International Dance Day

October 23, 2025

Two Scottish Country Dancers dancing on Buchanan Steet in Glasgow

International Dance Day – 29th April 2026

In 1982, in conjunction with UNESCO, the Dance Committee of ITI (The International Theatre Institute) founded International Dance Day, to be celebrated every year on the 29th April, the birthday of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810), creator of modern ballet. The intention of the International Dance Day Message is to celebrate dance, revel in the universality of this art form, cross all political, cultural and ethnic barriers, and bring people together with a common language - dance. The scope of this celebration presents a perfect opportunity to share our interest in Scottish Country Dance with a wider audience, and potentially draw in new participants.

After the success of the Dance around the World event in November 2024, we would like to invite branches and affiliated groups to organise events to celebrate International Dance Day 2026, or align activities you are already planning with this celebration. Your “event” can be anything: a regular class, a display, a celebratory gathering, a concert or talk, a ceilidh for allcomers, or a social dance – anything that celebrates our traditional Scottish Country Dance form and can be held on or around Wednesday 29th April 2026. MS Committee have curated a suggested list of dances you may wish to use at your celebration event, using the number 6 as the theme, for 2026, with the aim that we capture some consistent material for promotion:

Publication	Dance	Type	Repeats
Book 6	Mrs MacLeod	Reel	8 x 32
Book 6	Roxburgh Castle	Reel	8 x 32
Book 16	Todlen Hame	Jig	8 x 32
Book 16	Birks of Invermay	Strathspey	8 x 32
Book 26	Sugar Candie	Strathspey	8 x 32
Book 26	The Frisky	Jig	8 x 32
Book 36	Quarries' Jig	Jig	8 x 32
Book 36	The Anniversary Reel	Reel	4 x 32
Book 46	Best Set in the Hall	Jig	8 x 32
Book 46	The Flower of Glasgow	Strathspey	3 x 32

As the formal International Dance Day plans are finalised, we will share more information with participating groups. We also plan to make available publicity and marketing material to help you promote your events.

At this stage, please do consider how you can incorporate this date into your plans or intentions. In the coming months, we hope to collate all planned events to be published on the main International Dance Day website as well as our own website and social media accounts to promote Scottish Country Dancing to the International dance community. Further details will be released on how to share your photos and videos of your International Dance Day events.

The goals of International Dance Day are:

To promote dance in all its forms across the world.

To make people aware of the value of dance in all its forms.

To enable the dance community to promote their work on a broad scale, so that governments and opinion leaders are aware of the value and importance of dance in all its forms and support it.