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"That hardest of contact sports, Scottish country dancing!"
Eric Clyde
July 1, 2006, 3:51 p.m. (Message 45706)
I just came across the following reference in Google. Apparently the latest issue of Portugal News has an article where the following statement appears: Portugal News - Lagoa,Algarve,Portugal ... in football, field hockey, touch rugby, lacrosse, basketball, volleyball and last but not least, that hardest of contact sports, Scottish country dancing! ... ** I don't have a subscription, so can't check it out, but thought you might be interested! Eric Clyde Ottawa Branch
Some mistake, surely. Perhaps a confusion with ceilidh dancing ? Certainly most of my most severe dancing injuries were incurred in that activity rather than in the controlled abandon of SCD. Peter Hastings Murieston -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.9.8/380 - Release Date: 30/06/2006
You mean you have never met the 'iron-grip' dancer - who holds on to your hand when turning as if it is a life-raft - and make you wish that your hand was screwed on instead of a living thing? or the 'one-step-back' dancer who feels that in order to get to the other side of his own set, he must first step back into the set behind him and start from your achilles-tendant? or the 'rib-tickler' who can only start by flapping arms about - usually into your sides, when you least expect it. You are lucky Pia :>)
I'll try this one again. The last attempt seems to have escaped before it was ready to go. Having played for dancing for many years, I have seen a fair number of sprained wrists and ankles, one broken leg and a few bruised buttocks, but the prize for the most original SCD injury must go to a lady at her first class not far from Edinburgh last year. It was her first time in a class, along with a couple of other newcomers. They'd done the warm up, and the teacher explained what "a set" was, and got everyone lined up. She then talked about the bow and curtsey, demonstrated it, then asked the musician (me) for another chord so that the class could have a go. This particular lady tried to curtsey, got it wrong, and fell to the floor writhing about in agony with a dislocated kneecap! Who needs contact with other dancers? (Or was it just the chord?) Bernie Hewitt
I think I can enlighten Strathspeyers about the allusion, in a Portuguese newspaper, to SCD as "that hardest of contact sports"! One of Portugal's SCD groups is part of a Sports Club and for several years the Club has held an annual charity event in which the idea is that the (ad hoc) competing teams have to do a whole range of sports, including those they know nothing about....... One year my wife got fed up with the usual situation of the dancers' simply being asked to sell ice-creams or run the bouncy castle (because no-one considered SCD a sport) so she devised a way of including it amongst the other sports...... basically two teams at a time are taught a simple dance (like Dunnet Head) during each "match" and the winner is the team which performs it best......The new "sport" turned out to be a really popular inclusion in "Multi-Sports Day" (aka "Fun and Games Day") as well as a source of many good-humoured jokes, like the one in the newspaper ....... Everyone generally has a great time and of course it helps creates interest in SCD amongst a prime target group - young people! Roger Picken (Pinhal Novo, Portugal) Date: Sat, 01 Jul 2006 09:51:33 -0400 From: Eric Clyde <xxxxxx@xxxxxx.xxx> Subject: "That hardest of contact sports, Scottish country dancing!" To: SCD news and discussion <xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx> Message-ID: <xxxxxxxx.xxxxxxx@xxxxxx.xxx> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed I just came across the following reference in Google. Apparently the latest issue of Portugal News has an article where the following statement appears: Portugal News - Lagoa,Algarve,Portugal ... in football, field hockey, touch rugby, lacrosse, basketball, volleyball and last but not least, that hardest of contact sports, Scottish country dancing! ... ** I don't have a subscription, so can't check it out, but thought you might be interested! Eric Clyde Ottawa Branch