The Royal Scottish Country Dance Society (RSCDS), was founded on 28 November 1923 as the Scottish Country Dance Society by Jean Milligan and Ysobel Stewart of

Fasnacloich Fasnacloich is a historic country estate in Harrisville, New Hampshire. Built in 1911 and expanded in 1916–17, the estate is one of the most sophisticated and elaborate summer estates built in the Harrisville-Dublin area during its heyday as a ...

, who wanted to preserve

country dancing A country dance is any of a very large number of social dances of a type that originated in the British Isles; it is the repeated execution of a predefined sequence of figures, carefully designed to fit a fixed length of music, performed by a g ...

as performed in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, country dancing having fallen into disuse after the influx of continental ballroom dances such as the

waltz The waltz ( ), meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, normally in triple ( time), performed primarily in closed position. History There are many references to a sliding or gliding dance that would evolve into the wa ...

quadrille The quadrille is a dance that was fashionable in late 18th- and 19th-century Europe and its colonies. The quadrille consists of a chain of four to six '' contredanses''. Latterly the quadrille was frequently danced to a medley of opera melodie ...

s and, later on, American-style dances like the One-step or

foxtrot The foxtrot is a smooth, progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band (usually vocal) music. The dance is similar in its look to waltz, although the rhythm is in a tim ...

. (The SCDS did not become the RSCDS until 1951.) The RSCDS collected dances from living memory as well as from old (17-19c.) manuscripts and republished them in a series of books. Most of these dances needed some interpretation, and the dance style itself underwent serious standardisation, becoming much more balletic instead of the easy-going style that was the norm in the early 20th century, and which the RSCDS's founders considered sloppy and untraditional. After some argument, in the late 1940s the RSCDS also started publishing newly devised dances. Today the RSCDS numbers some 11.000 members all over the world, served from the headquarters in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, and the continuous well-being of the

Scottish country dance Scottish country dance (SCD) is the distinctively Scottish form of country dance, itself a form of social dance involving groups of couples of dancers tracing progressive patterns. A dance consists of a sequence of figures. These dances are ...

scene is largely due to the efforts of the Society. The RSCDS offers teacher training and holds an annual summer school in

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

for four weeks in July and August. In addition to the annual summer school, the RSCDS offers a winter school in February and a youth orientated Spring Fling in April, which is held in the UK and Europe respectively.

References

External links

Official websiteUniversity of St Andrews Celtic Society

References

External links

See also