strathspey@strathspey.org:43918

Richard Goss

Re: Scottish Country Dancing VS Scottish Folk Dancing

Jan. 29, 2006, 1:36 a.m. (Message 43918, in reply to message 43917)

Very old issue.
  Miss M used to stress that SCD was not folk dancing but ballroom dancing.
  Obviously she had her own difinitions that allowed her to think that
  these terms as generally understood are not necessarily exclusive.
   
  While she would probably never admit to my reasoning, but she was
  correct in saying that they are not the same as SCD does not meet
  the normal criteria for folk dancing.
   
  She had another reason that I have deduced from conversations with
  her in addition to her lectures. In her mind, "folk dancing" was
  peasant dancing, again not necessarily according to most
  definitions, and Scotland did not have peasants. My suggestion to
  this is to come up with a good word for all of those highlanders who
  were cleared into the cities and the colonies.
   
  Using the local terms here in Spain, under the general heading of
  dance we have "ball de bot" (folk dancing), "ball de saló" (ball
  room dancing), and sevillanas (dancing from Spain, but not the ball
  de bot that are the regional folk dances).
   
  Ballroom dancing does not apply as a criteria here as all dancing of
  all three types is done outside, though the only dancing I have not
  seen inside is folk dancing (ball de bot). Under the classification
  of ball de bot, there are 4 types, all of which share music and
  steps, but not necessarily style with Spain. These are the jota and
  bolero, which are considered peasant dances, and fandangos, which
  are in the style of the "senyoria", the last, the mateixa, is
  freestyle couple dancing, without ever having a formation, but using
  both steps from the other three, but also shading off into the type
  of dancing done at rock concerts.
   
  Even if we pretend that SCD was ever folk dancing, once the Society
  got a hold of it, it would cease to be since the very nature of a
  controling organization tends to put a stop to the traditional folk
  process.