The Ghillies Gazette - Summer 2002

From the Editor

This is the first official E-mail Ghillies Gazette. We appreciate all the submissions received for this issue, and hope you enjoy reading it. The E-mail Gazette will be published quarterly, in January, April, July, and October. The length of the newsletter, and what is published in it, is largely up to you, the readers. We need photos, both for the Gazette, and for the Web site. Thank you for your support, encouragement, and the articles.

Roger LaPrelle, Editor

The President's Pen

Hello from Soggy Austin!

Our summer semester is in full swing and will continue through August 22nd with a short break July 31st-August 14th for TAC Summer School. The Class on July 30th will be a combined class for Level 1-3. The Fall Semester begins September 3rd, so plan on bringing a friend you've told about SCD to try it out!

Days of the Scots will be held September 28-29 at John Knox Ranch outside Wimberly and the demo team will be performing. It's a fun weekend with good entertainment and good food.

ASCDS will NOT hold a Ceilidh this year. The board is looking into alternatives for a fundraising activity, so stay tuned...

Keep on dancing,
Cynde Jennings, President

Events

Last Chance Dance

Linda Mae is moving to Vancouver, WA. This is probably your last chance for a favorite dance with her*. The Last Chance Dance will be held Thursday, July 4, 12:30-3:00 PM** at the Ballroom in the Sky. Sarah will furnish lemonade and gingersnaps***.

*Program by request, Linda Mae's and others
**it's early so you can still do dinner and fireworks
***if you want other refreshments, feel free to bring them

Current and upcoming events are listed in the ASCDS Calendar. If you have events you want publicized, send them in an e-mail to Roger LaPrelle.

Articles

Thanks for Your Support

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the people who have helped and are helping me go for my Full Certificate in SCD teaching. First and foremost Torf and Sarah. Thank you for your patience, money, advice, and confidence. I am incapable of expressing my gratitude properly, so I'm writing this instead. Thanks to Steve for allowing me to use his money this year and being generally gracious about the whole thing. I really appreciate it a lot! Thanks to the ASCDS Board for your willingness to help out. Thanks to all the ASCDS dancers who let me practice on you for just over two years. Your patience and encouragement has gotten me to the point where I just may learn something about how to teach SCD this summer! Finally, thanks to Shelley who gave me good advice and helpful comments when I was a good deal less than receptive to them. Thank you all! Any success I have in teaching SCD is due to all of you. Any lack of success is entirely due to myself.

Most Sincerely,
Wade Harper

Dancing on the Radio in Scotland

Yes folks, that's what we helped practice for at a short informal demo rehearsal after dance class in Sterling, Scotland when we danced there. The BBC was having some kind of Saturday evening (to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee) program of live music to which there were to be twelve sets of dancers in Edinburgh. I never heard specifically where the dancing was to be, but I assumed it would take place in Princes Street Gardens. What amazed me was on Wednesday before the performance on Saturday the set of dancers from the class we visited were just learning what the dances on the demo were. Now understand, there was a rehearsal on Saturday afternoon prior to the performance, but that's not much time. I remembered instructions for a couple of the dances which we'll do in class.

Dance class was great fun, and a bit different from ours. Most in the class were "old dolls" or their male counterparts. Footwork was not for much, but they all seemed to know where to go and how to get there without much hesitation. Warm-up consisted of an around the room dance about four times through, then on to the business at hand which was dances by Ian Barbour. Because it was an evening of sampling his dances, most were danced just three or maybe four times through. I didn't count, but quite a few dances were dances during the evening to the music of a pianist. Having a musician has the advantage of getting exactly the music you want without ever having to wait for the beginning of a phrase; but the variety and sophistication of the music is much less than using recordings. Between dances there was almost NO break. If you didn't have a partner for the next dance by the time you got off the floor, you were likely not to have one. They really didn't mill around between dances.

Our other dance experience was attending the Jimmy Shand Memorial Fund Charity Dance on 24 May at Noon, which is on the coast, about an hour's drive from Glasgow. I had learned about the dance from Hamish Gibb of the Glasgow Branch RSCDS, and he kindly picked us up at our hotel and took us to the dance. It, too, was attended by a great number of "old dolls", and by some who were not so old. Two different local bands provided music for the evening, both of which were excellent. For the last dance, De'il Amang the Tailors they all played together and it was fabulous!

It was a casual social evening of about 100 dancers, and again there was almost no hesitation between dances for milling about looking for a partner. The dances were briefed (on the west side they do brief, on the east side they don't), and at one point I was in a set where I don't think any of us had done the dance, but this particular set was not a bunch of "old dolls" and we did a very respectable job (I think there were two or three teachers from the Sterling Branch in the set). The evening was great fun, particularly to see how SCD is consistent and inconsistent, all at the same time. The dances are the same, but sometimes the styling is a little different. For example, in turn corner, partner they use an elbow turn, which I must admit makes the turns much easier. In Mairi's Wedding they did right shoulder pass in the reels, and some added an interesting twiddle in the middle of the reels. In White Heather Jig there was a lot of variation in the turn at the end. All were great fun to experience.

Sarah Harriman

Scottish Country Dancing

The drone of the bagpipes, the light footfalls of feet, the rushing sound of the fiddle, the slow drowning sound of the Strathspey music such is Scottish Country dancing. My name is Matthew Boyd and I have been doing Scottish Country dancing for 2 years now. It's a lot of fun and I've made lots of friends through it. I'm in the Saturday morning class and I really enjoy it. Ms. Sarah is a great teacher and class is really fun! In class we don't just dance we do other fun stuff. Recently we had a Ceilidh which is a Celtic party. At the last one Ceildh, I recited a poem and gave a speech about the Celts. Louisa played the violin, and Catie the guitar. We had people bring food to snack on and we had a lot of fun. Saturday class is great for beginners and for working on your steps. Sarah makes sure your steps are perfect, but she is always nice about it. In the Saturday class you learn several figures as well as Pas de Basque and skip change. I like the Balls and socials best of all. The balls are fun because everyone gets to dress up, guys in cool Scottish kilts and stuff and girls in fancy ball gowns. Balls are great social activities, you get to meet and make friends with people from all over the state. It doesn't matter whether you are the worst possible dancer or if you've been doing this for 10 years and could teach the stuff, Scottish Country dancing is fun!

Matthew Boyd

Demo Team News

Teens in Houston

On Saturday, 4 May 2002, a group of teens and near-teens made a trip to Houston to help start ten classes in the Houston area. The dancers were Jamie Boyd, the Davises (Amanda and Christina), the Dunns (Angela, Bethany, Joel, and Jonathan), Mathew Harris, the Margasons (Josh, Laura, and Nathan), and Ethan Thomas. The teens were accompanied by Tim Harrison, Cindy Margason, Jennifer Harris, and Larry & Brenda Dunn. The teens first performed at 1:00pm in The Woodlands at The Payne Academy of Dance. The audience there was about 20 people. The second performance was in Houston at Bethany Christian Church. The audience there was about 30 people. In each performance the teens danced On the Quarterdeck, Hooper's Jig, John McAlpin, Round Reel of Eight, and Eclectic Reel. Eclectic Reel is a beautiful 152 bar reel written by Sarah Harriman and Linda Mae Dennis for the teens. The teens performed wonderfully each time. The audience was quite impressed with their skill. After each demonstration there was a short audience participation time in which Tim Harrison gave a quick introduction to skip-change-of-step and slip step so they could dance Ceilidh Madness and The Ox.

In the evening we all attended the Houston dance social. The teens danced Eclectic Reel at the intermission of the dance. Once again, I heard many comments admiring the skill of the teens.

Thanks to the great dancing of the teens, the driving of the parents, and the hosting and original idea for the demos by Eileen Green of Houston, we ll had a wonderful time.

Tim Harrison, Instructor

Dance Socials

The July "Auld Alliance" Social will be July 13^th at 3:00PM at the Ballroom in the Sky and will be followed by a Potluck dinner.

The End of Summer Social will be August 9^th, and Wade's Birthday Social will be September 13^th.

Dances of the Month

July

Level 1c - Reel of the 51^st Division
Levels 2&3 - Roaring Jelly

August

Level 1c - St. Andrews Fair
Levels 2&3 - Montgomeries Rant

September

Levels 2&3 - Duke of Perth

News from Around the State

Houston

Scottish Country Dancing and More: meets Wednesdays, 7 to 10 p.m.
NEW DANCERS WELCOME - NO PARTNERS NEEDED - NO PRIOR EXPERIENCE NEEDED
Families are welcome. Children must be accompanied by parent or guardian. Admission is $5.00 for those 14 and over; $2.50 those under 14.
Location: Oddfellows Hall, 115 E. 14th St. (Heights), Houston, Texas
Our attendance has been excellent the last several months with a number of new dancers! We performed at the Houston Highland Games May 18 and many of our dancers participated in the ceilidh dancing May 17. The Houston Website has lots of info, including a dance manual (a work in progress), links, photos, and a map so you can join us some Wednesday!
Contact: Dianna Shipman at (713) 522-1212

Dianna Shipman, Houston Scottish Country Dancing and More

Lubbock

Dancing will continue all summer in Lubbock. We are pleased to welcome Jack Raines, who has moved here from Dallas. Jack is a certificated instructor and, although he is frequently traveling, will make a significant addition to the quality of dancing in Lubbock.

Darla Granberry, Lubbock

The Austin SCD E-mail Group

If you want to send an announcement to the AustinSCD eGroup, email the message to AustinSCD@yahoogroups.com as if you are addressing the entire group. The message will be sent, exactly as it appears, to everyone in the eGroup, if it is approved by the moderator (Tim Harrison). Most messages are approved.

You can join the eGroup to receive email message announcements of interest to SCDers in the Austin area by sending an email message to AustinSCD-subscribe@yahoogroups.com from the email address at which you want to receive announcements.