On May 8-10, 2026, the Boston Branch celebrated its 75th Highland Ball Weekend. Our Branch holds the distinction of being the first overseas Branch of the RSCDS!
At Friday’s welcome dance, a full hall enjoyed music by Terry Traub, piano; his daughter, Malke Traub-Pomerantz, fiddle; Sammy Wetstein, cello; and their friends. Charles Liu created and MC’d the program.
On Sunday, we enjoyed a brunch and dancing in the garden led by Susie Long with music led by Dirk Teide.
At the Ball itself, we had a memory wall of photos, Ball Booklets from the past, and printed reminiscences. Cake and champagne followed a heartfelt toast to our Founding Mothers composed by Branch President, Linda McJannet. In honor of our Diamond Anniversary, sparkles were the theme of the night!
The floor was full of happy dancers right up to the last note. The Buchan Eightsome and Highland Schottische took us back to Ball programs from the 1950s. Many of the dances and their tunes, were written by or honored the teachers and musicians who helped to build our community. MCs Beth Birdsall, Lois New, and Kat Dutton briefed the dances clearly and easily using positional/directional terms. During the intermission, dancers from seven different Boston Branch classes performed “Toot Suite,” Jen Schoonover’s charming and ingenious piece created for the North American Scottish Dance Festival in Philadelphia.
To power all of those feet doing all of those steps, Susie and Tom invited our talented branch musicians to form the Boston Branch 75th Anniversary Big Band. Eighteen musicians who play for our weekly classes, monthly social dances, summer schools (including Pinewoods), and other events nationally and internationally, answered the call.
A quartet led by Tom Pixton on accordion played for the first set of dances. Susie Petrov on piano brought in three more fiddlers, cello, and bagpipes for the second set. (In the words of a young dancer, “It’s not a ball if you don’t dance to bagpipes!”) The final set welcomed everyone to the stage, adding more fiddles, flute, concertina, guitar, and bass. (See photos and captions for the full roster of musicians.)
When they weren’t playing, the musicians were on the floor dancing, which is not surprising: all but a very few SCD musicians in North America who play at a professional standard discovered the music by first finding a dance group. At the end of this year’s ball, there were 10 sets of dancers on the floor and 2 more playing in the band on stage! In large part owing to the influence of Barbara and Robert McOwen, twenty years ago the Branch and especially the Cambridge Class, committed to developing SCD musicians as well as dancers and teachers. We will be happy to share our tips for nurturing musicians! As the late teacher Ed Rawson observed, “It’s more fun to turn and clap to your friends on stage rather than to a machine!”
Many thanks to the hard work of Ball Chairs Emily Peterson and Dirk Teide and the many volunteers who helped them. Thanks also to everyone who came, especially newer members and those from distant places, such as Chicago, IL, Albany, NY, Fairlee, VT, Nashua, NH, and Belfast, ME. Here’s to the next 75 years of dancing with the Boston Branch!
