Scottish Country Dance weekend in Italy

December 18, 2024

The Welcome Dance: Stan Grycuk, Liz Bulloch, Clare Grycuk, Valeria Corradin, Morag Barclay, Gordon Bulloch and Fiona Spence

Scottish Country Dance weekend in Italy 2024; St Andrew’s Edition - Marostica 29th November to 1st December 2024

Six Scottish country dancers from the Aberdeen and Banffshire Branches set off from Aberdeen to Marostica on 26th November 2024 to take part in the St Andrew’s Edition, Scottish Country Dance weekend hosted by RSCDS Northern Italy Branch and Scotia Shores.

Clare and Stan Grycuk, Liz and Gordon Bulloch, Fiona Spence and Morag Barclay, (Clare, Liz,Gordon, Morag and Fiona are all members of the International Branch of the RSCDS.

The RSCDS Northern Italy Branch (NIB) was established in 2011. The Branch is devoted to and promoting Scottish Country Dancing in Italy.

The enthusiasm of the NIB & Scotia Shores certainly showed as we arrived in Marostica ready for the Welcome Dance. In true Scottish style with a ‘Whisky Tasting’ by ‘Oro di Scozia’. The owner of the company, Ferdinando “Nando” fell in love with Scotland the first time he set foot on Rabbie Burns land. Oro di Scozia spreads Scottish culture, craftsmanship, food and whisky throughout Italy. The dancing on the first evening Welcome dance had ‘ The Dashing White Sergeant’, ‘Mairi’s Wedding’ and ‘Postie’s Jig’ with many other well known Scottish country dances.

The teachers for the event were Helen Russell and Antoine Rousseau with Classes A and B for experienced and the less experienced. On Sunday morning the classes got together and the teachers shared the class. It was great fun sharing Scottish dountry dancing with our Italian friends along with keen Scottish dountry dancers from Germany and other parts of Italy: “Weel kent faces” as they say in the North East of Scotland.

At the Grand Ball on Saturday evening we were welcomed with a fantastic buffet and a glass of bubbly. The programme was well balanced and the musicians, James Gray and Matthias Rank were outstanding and the ‘loud applause’ resulted in a good number of encores. The music was uplifting and kept us on our toes to the last dance.

Valeria’s organisation was excellent from the initial booking to organising our hotel and transport to and from Venice airport. Our new dancing Italian friends picked us up at the hotel to attend the Grand Ball in Sala Polivalente di Breganze on Saturday evening.

A beautiful booklet was issued with detailed information on ‘Where to visit’ places of interest, eateries and bus timetables – we were all sorted! We visited Bassano del Grappa, Vicenza and three of our group had a day in Venice. The public transport was not expensive and within walking distance from our hotel.

Our time in Marostica, was wonderful, with the warm welcome, the fun, fitness and friendship. In 2026 there will be special anniversaries : 25 years of Scotia Shores and 15 years of Northern Italy Branch. We will look forward to returning to Northern Italy in the future!