strathspey@strathspey.org:43932

Richard Goss

RE: Scottish Country Dancing VS Scottish Folk Dancing

Jan. 29, 2006, 4:47 p.m. (Message 43932, in reply to message 43927)

Your theory breaks down when it comes to the word "tradition" in
conjunction with the other words.
  Country dancing was and is traditional to the U.K. community, but
  Scottish country dancing never existed before the Society, which
  made up the term and created something called "scottish country
  dancing" which is different from the traditional country dances in
  Scotland.
  Second problem is that it is a tradition only within the SCD
  community, which does not qualify as "folk" in the usual sense of
  the word, since it excludes the other  Scottish folk who don´t want
  to go to classes taught by its teachers, or dance according to their
  traditions that do not agree with the RSCDS.
   
  On the other hand, much of the dancing promoted by the EFDSS does
  qualify as folk, since their actions have been to record and
  publish, but not legislate a new non preexisting style.
   
  Miss M, and quite rightly so, did not like were folk dancing, as
  tradition, was headed in Scotland. As a result, she created her own
  form of dance by selectively sampling and interpreting pre-existing
  traditional dancing in Scotland. This fits neither the terms "folk"
  nor "traditional".