especially Belgian and German drinking habits. The Germans had also brought two kegs of their own beer, but they were drunk by Dunedin at a later occasion. The last night was the traditional costume swap, and this year Gilbert seemed to be most enthusiastic.
All in all the festival was a great success, and New Scotland can be proud to have played a part in it.
Slovenia Trip 2005
Photos from the Slovenia trip (not in chronological order)
Channel 4 dem
by Remco
Thursday 19th July: New Scotland had been asked to send a dem team to St Giles Cathedral for TV recordings for Channel 4. After waiting at St Giles for an hour, the TV crew finally asked us if we could come to the castle. Of course we were refused entry at first, and then sent to the wrong spot, but we found the TV people in the end.
New Scotland has danced to no music before, or on cobbles, or uphill. This was a combination of the above, plus the two lovely C4 presenters Steve and Maquita (or something similar) were standing right in the middle of the set. Interesting!
You may have been lucky enough to see what we made of this (and how C4 managed to put music to our no doubt ever-varying rhythm) on Monday, 1st August, just before 11.00 am on Channel 4. We were the presentation link to Friends so should have got quite a few viewers. Did anyone see it or perhaps even record it?!
We also featured in the bit after something to do with Super Furry Snimals
(the band). They asked us what we thought of it, and we had to go "Yay!"
and do spins or Tulloch turns. Watch Kate and me lose the battle against
gravity...
Dunedin Summer Dance 2005
by Caroline (Dunedin)
This was the most enjoyable event held on 11th June. The venue was Edinburgh Academy and there was lots of space and a decidedly non-slip floor making it ideal in many ways (though of course less so if you live down the road from Cluny, the more usual venue, and only manage to leave the house at 8:15pm...). The usual pot-luck buffet was superb; however, sadly I was too busy blethering to consume much of it!
In the past I have sometimes felt that dance programmes have had 'too many hackneyed autopilot dances to be interesting'. Stewart Adam's programme certainly didn't suffer from that problem! It was a real pleasure to reaquaint ourselves with neglected favourites such as Jon of Bon Accord, Cape Town Wedding and Mrs Stuart Linnell. The programme also included some more unusual offerings, which despite much diligent practice beforehand, most of us managed to mess up thoroughly. Our MCs for the evening, Alison and Catherine, must have had to do a good deal of homework beforehand in order to ensure that things ran as smoothly as they did. According to Dunedin Dances book 2, The Spinning Wheel Reel reminded the devisor of a spinning wheel owned by a lady living in Ireland, The lady in question must have been a prolific spinner, since the dance itself involved only 8 bars rest per couple between the starting and finishing chords!
Which brings us on to the band. We enjoyed superb music, and reels especially, from a group largely comprised of Dunedin members, including in the line up David Anderson, Kevin Lees and Iain Gent. If this is an example of the sort of sound the current membership of Dunedin can produce, we can look forward to some cracking music for the Dunedin Dancers 18th International Folk Dance Festival!
Dancing in the gardens
By Catherine
Each summer on Monday and Tuesday evenings, there is dancing to live music at the Ross Bandstand in Princes Street Gardens. This is always great fun and a really beautiful setting, although it can be a bit soggy sometimes! This year, NS was lucky the night we demmed. It was a beautiful evening and we had a great time dancing some of our favourites, before we retired to the Standing Order to quench our thirst.
New Scotland Summer Dance and BBQ 2005
After dance party and BBQ photos on the SUSCDF website
Some more photos from the Sunday BBQ
by Remco
New Scotland's Summer Dance was held on Saturday 21 May in good-old St
Peter's Church Hall, Lutton Place. The decoration colour scheme was burgundy
and gold (it looked so good at the Annual we ahd to do it again) with
tartan, a dried flower centerpiece, balloons and ribbons. Just a helpful
note for future Ordinary committee members who are
asked to buy balloons: burgundy is a dark red winey colour!
Because the other universitie's terms are a bit different from Edinburgh's,
and they still had exams going on, the representation from across Scotland
was smaller than for other dances, but all groups seem to have sent at
least one person to Lutton Place. The programme, by Alisdair Gray, may
not have been the old favourite's that is most usual at our Summer dance,
but everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. Indeed, it was nice and 'doable',
and included some good new dances such as Alisdair's own "Ms Katy
B" and Rachel's "Suilven".
The after-dance party was at Rachael's. Of course this is a top-floor flat because it is New Scotland after all and we like the extra excerise of stairs after a dance. No remarkable events from the party, but we should learn that of putting food on the table rather than on the floor avoids the risk of sitting down in a collection of dips...
The next day everyone gathered at around 2pm on Portobello Beach for
the annual barbecue, with burgers, sausages, kebabs, rolls, sauces, but
unfortuanltey not barbeques..........so we had to purchase a couple of
new ones! It was typical Scottish May weather, bright blue sky and sunshine
one minute and overcast, windy and chilly the next. This did not stop
Anna, Vera and Jen B. going swimming in the sea though. However, Jen didn't
really do it properly - she had a wetsuit on! At least Anna and Vera were
properly cold and wet - although Vera claimed not to be cold at all (what
is the climate like in Germany?!).
Then, just as we were thinking we might actually be lucky with the weather
for yet another year, the heavens opened in spectacular fashion! Luckily
the resourceful Ralf strode, or rather reversed, to the rescue by backing
his campervan onto
the boulevard. Everyone ran for shelter in the van or underneath the awning
and stayed reasonably dry, except for the unluck few sheltering under
umbrellas who got the water from the awning tipped all over them - oops!
After Ralf had served everyone tea and coffee (a very domesticated hero!),
the barbecue came to a rather soggy end.
Tips for next year: 1) Get Eurovision moved so it does not clash with our dance. 2) Do not put food on the floor. 3) Do make sure that Ralf brings his van to the beach again!
New Scotland & Dunedin trip to Millport
by Linda
Sunday 15th May was the joint New Scotland & Dunedin day trip to Millport - a small island off the west coast of Scotland reach by ferry from Largs. 8.30 am on a Sunday was a little cruel and there were a few bleary eyed people. We all boarded the coach and set of west with high hopes for a fun packed day – some of us were already dreaming about ice-cream with melted marshmallow topping.
We arrived in time to have a wee wander around Largs and meet up with
some more of the group. We got the ferry across to the island, once there
a large-ish group set off walking around to the village/town and along
the way managed to collect a number of shells. Then whilst some people
enjoyed the pub grub a smaller group enjoyed the tropical weather (relatively
speaking given we are in Scotland) and a picnic. After lunch we were waylaid
by the crazy golf which kept us amused for
a rather long time (1.5 hours!!!) whilst the more energetic people headed
off on bikes around the island (Christine and Nic decided to brave the
tandem!). After which we finally made it to the ice-cream shop :-) .
Heading home proved to be an interesting challenge, we were all at the ferry in good time to make it back to Largs for the bus, unfortunately they stopped people boarding and we had to leave 9 people stranded (although not for long)! Luckily they were running an extra ferry so the stranded people made it back JUST in time for the bus. We arrived back in Edinburgh tired, sunburnt and happy.
St Andrews Castle Ceilidh 2005
Photos from the ceilidh (held indoors due to the wet weather) on the SUSCDF website
by Alex
1st May 2005. St.Andrews. There was music, there was dancing, there was laughter. In fact, there was only one thing missing at this year's St. Andrews Castle Ceilidh… the castle! Bad weather meant that it would be too hazardous to risk having the band in the open air, and dancers on grass; so the ceilidh was moved to an indoor venue at the memorial Hall. The music and dancing were fantastic, as usual; all the dancers adapting really well to the slightly smaller area, even pulling off a slightly 'up close and personal' Eightsome Reel! The St.Andrews Celtic Society dem to "It's Raining Men" was entertaining, as well as slightly apt!
The rain and mist had lifted in time for the torchlight procession to go ahead, and the line of light from the castle grounds to the pier was a beautiful sight. With the end of the procession, there was enough time for a quick drink with the other SUSCDF groups before returning to Edinburgh. All in all, a fun night, despite the set back of not actually getting to dance in the castle. Well done to Celtic Soc. for pulling it off so smoothly!
New Scotland & Dunedin trip to Firbush
Some of Anna's photos from the weekend
by Rachel and Alison (Dunedin)
New Scotland trips to Firbush, the University's outdoor centre on the south shore of Loch Tay in the Highlands, used to be a regular tradition; and we decided this was a tradition well worth resurrecting! Hence a group of New Scotlanders headed north for the weekend of 29th April to 1st May to taste the delights of the Scottish outdoors. On this trip, however, we were also joined by members of Dunedin Dancers, giving us all a great opportunity to get to know each other better before all getting involved in running the Dunedin Dancers 17th International Folk Dance Festival at the end of July.
On arriving at Firbush we were greeted by a familiar figure - Bob Walker, our Country Basics class teachers is more usually to be found at Firbush; in fact that's where he is when someone else is teaching his class! Having settled into our comfortable dorms and eaten an excellent dinner while admiring the stunning view from the dinning room, we spent a pleasant evening socialising with the small group of medics who were sharing the weekend with us, and getting a guided tour of the brand new boathouse from Bob. The new boathouse is a very impressive building with clothing and equipment stores downstairs and a lecture room upstairs.
Saturday dawned bright and sunny leaving a wide choice of activities open to us. Some spent the whole day climbing Ben Lawers, the Munro (mountain over 3000ft) across LochTay from Firbush, while others did half day activities including cycling - either civilised road cycling or less civilised mountain biking; sailing - in various sizes of boat, windsurfing - apparently very cold!, or canoeing - well we canoed down the loch and tried to sail back with our cannoes tied together but unfortunately the wind dropped so we were late for lunch. Bob was very impressed at the prowess of the group he took mountain biking,who achieved both the ascent of Heart Attack Hill and the descent for the Terror Run without anyone stopping or falling off.
Despite our energetic day, most people joined in a ceilidh in the evening. Indeed, the Firbush instructors were surprised at the amount of energy needed to dance! Sunday was rather wetter, and a number of people decided they might as well get wet properly, and went wind-surfing (although it is hard to do so when you can't feel your feet and hands!). Others tried kyacking, which made most people only slighlty damp, and sailing which got some people very wet due to falling off (Jen!) or capsizing (Tom!) their boats, but was less soggy for those who failed to do either (despite some good tries!). Those with, clearly more sense than the rest of us, gave up the rain after lunch and visited the Crannog centre at the other end of Loch Tay where ther was a nice warm fire...
After two full days of morning and afternoon activities, those with surplus
enery returned to Edinburgh via the St Andrews Castle Ceilidh while the
others headed home for a rest. Many thanks tothose who organised such
an enjoyable weekend, I hope it will be repeated next year. And particular
thanks to Christine who volunteered to run the bar every night!
Aberdeen University Scottish Dance 2005
Photos from the dance on the SUSCDF website
Newcastle Reelers Spring Dance 2005
by Linda
On April 23rd 2005, nine New Scotland members headed south in two car-loads for the Newcastle Reelers Spring Dance. We managed to meet up on the Coldstream road, and Rachel decided to be brave and follow me “cross country” to the hall. We arrived with plenty of time to get ready and swot up on the dances and generally help out.
The programme started off with some well known dances so no-one had an excuse to sit out and watch. Marian Anderson and her band played some excellent sets (and they got better as the night progressed). The drummer in particular seemed to be having fun! With well over 120 people at the dance the floor was crowded most of the time – well except during the Eightsome. We decided we had seen more sets doing the foursome than got up to do the eightsome. The NS “cliquey” set put on a good performance and made the most of having loads of space to dance in. During the interval we received loads of compliments about how enjoyable we made it look (and were asked how we managed to get 8 people into a reel of 3!).
The interval consisted of lots of cake and fresh fruit which was much
needed – the second half looked like it was going to need as much
if not more energy than the first half. Given the number of raffle prizes
available we didn’t do particularly well but the VERY large box of
chocolate fingers was won by Johann. By the end of the second half there
were plenty of comments of sore feet and legs but a good time had been
had by all and no-one regretted making the trip south (unless
someone kept it quiet!).