strathspey@strathspey.org:43952

Maureen Vallis

Re: Scottish Country Dancing VS Scottish Folk Dancing

Jan. 30, 2006, 3:52 p.m. (Message 43952, in reply to message 43946)

Is there an SCE group in the Bonita Springs/Fort Myers/Naples area of Florida? 

xxxxxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx wrote:  The debate about whether RSCDS style
dancing is folk dancing has always
bothered me a bit. I grew up doing "country dancing" in England. I don't think 
I ever doubted that this was folk dancing. A little later in life, living 
far from the UK, I was happy to discover that I could continue doing this kind 
of dancing by joining a Scottish country dancing group. The dancing was 
similar in the sense that I knew many of the basic figures (hays/reels, 
stars/hands across, circles, promenade, etc.) and the music (which I also loved) was 
similar too. 

So, for me, it seems natural to consider SCD to be part of the overall 
British folk dance scene. One difference is this: it was easy to do "English" 
country dances on grass, but it's really hard to do SCD on grass! 

Chris, New York.