strathspey@strathspey.org:43999

Richard Goss

Re: Scottish Country Dancing VS Scottish Folk Dancing

Jan. 31, 2006, 8:52 p.m. (Message 43999, in reply to message 43979)

There is an element missing from your tux example, in that the tux
represents no particular folk - so I would not consider them national
dress, nor would I things such as levis.
   
  You seem to be adding an element to the concept of folk costume,
  that only seems to exist in traveling dem teams. Recently, I have
  been to some folk festivals here, and then been to the countries of
  origin. Yes, many of the traveling teams, have a costume within a
  narrow range of variation, in every case where I have been to their
  base, the range gets much wider. On the local scene, two women with
  the same costume at the same event gets about the same reaction as
  the mother of the bride and the mother of the groom showing up at a
  wedding in the same dress. The range for men´s costumes in each case
  here is much smaller than that of the women.
   
  Last year, there was a Serbian group performing around the island
  (this is how groups attending festivals pay for their trip). When
  they were dancing serbian dances of their area, each costume was
  different, however when they were doing Bosnian, Macedonian,
  Bulgarian, or Hungarian dances from Serbia, the costumes were pretty
  much alike.
  
"essence of traditional costumes is that everyone be dressed 
identically." Not so, in the villages I have visited, and like
variation in SCD, the norm is always evolving, which is a part of the
folk process, unless it has been standardized by the Royal [name]
[type] Socitey.
   
"men think themselves as above hoi polloi"
  Exactly, the tux is a symbol of a class, not a folk. In the same way
  that the kilt, used to be a symbol of low class (hard to ride a
  horse wearing one), and has become one of middle or upper class,
  more so depending on the grandiosity of the jacket, less so
  depending on the amount of hardwear.
  .
  Blue-jeans, yes a uniform, but not of a folk, but an attitude, class, and or age group.
   
  "Why are kilt becoming popular again for special events?"
  Lots of reasons, including ...
  1. lack of understanding by young fascists who think that being
  Celtic, white, and unemployed is some how related to race in an
  unhistoric way.
  2. outsiders who feel a need to identify.
  3. foreign nobility who like to pretend they belong,
  4. SCD dancers who can´t dance and compensate by purchasing an expensive outfit.
  5. And those of us who enjoy SCD and were indoctrinated in wearing it to dances.
  Of course there are too many positive reasons to mention. 
   
  BTW, pardon my chauvinism, one of the Scottish pipers at our local
  piping festival was a woman, wearing the complete outfit. I am sorry
  but it takes a very good tailor to make a man´s kilt fit a woman´s
  body.
  
'cause they let you thumb your nose at uniformity and still look formal 
and 
correct (not to mention, dashing, handsome, sexy, distinguished ...)

Martin,
in Grenoble, France.