Муниципальное общеобразовательное учреждение

 “Средняя общеобразовательная

школа 21 с углублённым изучением немецкого языка” г.Сыктывкара

The Scottish Dances

      - Reporter: Chuftaeva Daria, 11th a Form

                                          - Consultant of the project: Solodkaya Svetlana,

                                                                    teacher of English

Syktyvkar, 2009

Contents

 1. Introduction                                                                                      -3-

 2. Some information about the Motherland of the Scottish dances.    -4-

 3. Some facts from the history of the Scottish dances.                         -5-

 4. The  most popular kinds of the Scottish dances.                              -6-

 5. What are the Scottish dance costumes?                                            -7-

 6. Highland Dancing:                                                                          -8-9-

        a) Highland Fling

        b) Sword dance

        c) Reel of Tulloch

        d) Seann Triubhas

 7. Scottish Country Dance                                                                 -10-11-

        a) From the history of the Scottish Country Dance

        b) Main stages in the development of the dance

        c) Research work

  8. Ceilidh          -12-

         a) The Pole

         b) The Waltz

         c) Two-steps and threesteps

  9.  The conclusion                                                                              -13-

 10. The list of literature                                                                       -14-

1. Introduction

Karl Jung

For many years we are fond of dancing and dances. We were keen on German national dances, have tried belly dances, and now our priorities are given to a modern sport dance. Of course, you will ask a question why dances are so important to us. And we will answer with Isadora Duncan's saying “Dance is life”.  And for us it is the way of life. Dance is a great pleasure and freedom! We can express our feelings and mood dancing. By the means of dancing the person can learn the world, but learn it from the other new side, not the way he watches it with his own eyes or learns from books. It is the other way: three-dimensional motion, feeling a rhythm inside himself. It is huge energy which fills each part of a body and makes you move further.  It may be compared to the feeling of flight … In the culture of each country dance has left the big trace:  important events were celebrated with its help, sacral secrets were transferred and even illnesses were recovered with the help of a dance. The force of dancing cannot cheer up only, but also find the lost harmony in the relation with partners, with the person himself and the body. For example, dance has a psychological basis and learns according to Karl Jung's doctrine which considers a body and soul as a connected unit.

Dance movements may not have the proper meaning at all as in ballet or European folk dance, or have a gestural symbolic system as in many Asian dances. Dance can express ideas, emotions or even tell a story.

Dancing includes a lot of styles. Breakdancing is related to the hip hop culture. African dance is interpretive. Ballet, Ballroom, Waltz, and Tango are classical styles of dancing while Square and the Electric Slide are forms of step dancing.

For this reason studying Scottish dances is an unusual and interesting process and one of the ways to enlarge the knowledge about dances and dancing.

2. Some information about the Motherland of the Scottish dances.

Scotland is mountains and lakes, in one of which mysterious Nessi is found. Though Scotland is considered a part of Great Britain, at the same time it represents the separate country. It is the country of the beautiful mountain tops covered with snow, the deep and chilling mountain lakes widely stretched among fantastic locks and warm sincere hospitality of the Scots. National traditions are kept, collected and reflect the historical experience of last generations. The Scottish life is full of traditions. Some of them are very beautiful, bright and unsual, and, besides, are rather reasonable. Scots are proud of their traditions very much. We would like to tell you about dances of Scotland and how they are popular all over the world nowadays.

3. Some facts from history of the Scottish dances

The Scottish dances are traditionally kept. The history of Scottish dancing starts with the legends of the Middle Ages. These are legends about the aggressive, freedom-loving Scots who tried to express their life experience with the help of dancing. The vivid example to that is the history of creation of the Sword Dance which described how King Malkolm (one of the main enemies glorified by Shakespeare Makbeth, XI century), crossed two swords on the ground filled in with blood: one was his own, and the other – of the killed enemy, and danced on them in honour of his own victory. In written documents of the XV – XVI centuries first notes about the Sword dance can be found, it was danced during the wedding of the Scottish king Alexander III in 1285. Besides, the names of Fling and Reel were also mentioned at that time.

In the XVIII century Country dancing got from England to Scotland. At first Scots simply performed English dances using the Scottish music. Then they began to compose their own country dancing: in 1740 the description of 48 dances made up by the Scots were published by David Jangom.

4. Тhe most popular kinds of the Scottish dances.

The most popular kinds of the Scottish dances are:

1) Highland Dancing 

2) Scottish Country Dancing or so-called Scottish ball dances, more simple than Highland Dancing

3) Ceilidh is the most simple dance for parties.

5. What are the Scottish dance costumes?

 Scottish national dances have been created especially for women as they were not allowed to Highland Dancing and to carry kilts at first. Therefore they danced national dances softer and similar to the ballet, and their clothes are called Aboyne (after the name of Scottish games - Aboyne Highland Games where women are not allowed to dance in kilts till now). The clothes consist of a long skirt, a white blouse, a velvet jacket embroidered in front, and a plaid pinned to the shoulder and waist. Even for national dances it is possible to put on a white dress and a plaid on the shoulder. Today both men and women dance Highland Dancing and national dances.

And now, we invite you to enjoy the unforgettable, bright, cheerful world of dances.

6. Highland Dancing:

Highland is a part of Scotland which represents a hilly territory in the north and in the west. In this part of Scotland are such dances as:

Pas de Basques

Highland Fling

Sword Dance

Seann Triubhas

Reel of Tulloch 

 It is surprising that in such small territory there is such a huge variety of dances. We would like to tell about some of them. By the quantity of participants in the dance, it is possible to distinguish three more kinds of the Scottish dances: single (solo), steam rooms (couple) and set dances. Behind few exceptions everything that is called Highland Dancing (dances of mountaineers) gets to a category of single dances.

a) Highland Fling

One of the oldest and well-known dances is Highland Fling. Coming back from victorious battles, soldiers danced in honour of celebrating their victory. The dance was made on a small round shield. At that time the majority of small round shields had a sharp thorn made of steel in the centre, that’s why dancers got  skills, learned to move skilfully to avoid wounds. An element of a suit of the dancer is a checkered skirt. Some people connect the birth of the dance Highland Fling with the story about the young boy who saw once a deer. When his father asked to describe it, the boy could not find words and started to dance, representing what he had seen.

b) Sword dance

The Scottish dance of a sword is a ritual warlike dance simulating epic fights and showing military art.  It includes fast dance over two bared swords lying cross-wise on the ground.Fast steps between the edges of two knives are ritually performed before the important fight or as the victory dance. The legend says that the commander of the Scottish mountaineers gathered the best performers of clans who danced on swords on the eve of the fight. If it was possible not to step on the edges it was considered as a good omen before the fight.

c) Reel of Tulloch

One more of the best-known dances is Reel of Tulloch. The history about it comes from a small village of Tulloh which is a village in the northwest of Scotland. According to the legend, the dance was born, when the crowd waited for the minister at the church on a cold day. People began to whistle the Scottish motive and someone started to dance. But there is another version that the dance appeared after the severe football match when inhabitants of Tulloh played with the cut head of an enemy.

d) Seann Triubhas 

The Seann Triubhas is a Highland Dance that is believed to have originated from the rebellion of 1745, when England banned the Highlanders from wearing kilts. During this rebellion, Bonnie Prince Charlie challenged the might of England at Culloden. He lost the battle, and as a consequence the Highlanders were banned from wearing kilts. Kilts, along with bagpipes, were considered by the English as instruments of war. Without their kilts, they had to turn to wearing trousers. About thirty years later, the laws were repealed because of the tartan fabric fashion craze in London and the Highlanders were allowed to return to their original dress. The Seann Triubhas was created as a dance of celebration. The movements of the dance depict the legs defiantly shaking and shedding the hated trousers, to return to the freedom of the kilt. Some of these steps are believed to have originated from hard shoe dancing. "Seann Triubhas" is a Gaelic phrase which means "Old or Unwanted Trousers".

Highland dancing is known as a kernel of Scottish national dancing tradition. They are performed at national festivals – Highland Games – to the accompaniment of the Scottish bagpipes.

7. Scottish Country Dance

a) From the history of the Scottish Country Dance

There are a lot of versions of the origin of Scottish Country Dance. Sometimes this kind of dancing is called national by mistake. The majority of experts agree that the name Country Dancing has French origin: contradance is a kind of dancing where partners are opposite each other. You may distingwish different kinds of this dancing according to music: reel, Irish jigs and strathspey. The main musical instruments are an accordion and a violin. A piano, shock, a guitar are also used. Scottish country dancing is not a competitive kind of dances.

Certainly, there is an official date of the start in the history of Scottish Country Dances - in1651 John Playford published the first collection of dances. Nobody wanted to divide ball dances into Scottish, English and others. Playford published descriptions of those dances which at that time were popular at the court of Charles II as an alternative to the French dances. The society of the Scottish dances was created in 1923. This society (Royal Scottish Country Dance Society) is existing now. But nowadays it`s an international organization, which exists in many countries of the world, from Great Britain to Japan. 

b) Three basic stages in development

There are three basic stages in development of Scottish Country Dances: the Playford period, George's epoch, Victorian epoch. Scottish Country Dances are usually danced in proper constructions — sets. The set usually includes three, four or five couples. Sometimes there are also seven-pair sets, but it is very seldom. In Scottish Country Dances there is a set of various figures of different length. The length of a figure is measured by musical steps; therefore the figure is always equal to the length of the musical fragment. Scottish Country Dances use special positions of feet from classical ballet. There are some types of steps: for movement on long distances (travelling steps), and for movement on short distances (setting steps). Ball dance is one of the most elegant and romantic kinds of sports where dance turns to original theatrical action where the beautiful suit shows the character and image of dancers.

c) Research work

We were interested to know everything about the level of the popularity of Scottish country dances during different periods of time. So we have made the research work on this topic, we have looked for the information in different books, magazines and internet resources and found out that:

John Playford

As the Scottish church didn’t like dancing and other forms of entertainment up to 1700 it is difficult to find information about Scottish dances of that time. We may understand that they were not popular at all. But many Scottish landowners didn’t pay attention to the laws of the church and in 1580 king James VI paid 100 pounds to William Gudson for dance lessons. In 1651 the first book "Dancing Master" was published by John Playford. And since XVII century Country dances were spread among people until the First World War. After the war interest to Scottish country dances was less. To save and restore old Scottish dancing and music Mrs Ysobel Stewart and Miss Jean Milligan founded the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society in 1923. Since that time Scottish country dancing has still been popular.

Now we are going to show you the diagram about the level of the popularity of Scottish country dancing according to our research work:

8. Ceilidh

And now let's imagine - summer, hot sunny midday, there are cheerfully dancing people around you. Their smiles and easy movements make you join the dance. You will certainly want to ask: where am I? We are in fantastic Scotland, at one of rural holidays - where both children and old men with sparkling eyes dance Ceilidh.

It is a kind of dancing which has always been danced on holidays in villages and pubs. As it has been an informal way to meet the future groom and bride, these dances are mostly performed in pairs.  Ceilidh dances are: Poles, waltzes, twosteps and threesteps.

 a) The Pole is a fast pair dance. Poles are energetic. There is a special kind of long Poles - the Pole «on a survival» or "mad" Poles. It is a small competition between musicians and dancers who can dance longer. It is unusually the last dance at a party.

b) The waltz is a slow pair dance. It is characterized by proud and smooth movements. This dance has been considered as the most intimate for several centuries. At the beginning the waltz was only a ball dance, but because of the increased popularity it`s performed even on simple rural holidays.

c) Twosteps and threesteps are simple dances similar to the Pole. They may include elements from the Pole. Many twosteps were written in 1920s in America.

9. The conclusion

At the end of our project we’ve  asked ourselves if Scottish dances are popular and if people dance them nowadays. It turns out that there is such an organization  as Royal Scottish Country Dance Society (RSCDS). It was founded by two notable women known as Miss Jean Milligan and Mrs. Ysobel Stewart of Fasnacloish.  In 1927 in a small seaside town of St.Andrews the first summer school of RSCDS was carried out. Since that time in summer the amateurs of  Scottish dances from all over the world gather in St.Andrews. The school has won world reputation, and St.Andrews has become the Mecca of the Scottish dancing. 

Ten years ago a woman from Russia first joined the Society. Every year more Russian people come to St.Andrews in summer.

This project is very important to us: being dancers and studying English we want to learn  what the Scottish dances are. For many days we have been eagerly searching for the information about dancing, looking through various videotapes with the Scottish dances, listening to  Scottish music. This project has become one more step of studying dances as special culture and art. The Scottish dances seem very energetic with the help of which you can get a lot of positive feelings. Perhaps, we will try to be engaged in the Scottish dances in future.

At the beginning of our project we’ve asked the question what the dance is. And now we can surely say that the dance is the language of gestures, the dance is the state of the soul, the dance is the art, the dance is the power that makes people cry or laugh, the dance is the expression of the senses. Let`s dance because the dance means movement and movement means life!

Thanks for attention!

10. List of literature

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_country_dance
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Highlands
3. T.N. Kimunina, N.W.Konon “Customs, tradition and Fastwalz of Great Britain”
4. www. Scottishdance.ru
5. M. Leach, J. Fried “Folklore. Standard dictionary of mythology and legend”
6. Macmillan “English Dictionary” for advanced learners