Dance Devisers - background

mlbrown

June 15, 2001, 4:22 p.m. (Message 26358)

Last year the Northallerton Caledonian Society organised a workshop & dance
based on the dances devised by James Cosh and Douglas Henderson.  Peter
Clark, with assistance from Maureen McCrudden of Glasgow and Susan Robertson
of Dundee and who now  takes the Broughty Ferry class,  produced the
following notes for the workshop.
(And I had to persuade Rita Eastwood to scan the notes in and send them to
me, as my computer currently refuses to believe it has a scanner attached to
it!)

About Jimmy Cosh
James Cosh was a very enthusiastic dancer who really loved Scottish music.
He was a member of the Glasgow Branch of the RSCDS and served on the
committee for a number of years.  He founded a social dancing group, the
Glenshee SCD Club which met in the Langside Halls, Glasgow. The group ran
for 40 years under his leadership. He was instrumental in organising
weekends away to dance in Dunoon and Crieff. He devised about fifty dances
most of which were published in little booklets called the Glenshee
Collection and Twenty Two Scottish Country Dances.  The sales of these
booklets and other charity events raised funds for the National Fund for
Research into Crippling Diseases which acknowledged receipt of £1050 in
1973, Children's Charities and Guide Dogs for the Blind which recorded £2700
donated by 1992.  For many of Jimmy Cosh's dances the music came first. He
liked two-step tunes and there are few dancers who will not have heard of
The White Heather Jig, devised to a tune composed   by Jimmy Shand called
"Six Twenty" Two Step.  This was the signature tune for the Scottish Dance
TV programme shown at 6.20 pm. weekly on Scottish Television.  Schottisches
were also popular strathspey tunes for him as seen in The Garry Strathspey.
He had a few original ideas for figures. The diagonal rights and lefts was
his invention in The Irish Rover, another very popular dance.  Half reels of
four to take corners to diagonally opposite places were introduced by Jimmy
as in Main's Wedding which was published in 1959. This dance known
worldwide, its popularity influenced by the well-known tune. In the late
1960's Jimmy wrote in the Reel (London Branch Newsletter) how concerned he
was that dancers were not performing the half reels as written in his
booklet - he wanted left shoulders in the middle   Jimmy obviously had
influence with the bands in the 1960/70's to record his most successful
dances. When the RSCDS started to publish some modern dances in books 22 and
23 the Swilcan was included. Jimmy died in October 1995.

About Douglas Henderson
Douglas Henderson was born in Dundee and educated at Morgan Academy and
Dundee Technical College. He worked for D.C Thomson as a stereotyper and
later in the advertising and accounts department, for 53 years.  He gained
his SCD Teacher's Certificate in 1937.
Dougie was also a drummer and played with Winifred Bird Matthew and Her
Scottish Country Dance Players. During the war he served with the RAF
reaching the rank of wing commander in the   engineering branch.
One of Dougie's earliest dance pupils was the legendary Jimmy Shand who was
not only taught the steps and figures but also the "barring" for popular
dances.
Dougie taught Dundee Branch classes for Fifty years. He taught dancing at
the Broughty Ferry East Parish Church.    In December 1987 he collapsed
after returning from one of their Saturday evening dances and died a week
later.  Dougie founded the Clarendon Country dance Club which he taught for
33 years until the group broke up in 1981. While in the RAF he served in the
Hereford area for a short time in 1946.  With the help of a Miss Diana Helme
(later Mrs Blanchard of Leominster) a superintendent physiotherapist and
keep fit teacher, he started a Scottish Dancing class which in 1949 became
the Hereford SCD Club.
Douglas Henderson published about 45 dances.  A number of them were leaflets
produced by Mozart and Allan of which the Baldovan Set is probably the best
known. He produced two lift le booklets The Tay Bridge Pocket Book and the
Kinclaven Pocket Book, which were sold in aid of The National Institution
for War Blinded. The Douglas Henderson Collection was published by TAC. He
also had a dance included in Book 23 of the RSCDS publications called the
Glens of Angus. This dance introduced the new figure called the Spurtle
which occurs in one or two of his dances.  Crown triangles was his invention
and another figure called "Balance in line right round" must be the
forerunner of the Spoke later published by Neil Grant in RSCDS Book 32 No.1.
Dougie always named a tune for his dances.  Besides using some traditional
tunes he asked musicians such as Betty Low, Nan Main, Jack Lindsay, Angus
Fitchet and Winifred Bird Matthew to compose tunes for his dances.  Dougie
Henderson    attended the RSCDS Summer School regularly. In October 1987 he
was presented with a Scroll by the Earl of Mansfield on behalf of the RSCDS
for his long distinctive career as a teacher and enthusiast of Scottish
Dancing.

Malcolm