strathspey@strathspey.org:44967

mlamontbrown

RE: Over 700 schoolchildren dance in Glasgow

April 3, 2006, 5:01 p.m. (Message 44967, in reply to message 44965)

I think the football analogy is very good - 

First we had a game that was played in a variety of places, including British public
schools

Then they came together at university and tried to play according to an agreed set of
rules, and the boys from Rugby school didn't like the "no hands" part of it, so we
had Association Football (soccer) where you couldn't use your hands, and Rugby, where
you could - then Rugby became split into Rugby League (13 players) and Rugby Union
(15 players) and of course the overseas versions - American Football and Australian
Rules Football.

Now of course the best Rugby players usually have no connection with Rugby school,
and the school has nothing to do with setting the rules.

 There was a remark about size of population correlating with sporting prowess - 
Australia, population 20 million, number of gold medals at Commonwealth Games 84

United Kingdom (England + Scotland + Wales +Isle of Man + N Ireland), population 60
million
Number of gold medals 36 + 11 + 3 + 1 + 0 = 51

The difference being that sport is big in Australia, whereas it isn't in the UK.

The worrying thing about the children dancing in Scotland is that despite the fact
these large groups of children have been dancing at festivals for years, the average
age of the dancer seen at a Scottish dance in Scotland is increasing.  

And there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to show that the year end school Christmas
dance was the place where Scots were turned off SCD for life.

It might be something to do with growing up, fitting in with the crowd, and the many
more pleasurable things available to try, but I always find it sad that young
competitive highland dancers rarely transform into the next generation of Scottish
Country dancer.

Malcolm

Malcolm L Brown
York