Blue Ridge Scottish Dance School

More than 80 Scottish country dancers descended on Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., on July 2-8 for the second edition of the Blue Ridge Scottish Dance School. And if it seemed bigger than last year, that was not an illusion.

In year two, the school grew by 24 percent, dancers were told at an annual meeting the next-to-last day of the school, with dancers from 15 states, Canada and Scotland.

We were treated to sterling instruction by Robert McOwen of Massachusetts and Andrew Nolan of Scotland, and to memorable music by Luke Brady of Scotland and Julie Gorka and Mara Shea of North Carolina.

The School had a successful enough year that it was able to grant five scholarships – the first time we have had scholarship students attending – to dancers from both Carolinas, Virginia and Kentucky. And retiring treasurer Rick Shireman told the AGM that the school anticipates a $9,000 balance, which will help pay to reserve the App State facilities for next year’s school.

That’s notable, Shireman said, when considering that the School was created five years ago with nothing in the bank. He said the idea from the start was to stress “high quality music, high quality instruction and a good facility.” That’s proved quite true so far.

This year featured “low impact” and “high impact” Scottish dancing, as was the case last year, but there was also a “developmental” class working out of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Boone. And they may have had the most fun of anyone.

Teachers Eilean Yates of North Carolina and Jeff Corrigan of California worked with the developmental class, and they’ll continue to work to supply teachers and musicians for the school, Eilean told the AGM – despite the fact that she turned over the school vice-president’s job to David Glick of North Carolina.

Shireman also turned over the treasurer’s job to Lisa Galloway of Georgia, while President Susan Tumlin and Secretary Sylvia Priest will continue in their jobs for another year.

Sarah Craighead continues as the fundraising committee chairman, and she reported a good year. A silent auction raised $2,148, and sales of pottery mugs (thrown by Shireman) and dance sponsorships during Friday’s Gala raised the total donations to $4,775.

Among other things, those contributions help pay for the scholarships, which are named for our predecessors, Duard and Betty Lee Barnes. Duard and Betty Lee ran for 39 years, until 2019, the Thistle School of Scottish Country Dance. That’s fondly remembered by many of today’s dancers.

There were sad moments to note, including the passing this year of Duard Barnes, teacher Lee Ryan of Boone and dancer Suzanne Young of South Carolina. But there were also touching moments. One of those involved the accordion Luke Brady was playing. It was borrowed from long-time Thistle musician Pete Campbell, who originally got it from the late Bobby Brown of Canada, famed Scottish (and ofttimes Thistle) musician.

That kept Luke from having to ship an accordion across the ocean, a chancy thing to do, and it also kept us from having to rent one voiced for Scottish dance – a near impossible job. As Susan Tumlin put it, “Have you ever tried to rent an accordion?!” Many thanks to Pete.

There’s much more to talk about. Andrew Nolan passed on good wishes from RSCDS headquarters in Edinburgh and pointed out that technical advances like Zoom have made worldwide communication easier. “There’s no geographical barrier to joining the board,” he said.

Pat Geiger’s hospitality committee furnished food for “afters” all week, while David Glick led a humorous ceilidh at mid-week. Carolinas Branch president Caz Freeman produced the “Blue Ridge Olympics” on Tuesday. (How far can you hurl a Wellie, for instance?) And Joyce Chase sponsored a “high tea” at midweek, complete with scones, jam, tea and ladies’ hats (for a few of them, anyway).

Blue Ridge is put together by the sponsoring Atlanta and Carolinas branches of RSCDS, and branch chairpersons Sarah Craighead of Atlanta and Caz Freeman of Carolinas said they were pleased with it. Plans are already under way for the Blue Ridge of 2024, scheduled for July 7-13, 2024, with teachers Gary Coull and Rebecca Blackhall-Peters and musicians Elke Baker, Elissa Hock-Wimmer and Terry Traub.

In the meantime, if you weren’t there and would like to experience the 2023 Gala, log onto www.blueridgesds.org and click on “Watch the Gala” on the home page. It’s all there. You’ll have to set aside three hours, but you can scroll through intermission.