Spring Fling 2026 Jean Milligan Memorial Scholarship

Alex Bonfield was awarded a Scholarship from the Jean Milligan Memorial Fund to attend Spring Fling 2026 in Lyon. Alex started dancing in St Andrews in 2023 and has thrown themselves wholeheartedly into the Scottish Country Dancing world. This Scholarship allowed Alex to dance outside of the UK for the very first time. To commemorate this special occasion, they created a dance called ‘The Circle of Eggs’ We hope you will all give it a go! 

 My name is Alex, a student dancer who began SCD at St Andrews University. This was my second Spring Fling, and I had been looking forward to Lyon since the final notes of Brighton 2025. Spring Fling is the young dancers’ event of the year and the perfect chance to add all kinds of twiddles, spins and birls to SCD. And what could be a better celebration than encapsulating the entire weekend in a dance! The working title (I never came up with a better one ~Ed) was ‘The Circle of Eggs’ - a wacky name originating from the group chat in which I had planned Spring Fling with friends, and ended up being our dormitory group chat too. It seemed fitting enough given all the circles involved! 

 The Circle of Eggs  

104R, 4/4L  

To be danced 1xR104 for demonstration purposes, although the progression does technically work to allow it to be completed 4xR104 (which I’m not sure I would recommend for anyone of the weak of heart. Or anyone who likes their legs attached to their body). It has been devised to reflect the story of all the weekend’s highlights and my experiences - hopefully as energetic and fun to revisit in the months to come as it was at the time.  

Lyon arrival and meeting up with old friends:  

1-4: 1c4c set and cast inwards  

5-8: 2M+1L, 1M+4L and 4M+3L XR; 2L+4L, 2M+3L, 1M+3M XL  

(1M4L loop round by the left to face in)  

My journey to Lyon had come via a brief Swiss dalliance into Geneva Airport - a route which plenty of other dancers from East Scotland seemed to have also settled on. Dancers were congregating from all sides: some met in the airports, some turned it into a proper holiday and some joined a bit later for just the weekend. Even so far from St Andrews, familiar dancing faces were around every corner, and the influx of Scottish Country Dancers seemed to sweep Lyon off its feet.  

Making our way around town:  

9-16: 2c3c Alternating Tandem LSh Ro3 on sidelines with 1c/4c  

(2L RSh back & face up, 3M RSh back & face down, 1M+4L loop into place)  

We would have been lost through the weekend without the amazing organising committee to show us the way, and that started right from the get-go with the walking group to the station. Despite the offshoots who couldn’t agree with Google Maps on the best shortcut to Jean Macé, everyone made it to the venue in one piece, ready for the Friday evening dance.  

Friday’s Dance:  

17-20: Ladies at the top, men at the bottom circle 4H left  

21-24: 2c3c pull LSh back and circle 4H right, end face clockwise  

The Hall in Saint-Fons was spacious and airy (at least when we started), and possessed both a charmingly curvaceous nature, and an optimistically large square footage. Shocked were we, when, on our arrival, we were told with no small amount of certainty that we must put all belongings upstairs otherwise there simply would not be enough room. We should never have doubted: the hall was filled, with 27 sets by my - admittedly rather hurried - count from the balcony in a tactical rest break.  

The programme was energetic and well-received with superb live music. Circles seemed the order of the night - not just with swinging legs and whooping cheers, but with the hands in the air calling for their encores.  

Saturday was knocking by the time we whirled to a stop, after a waltz and a polka to leave the room dizzy: it was time to head back to the hotel (with Duolingo hurriedly completed on the bus - add owl noises in bars 17-24 ad lib.)  

Saturday Classes  

25-28 2c3c chase clockwise halfway round ends of the set, while 1c4c advance diagonally, swinging joined arms into arches and then retire  

29-32 2c3c cross through set into 3plx and 2plx respectively while 1c4c set twice  

Saturday morning properly began as it meant to go on, with a Very Advanced Class under the tutelage of Paris’ Antoine Rousseau. It is rare to come across someone who seems to enjoy warming up as much as he, and his march (complete with swinging arms and what felt a lot like zumba) was a welcome stretch to dispel any leg ache from the previous night. There was plenty of step work, with emphasis on pointy-ness, straight-legged-ness and turned-out-ness of which the already too-tired legs were not the hugest fans.  

33-36 4M dance up  

37-40 4M collect 1L and lead down  

(as they pivot to face up, 1L swaps from RH to LH with 4M. 1M steps in)  

41-44 1M join hands with 1L+4M as in The Triumph, then dance up to 1pl  

45-48 4M collect 4L and they lead down (RHJ) while 1c return to sidelines  

But the mixture of dances was where the classes stood out - a really vibrant and energetic cross-section of what you can do with SCD across both the morning and Antoine’s afternoon class. I especially enjoyed the selection of old dances like the slow jig The Gentle Shepherd and the bouncy Miss Murray of Ochtertyre. Some figures from the older dances seem to have fallen out of fashion with recent devisers, but they can still be enormous fun. For example the stealing of the partners from Doctor Fauster’s Tumblers.  

The music provided by Tim MacDonald was exceptional (a Triumph!) from start to finish and a joy to dance to.  

On Saturday afternoon between classes, I went for an exploration around the city. It was pleasantly easy to ping up and down with all the public transport. It was delightful to see the river, churches and markets whilst we went to have lunch. It did come with the unfortunately strong temptation to resist jumping into the river on what was a gorgeously sunny spring afternoon!  

Saturday’s Ball - delicious beginnings  

49-56: 2c (1c+3c dancing down to follow) dance up NHJ then cast to place  

(3c end on first corner diagonal facing each other)  

Upon returning to Saint-Fons on Saturday night, the hall had been beautifully decorated to the point it was hardly recognisable from the night before. The tables had been laid out for a delicious buffet dinner, which given the number of attendees did inevitably involve a lot of queueing. Oh to be a girl under 20 or a man over 50 who got the shortest wait!  

…And celebratory ends  

57-64: 3c Corners Chase and Turn with 1M+2M  

3c pass RSh | 3c set in 3rd corner position while 2M+1M turn RH; 2M+1M with 3c following pass RSh | 1M+2M set while 3c turn RH to opposite sides (1,3x,2x,4)  

No energy was lost when the ball itself got underway, despite a long programme of dances both well-known and more obscure. Yet more great music from the live band kept the floor full through to the end, when we attempted the reel Fast and Furious (with mixed success).  

Speedy Showers:  

65-68: 2c+3c pass partner RSh to turn 1c/4c easy hand halfway  

(3L+1L and 2M+4M LH and 3M+1M and 2L+4L RH to face each other)  

69-72 1c4c Set to Corners and Partner*  

73-76 1c4c pass the person facing RSh (2) and dance clockwise into top/bottom place, chasing 2c3c who dance in to take their place (2)  

77-80 2c3c Set to Corners and Partner  

*the figure formerly known as Hello-Goodbye Setting :)  

Friday or Saturday’s positively summery temperatures were definitely a difference to/from the Scottish spring I was used to. I lost track of the number of showers I took over the weekend, but what felt like an hourly rota of “who got back first” didn’t wane throughout  

Afterparty:  

81-84: 2c3c dance round the person facing RSh, then 3L+2M cross through set to own sidelines and 2L+3M dance along sidelines to face partner (1,3,2,4)  

85-88: All set and turn BH, opening out into open hold  

(1c+2c facing up, 3c+4c facing down with arms outstretched as in the 1997 Best Picture Titanic)  

Whilst afterparty celebrations (and half of this set) carried on into the night, some of the more introverted - and sleepy - chose to take a well-deserved break (the camp to which I am unashamedly a member). But time waits for no-one and we were jumping back up again, to get to possibly a slightly sleepier breakfast than the day before.  

Secrets are Revealed:  

89-96: Double Circulating Allemande  

1c+2c (from 1pl/3pl) dance Allemande up whilst 3c+4c (2pl/4pl) dance Allemande facing down (2,4,1,3)  

The activity on Sunday had been the source of no small amount of suspense through the week. People in the know were uniformly tight-lipped, and there were few clues to go on apart from the graphics branding and the mysterious coloured dots on our name badges. And it certainly didn’t disappoint: a creative dance-devising workshop based around blockbuster films. It was lovely to dance in mixed groups of people we  

And everyone joined in for De’il Amang the Tailors at the end.  

The End of it all:  

97-104: 2c4c1c3c circle 8H round and back  

A fitting end to what is a celebration of young people in SCD - as John Drewry said: all dances for celebration must end in a circle. It’s also coincidentally the shape of the delicious pizzas which rounded off the day’s activities (I did say there were a lot of circles!)  

Lyon 2026 was an absolute blast - I can’t wait for Oxford in 2027!