DST - Spring Flings 2022

Ten Branches and Groups got in touch to say they’d be hosting Spring Fling events for 2022. In this blog we hear all about Central Scotland's event and from Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles Branch and Kelowna Scottish Country Dancers.

Sydney Branch are hosting their Southern Fling in October so watch this space!

Kelowna Scottish Country Dancers

Kelowna hosted the long-awiated Spring Fling on a beautiful sunny days and were thrilled to welcome dancers from Naramata and Vernon groups.  27 dancers attended the event at the Okanagan Centre, Lake Country.

The programme, prepared by instructor Karin Wagstaff, kept dancers (literally) on their toes; Jigs, Reels, Strathspeys, we had it all! Whew! Dancing, socialising and food - great fun!

A huge thank you to KSCD members for providing a variety of sandwiches, wraps, veggies, fruit, cheese and dessert!

Central Scotland - by Eilidh Hart

It seems like we have returned to a fairly normal dancing schedule after the hiatus of the pandemic, with regular Branch and University Group classes and dances taking place across Scotland, but there was still unfortunately one event that seemed to be missing from the calendars – the RSCDS Spring Fling Weekend. 

While last year this event was held remotely, with many young dancers tuning in from across the world, I think it is safe to say that they are no patch on the real thing as it is incredibly difficult to capture the same level of enjoyment, liveliness and friendships over group video calls, no matter how wonderfully the event has been put together.  That is why I was excited to hear that this year, the RSCDS were encouraging the dancing community to come together and arrange smaller, local events for their Youth Members in the Spring. I’d seen photos and read about the Toronto event and was sad to think that we might be missing out in Glasgow and the surrounding areas, as at that time, there were no plans to host such an event in Scotland.

That was until Rachel Shankland, of Edinburgh Branch, and Carol-Ann Knox, of Lochaber Branch but intrinsically linked to Glasgow, decided to do something about that – and honestly once they have made up their minds there is really no stopping either of them it seems! They did, however, acknowledge, that more hands would make light work, so formed a small committee with Malin Altenmüller, from Glasgow Branch, who is a whizz at last minute hall bookings, and Abigail Brown also of Glasgow Branch.  Even with a committee, it is no mean feat to pull together a dancing event, let alone only with a couple of weeks of prep, but they managed to get everything sorted in what seemed like a breeze, from the outside at least, and suddenly the Central Scotland Spring Fling had been arranged to take place in Glasgow on Saturday 30th April.  Thank you to everyone involved in setting this event up, and to everyone who got dragged in on the day to help with last minute things, for everything you did to make this happen, and I hope that you enjoyed it as much as the attendees did.

The event started off with a lovely general class, taught by Carol-Ann Knox and with the fantastic music of regular Glasgow Branch musician, Màrtainn Skene.  There was a wide range of experience across the dancers in attendance. Some had danced since they were wee, others were pretty much brand new having started that year with University; this must have been a truly daunting task for Carol-Ann to prepare for!  However, she didn’t appear to be phased by this as she took us through a really varied collection of dances that I’d certainly not heard of before, with some fun twists on core figures such as dancing Back to Back passing by the left shoulder or Circulating Allemande.  The class was engaging and fun and the dances gave everyone a chance to mix up and dance together without having to worry that they might be too hard or too easy for everyone.

Due to the location of the hall in a residential area of the Southside of Glasgow, the attendees had been encouraged to bring their own food for the break between the class and the evening dance.  This was a truly welcome quirk of this location as it allowed time for young dancers from across the country to properly mingle and hangout together which I feel is always a key draw and highlight of Youth events.  The dinner break allowed old friends to catch up over cups of tea and biscuits, discussing how they were enjoying getting back to dancing or teaching. It also gave dancers who had only begun learning Scottish country dance at the start of the academic year with the University groups a chance to make connections that they haven’t really been able to make in the dancing community so far.  An hour or so filled with good chat, pizza and lots of tea and biscuits – what more could you ask for?

Finally, it was time for the evening dance and everyone was looking forward to getting onto the dance floor, particularly as our class musician returned with his band, the Màrtainn Skene Dance Band, so we knew that the music was going to be top notch. It really was fantastic to dance to.  While most of the dancers had attended the class in the afternoon, the dance was open to everyone, so it was incredibly lovely to be joined later in the evening by former Youth Branch dancers, who remain young at heart.  The programme, written by Rachel Shankland, was the perfect mix of enjoyable and well-known dances for some of the newer dancers, such as Hooper’s Jig and Joie de Vivre, but with the occasional challenging formation thrown in to keep everyone on their toes.  With the hall entirely packed, it was wonderful to be able to look and see so many dancers having such an amazing time, with so much laughter and fun happening all around all evening.

While sad that this fantastic event had to end, I’m so thankful that Rachel and Carol-Ann were brave enough to arrange this.  There are many Youth events to look forward to, such as the weekend in Bologna but really, I’m just counting the days until next Spring when the full weekend of Spring Fling will be back up and running in Edinburgh.

Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles Branch

We held our Spring Fling event on Friday 6th May in Selkirk Conservative Club.  We started with Ceilidh dancing first, dancing to Stuart Anderson and then moved onto the buffet, finishing off with a disco. It was a great night and was great to see many past members of our Children’s class in Selkirk, which has been on the go for over 40 years.

Ian Lowthian played for us on the Saturday morning where the Junior class danced in the Town Square. We were celebrating the new tartan Guardian of Scotland designed by Gerald Reilly.  The Guardian of Scotland Dance was devised by Lina Purves.  Halliwell's House Museum in Selkirk was running an exhibition on the new tartan so we decided to get involved as well.