We have never experienced a time like lockdown and to help support the worldwide community of Scottish country dancers, we started issuing a series of newsletters to our members and subscribers in March 2020 - Dance Scottish At Home. The aim was to include articles, music, games, podcasts and online classes that entertained and connected dancing friends across the globe during this unprecedented and challenging period.

Over the course of 40 issues, we shared photos and virtual videos from dancing events past and present, tales of summer schools and dancing trips, and were fortunate enough to have many readers sharing their memories sparked by the articles and photos in Dance Scottish At Home. 

Issue 40, the final issue of Dance Scottish At Home, looks back at some of the content and includes a podcast with a surprising guest!

Building on the undoubted success of the Dance Scottish At Home newsletter, and the astounding RSCDS communications network that has resulted, the Board has agreed to a regular mailing, starting in late October 2021 and entitled “Dance Scottish Together”. If you have any ideas, inspiration or requests for future issues of Dance Scottish Together then please click here to share them with us.

To receive future newsletters just sign up here.

Dance Scottish At Home - 24th September 2021

Welcome to Dance Scottish At Home – our final issue – and this edition is packed full of Scots dance, music, history and some just for fun puzzles.

At Home Podcast

In this edition through the power of technology Luke brings a special guest to the At Home Podcast – listen to moments from Miss Milligan’s Summer School talks with tracks inspired by her comments, as relevant today as they were then. There’s also plenty of music including tracks from the Wardlaw Band, Colin Dewar and James Coutts.   

This Week in Scots History

Celebrating illustrious birthdays, marking anniversaries, finding Scottish links with global figures, sharing momentous historic events – the last 18 months of “This Week in Scots History” has seen them all. Assassinations, beheadings, kidnap, theft and mythical tales – there’s rarely a day in the year that hasn’t seen a Scottish happening. Some figures, places and memorabilia have warranted mention in multiple issues – Flora MacDonald, the Honours of Scotland and the Stone of Destiny. While others have linked directly to RSCDS repertoire - the escape of Mary Queen of Scots from Loch Leven Castle and the mystery surrounding the Loch Ness Monster.

What's behind the name?

Madge Wildfire’s Strathspey keeps us firmly on the Sir Walter Scott theme of this DSAH as the dance is named after one of the characters in Scott’s novel The Heart of Mid-Lothian. The story behind The Heart of Mid-Lothian is an epic journey of a young woman travelling to London in order to seek a Royal pardon for her sister - but who was Madge Wildfire and what was her role in the novel?

Global youth

Dance groups from all around the world, the Virtual Festival 2021 is almost here, so get ready for “Ceilidh, dancing and beyond”, inspired by the ceilidh dance writing workshop at Spring Fling. 
 
Our launch date is the 9th of October, when we’re going to kick off the Virtual Festival by releasing the Virtual Display, and then it’s your turn to get creative!
Watch our social media pages and the young dancers’ web pages for more details.

RSCDS online classes

With 64 online classes we have travelled round the world with the RSCDS. Each week bringing a different RSCDS Teacher in a different location and a mixture of movement, warm up, technique, steps and dances and importantly a regular opportunity to dance and chat with dancers around the world.

ALL ONLINE CLASSES

Dance puzzles

The final Dance Scottish At Home puzzles are just for fun!

JIGSAW PUZZLE   

RSCDS news

Updates from the Education and Training Committee:

Call for Trainees
The Education and Training Committee having carried out the first training courses for Trainers of the Core Training for Instructors (CTI) and are now ready to involve Leaders, who would like guidance on taking their Social and/or General classes, and become Instructors.  
What you need to do: 
Check out the RSCDS website under Core Training for Instructors (Call for CTI Trainees)
 
Trainers
If you are interested in becoming a Trainer, you must be a class teacher with an RSCDS full Teaching Certificate (Part 2) and have at least five years of teaching experience, which should include teaching beginners and intermediate dancers.  Again, for more information go to the RSCDS website, under Core Training for Instructors (Call for CTI Trainers).
 
Autumn Gathering
Regretfully, there will be no Teachers’ Conference at the Autumn Gathering this year, due to the unknown numbers likely to attend, therefore we are looking at online virtual presentations by all the Teachers’ Associations.  They will not be available until after the Autumn Gathering but will allow teachers to log in any number of times and at any time. Details to follow in due course.

Message from the Chairman

It is almost impossible to express adequate thanks to the DSAH team for their production of the DSAH newsletter, and classes, since lockdown started in March 2020. The idea behind these came from my predecessor Andrew Kellett, and I feel sure that he thought he was only asking for something that would keep dancers entertained, and in touch, for a few months whilst there was no dancing? Having reached an unbelievable 40th edition, it has proved both invaluable, and supportive, for dancers and musicians during these very strange pandemic lockdown times...
 
Continue reading the full Dance Scottish At Home newsletter here >

"I greatly appreciate the innovative way that the RSCDS has ensured that we all keep up our dance skills and stay connected to one another throughout this challenging time.  It was a real treat to have Angela teach the class accompanied by her husband, Graham on the piano.

Thank you again to the imaginative team at RSCDS for implementing this social connection for all of us in the worldwide dancing community."

 Helene and Douglas Nelson,  rscdsgleneagles.org