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REELS:

DANCE DATA

There are in excess of 18,000 Scottish country dances which have been published in some form, and many more still ‘in the pipeline’. The RSCDS has published or adopted around 10% of these, many of which can be seen on any dance programme anywhere in the world. With this number of dances, the question is always: How do you learn them all? And the answer is: You don’t! You learn the formations from which they are built and then you need only remember the sequence for any particular named dance.   As an aide-memoire on the dance floor, cribs have been devised, and with the internet, these and videos of demonstrations, are freely available to all.

2022-23 CORE LIST

The Branch has adopted a ‘Core List of Dances’ - these are dances which are danced a lot in our area, and ones which are hopefully fairly familiar to most of us and which we enjoy dancing; the aim is that eventually we shall all get to know these dances sufficiently well that they require only a short recap.  Class teachers will be teaching and including these dances on a regular basis so they will become familiar, and dancers should not feel concerned if they do not ‘Know’ every dance on The List. This list, with associated links for cribs and videos will be available on the website, as now, for those who are interested, and who do want to study the cribs, videos, etc., but there is no pressure on anyone; the list is not prescriptive and, during the year you will be taught many other dances as well, so inclusion or otherwise on the List is not an important issue for class members. They will be used as a basis for drawing up Peterborough social dance programmes (e.g. End-of-Term and Summer Socials) and as 'Extras' on our Dance programmes.

Blooms of Bon Accord Duke of Perth Fisherman's Reel The Highland Rambler The Irish Rover J.B. Milne Mairi's Wedding Maxwell's Rant The Montgomeries' Rant Nottingham Lace The Piper & the Penguin Polharrow Burn The Reel of the 51 st  Division

The Rutland Reel Scott Meikle Shiftin' Bobbins Swiss Lassie Tambourine A Trip to Bavaria

JIGS: The Elephant’s Stampede The Hazel Tree Ian Powrie's Farewell to Auchterarder Inchmickery Jennifer’s Jig Jubilee Jig The Kelloholm Jig Mrs Stewart’s Jig Napier's Index Pelorus Jack Seton's Ceilidh Band  The Wild Geese

STRATHSPEYS: The Belle of Bon Accord Butterscotch and Honey Cherrybank Gardens City of Belfast Culla Bay The Dream Catcher Giradet House Macdonald of the Isles The Minister on the Loch Saint Columba's Strathspey The Wind on Loch Fyne

The list is revised on a yearly basis, so please do let the Committee know, as the year progresses, if you wish to suggest any changes. Further information on these dances can be found on the SCD Database at my.strathspey.org/dd/list/4713/  where there are cribs and links to videos for each dance. To download all the cribs (and diagrams) in one file, click here.

Which are the most ‘popular’ dances, i.e. which dances appear most often on social programmes? In   the   East   Midlands,   in   the   12   months   up   to   the   end   of   June   2019,   City   of   Belfast   once   again   hit   the   top   spot alongside   Pelorus   Jack ,   another   twice-leader,   though   the   noticeable   difference   this   year   is   that   we   had   over   20   more different   dances   this   year   so   each   dance   appeared   less   often.   Lucy   Mulholland   (deviser)   said:   ”I   would   never   imagine that after almost 12 years City of Belfast would still be so popular.” A   few   relatively   new   RSCDS   dances   have   established   themselves   -   The   Countess   of   Dunmore's   Reel ,   Macdonald of   Keppoch ,   The   First   Rain   of   Spring    and   New   Year   Jig ,   being   the   most   popular.   There   have   also   been   a   couple   of slightly   older   RSCDS   dances   which   each   appeared   10   times   -   Barbara's   Strathspey    and   A   Capital   Jig    -   though neither had been particularly popular in previous years. Some   long-standing   favourites,   such   as   The   Bees   of   Maggieknockater ,   Ian   Powrie's   Farewell   to   Auchterarder , A   Trip   to   Bavaria ,   Maxwell's   Rant ,   J   B   Milne    and   Nottingham   Lace    have   fallen   back,   only   appearing   on   average once every 10 programmes. For more information on this ‘League Table’ of Scottish Dances see The Sunday Class website.