The Homecoming Dance

The Homecoming Dance & music

The RSCDS is proud to present the winning dance and music for The Homecoming Dance competition, commissioned and sponsored by EventScotland to mark the Year of Homecoming 2009. The dance was devised by Anne Thorn, from Helensburgh, and the music was written by George Meikle - congratulations to them both. We hope that dancers all over the world will enjoy the dance!

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the individuals worldwide who submitted a dance or music for the competition. With 93 dance submissions and 22 tunes – and a very tight timescale – the Membership Services Committee and volunteer dancers had their work cut out! We very much appreciate the interest that was shown in the competition. Anyone who submitted a dance that was not selected can of course now publish their dance elsewhere.

A second dance was chosen from the submissions for use at another event that RSCDS was invited to participate in – The Dancin’, which formed part of the Hogmanay celebrations in Edinburgh. That dance was submitted by Tim Wilson, from San Francisco, and was performed with his permission, and with his agreement to the title being changed to The Grassmarket Reel. We are also delighted that the composer of the “runner-up” piece of music, James Gray, has agreed that his music can be renamed The Grassmarket Reel and used for this dance.

Both dances and their music will be included with the insert of dances in the March 2009 edition of Scottish Country Dancer.