As our dancing year draws to a close I (as Chairman) and the Executive would like to thank all the dancers who faithfully attended classes and the teachers who taught us new and old dances with great patience.
The ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING is on Monday 6th May at Gower Street Church, starting at 7.30 p.m., with dancing to follow. Please try and attend the AGM for your input is needed.
The last social is on Saturday, 4th May at Vanier School, starting at 8 p.m., cost being $10. We will use the November social programme. If you have lost your November dance booklet please contact Ingrid since she has some spare.
Summer Social Dancing will begin Monday 3rd June at St. David's Presbyterian Church on Elizabeth Avenue, starting at 8 p.m. All our dancers are encouraged to come along for a fun evening of dancing. It's on a drop-in basis with a charge of $3 per evening.
Newfoundland Place Names - ANSWERS!
As we see ourselves
Martin Sheffield, A SCD teacher in Grenoble, provides the following picture of "the typical SCDancer" - if any of us are typical! One of his students analyzed the RSCDS for her PhD thesis and sent out questionnaires both locally and, through the Strathspey Internet discussion list, worldwide. The following summary of the responses she got comes from Martin Sheffield, who also mentions that "it cannot do justice to some of the very detailed and personal contributions that were made."
"The typical SCDancer is over 40, but thinks of himself as modern, energetic, intellectual and young at heart, and has hardly a good word for the old-fashioned hierarchy of his favourite Society. He may well have been dancing for donkey's years and will continue to do so for a long time. If he does any other dancing it is of the highly structured, formal kind. He speaks English, but is not likely to have any Scottish connections. He is proud to belong to a vast friendly international family and probably likes travelling. When not dancing he is writing long fascinating e-mails.
He likes other people's company (especially in multiples of eight) is a connoisseur of music, but suffers from a (congenital?) defect that makes him incapable of keeping his feet still when he hears tunes in 2/4 or 6/8 time. He is frequently a she."
(Taken from an old copy of The Montreal Dancer)
Sex, Spies and Scottish Country Dancing...
Mick Jagger does Scottish Country Dancing? Well, no, but there is a connection, so read on.
Jagger is the producer of the September-released film Enigma, about the British success in cracking the secrets of Nazi Germany's Enigma encoding system. Jagger said he made it to set the historical record straight, as the British "regularly...have given away our history, only for American film-makers to claim it as their own... People remember what they've seen at the movies, rather than what they read in books."
The American culture industry shamelessly distorts history, as witnessed in recent films such as The Patriot and U-571. The latter film showed the US navy capturing a German submarine and Enigma machine, loosely based on the actual exploit of HMS Aubretia in May 1941, a time when the Americans were still refusing to join the fight against Hitler.
So how does Enigma connect with SCD? Among the British codebreakers working on the German and Japanese military and diplomatic codes was a very colourful figure: one Hugh Foss, "an eccentric 6ft 5in Scot, who wore a long straggly red beard, a kilt and sandals." Foss was a brilliant codebreaker. Along with an Australian named Eric Nave, he was responsible for breaking most of the Japanese naval codes and ciphers in the pre-war years.
Hugh left an enduring legacy to SCD in over 130 brilliantly choreographed SCdances. The next time you dance through such favourites as Cairn Edward, The Celtic Brooch, Fugal Fergus, J.B. Milne, John McAlpin, Polharrow Burn, Roaring Jelly, or The Wee Cooper O'Fife, remember the enigmatic tall, red-bearded kilted figure in sandals who devised them!
(Taken from Nov. 2001 Montreal Scottish Dancer)
Upcoming SCD Events
Peterborough Weekend, May 24-26, 2002. Contact: Ernest Morrison (705) 741-0857.
RSCDS Toronto Dancing in the Park, May 28, 2002 to June 25, 2002.
Contact: Barry Pipes (905) 882-0456.
RSCDS Montreal Branch: 44th Montreal Weekend Workshop and Gala Dance, June 7-9, 2002.
Contact: Sue Reid