Nov. 1, 2001, 2 p.m. (Message 28003)
Some of you may remember the SCD Markup Language (SCDML) project, which aims to produce a standardized, (semi)formal description of Scottish country dances based on XML, to aid in processing dance instructions by computer. This could include search for dances containing (combinations of) given formations, produce standardized-terminology descriptions and `cribs', diagrams, animated sequences and so on. This goes back to a suggestion by Ian Brockbank and was started in May but seems to have stalled. I have now set up a section on the Strathspey server for the project and hope that this will re-kindle interest in this (I think) important topic. The URL is http://www.strathspey.org/scdml/ and the project mailing list is xxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx (it works exactly like the Strathspey list, so you need to send any message to xxxxx-xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx and confirm to subscribe). On the site there are some initial documents and links. The list archive may go through some birthing pangs due to the fact that there are no messages in it so far, but I hope to sort this out during the next few days. Anselm -- Anselm Lingnau (Frankfurt, Germany) Strathspey SCD mailing list maintainer Send mail to <xxxxxxxxxx-xxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx> for information about the list Check out http://www.strathspey.org for lots of interesting stuff about SCD!
Nov. 1, 2001, 5:46 p.m. (Message 28020, in reply to message 28003)
I am responding to a quick skim through the SCDML project this morning. If one wants to do a serious search into the history and or origins of "our" for of dance, one must first purge oneself of the myths that have evolved as a result of Milliganism. The root myth ignores the fact that prior to the 1940's there was no such thing as "Scottish Country Dancing." This is a case where inaccurate grammar and semantics serve to cover the facts. If a house is painted white, it is a white house. But if a particular house is white it is <<The White House>>. So just because one does a dance in Scotland, this does not make it Scottish dancing. When the Society was founded, and up until WWII, its purpose was promoting "country dances as danced in Scotland". It was only after the Milligan ascendence that the term was quietly changed to "Scottish Country Dancing." In Portugal they speak Portuguise, and in Spain, Spanish (Castillian). There are many forms of Spanish in Spain, Catala' and Galician for example. What is now Portuguise has descended from a dialect of Galician. Still one can accept that Castillian and Portuguise are distinct languages because there is a national border between them. While, to some extent they are mutually intelligible, one has only to see the differences on both sides of the border to conclude that they are separate languages today. The same is true of the dances promoted by the RSCDS and the EFDSS today. Unfortunately, there is no evidence of this when the Society was founded in 1923, as the present situation is the result of an evolutionary process that began in 1923 with the Society and ended with Milligan's final takeover about 1945. Yes, our RSCDS style is different from the EFDSS today. But to be a true distinction in the past, one must be able to locate a border where one can say that one side is Scottish and the other English. I am not denying that there are steps (as opposed to figures) that were executed differently in Scotland than in England. The problem is that most of the EFDSS steps of today had an existance in Scotland, parallel to those steps we call Scottish. My denial of a historical RSCDS / EFDSS border can be seen if one campares Ian Jamieson's research into dancing in the Scottish borders and the current North of England style of today. There is no difference. [NB: Jamieson's research is on film, and is the source of Anderson's "Border Book"]. Since I have seen no evidence of any other dancing style in the Scottish Borders, does this mean that "Scottish" country dancing has the Forth-Clyde line as its southern border with the border counties dancing English dancing? I doubt it. My interpretation, and I welcome any evidence to the contrary, is that the early Society, in its need to define its own territory, adopted what were some local (not general) Scottish dancing styles as their own. When they published SCD-I, they promoted their adopted style right along with the dances. Related myth: none of the dances of SCD-I were in danger of death since they were already documented, and currently being danced on both sides of the border. They appear in many dance books both before and after the foundation of the Society. Many have a local life of their own with no connection to the work of the societies on either side of the border. I am saying this because, even using the McLaughlan bibliography, her selection of books written without RSCDS imprimatur [Foss, Anderson, Flett] will back me up. Her problem is that, by association [history of Scottish Country Dancing], she confuses books on the history of the RSCDS, and those concerning the history of country dancing in Scotland. An example of the devolutionary approach can be seen in the works of Emmerson. As history, his first book, a twee catalogue of some RSCDS dances, mixes fact, fiction, and, for dances about which nothing is known, unrelated trivia. His work becomes scholarly after he separates himself from RSCDS myth and fairytale and does his his own research for his books on the music and social history. Still, these work indicate some ahistorical RSCDS contamination. Unfortunately, when I began my research, most of the human primary sources were already dead, inaccessable, or in the process of dying. Goss xxxxxxx.x.xxxx@xxx.xxx