New Zealand - Pick Up 52 project

Pick-up 52 Project

Discussion by Andrew Uren, secretary of Innes Club and project director

In July 2023, the Pick-up 52 Project has pretty much covered a dance from all 52 RSCDS Books, plus all the NZ devised or influenced dances in these books. The YouTube channel, Pick-up 52, has already scored over 20,000 views.

To understand about the project and where it came from, we have to go back one year earlier to July 2022. An email circulated from the NZ SCD Branch requesting ideas on how to celebrate the centenary of the Scottish Country Dancing Society.

The idea came pretty quickly: why not invite all the clubs in NZ to record themselves dancing as a snapshot of what is happening in NZ in Scottish Country Dancing in this Centenary year?  We understood that there were about 90 clubs in NZ and that the NZ branch was possibly the largest single branch in the world. What if we could celebrate the publication of all 52 books?  

We also were aware that there were many dances from the 52 books which had been devised by New Zealanders. From our early days of learning SCD at Innes Club, we had been dancing Best Set in the Hall with its devisor, Helen Greenwood, in our set at our club. We realised this was a world favourite and thought it would be great to celebrate other NZ devisors who have been included in the 52 Books too.

A talk and video at the NZ Summer School’s NZ SCD AGM in January 2023 kicked off the project. The name came from the 52 RSCDS Books linking with the old childhood joke card game, Pick-up 52, where a prankster would ask if an unsuspecting victim “would like to play Pick-up 52”…and then, if they got an affirmative response, would scatter all the cards on the ground! I imagined the 52 cards of the deck splattered all over the ground much like the huge array of clubs scattered around NZ.

We sent out a brief questionnaire to every club throughout NZ asking if they would like to participate in the project. We added an additional question asking if the club had some affiliation with or devisor in one of the books.

If the club had an affiliation, we assigned that book to that club. During the process, we also discovered that some dances included music composed by New Zealanders, so likewise, we also extended this to the clubs that had composed music to some dances in the books, or had some other historical connection. Sometimes this was a teacher, or a dance dedicated to the club. But otherwise, we randomly assigned each of the 52 books to each club.

We truly appreciate the enthusiastic support for this project through Debbie Roxburgh from the NZ Branch committee. In addition, Andy Patterson, our computer whiz, put all the links onto the NZ Branch page, and gave some fantastic guidance on how clubs should record and send their videos through so that we could upload them to YouTube with as little stress as possible. It was a real credit that every club in NZ managed to do this!

The project very quickly became a snapshot of NZ dancing. Clubs told about their struggles and their joys: some clubs ceasing over the Covid period or losing members, some dancers with a range of physical and cognitive challenges who were still able to be part of the project, and, wonderfully, a great number of new dancers. It was truly marvellous to see what these incredible teachers were doing to help get these club members onto the floor. In short, I felt the project gave the NZ SCD community a goal, especially in the aftermath of Covid-19.

One of the wonderful spin-off features of the project was its historical potential. Finding out about the NZ history of the devisor quickly led onto the historical side of each club. For example, when was the club founded? Who were the teachers? What are some of the favourite dances of the club? Where does the club exist? Kristin Downey asked about recording which clubs have the precious wooden floors which we so enjoy for dancing. It is a sad fact that many halls have been ‘upgraded’ to a less dancing-friendly surface or even demolished!

However, the whole goal was always about participation. It has been a wonderful process to see a moment in time of Scottish Country Dancing in New Zealand in 2023, and I hope that people all around the world will be able to identify with these moments. With 100 years of celebrating SCD, it is incredible to imagine what Miss Milligan and Mrs Stewart would think if they could see how their efforts have flourished.