#scottish country dancing

[reyspacescavenger]

Please enjoy this commentary on Scottish dancing courtesy of a random English officer in the late 18th century:

Things I love about this:

1. Tarantulas?

2. The implication that Scottish ladies are in it for the love of the game (reel), unlike their English counterparts

3. What kind of weirdo thinks that reel music (generally pretty lively!) is liquid laudanum?

[squidcave]

SCOTLAND FOREVER 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

and bonus Scottish Miku after a hard day

[scotianostra]

On January 28th 1908 Jimmy Shand, Scottish country dance band leader was born.

Shand was a musician who played traditional Scottish dance music on the accordion.

Born James Shand in East Wemyss in Fife, son of a farm ploughman turned miner. One of nine children, they soon moved to the burgh of Auchtermuchty.The town is also known as the birthplace of the brothers Charlie and Craig Reid of The Proclaimers and now boasts a larger than life-sized sculpture of Shand. His father was a skilled melodeon player. Jimmy started with the mouth organ and soon played the fiddle. At the age of 14 he had to leave school and go down the mines. He played at social events and competitions. His enthusiasm for motor-bikes turned to an advantage when he played for events all round Fife. In 1926 he did benefit gigs for striking miners and was consequently prevented from returning to colliery work.

One day Jimmy and a friend were admiring the instruments in the window of Forbes' Music Shop in Dundee. His friend said "It wouldn't cost you to try one". Jimmy walked in and strapped on an accordion. The owner heard Jimmy and immediately offered him a job as travelling salesman and debt-collector. He soon acquired a van and drove all over the north of Scotland. He switched to the British chromatic button accordion, an instrument he stuck with for the rest of his life.

Shand failed an audition for the BBC because he kept time with his foot. At a time when gramophones were very much luxury items he made two records for the Regal Zonophone label in 1933. His career took off when he switched to making 78s for the Beltona label between 1935 and 1940. Most of the Beltona recordings were solo, but he experimented with small bands. This boosted sales. He appeared in a promo film shown in cinemas. While the image showed his fingers moving in a blur, Jimmy was disappointed to hear the sound track playing a slow air.

Jimmy was prevented from joining the RAF by a digestive disorder, and spent the war years in the Fire Service. On New Year's morning 1945 he made his first broadcast with "Jimmy Shand and Band". This was the first of many such BBC radio and television appearances.

After the war he became a full-time musician and adopted a punishing life-style later adopted by rock bands. He would play Inverness one night, London the next night and still drive the van back, at breakneck speed, to bed in Dundee.

He took his trademark bald head, Buddy Holly specs and full kilted regalia, Scottish reels, waltzes, jigs and strathspeys to North America, Australia and New Zealand, including Carnegie Hall in New York

In 1972 he went into semi-retirement. From then he played only small venues in out of the way places for a reduced fee. He was made a freeman of Auchtermuchty in 1974, North East Fife in 1980 and Fife in 1998. He became Sir Jimmy Shand in 1999. His portrait is in the Scottish National Gallery, close to Niel Gow.

In 1983 Jimmy released a retrospective album with the cheeky title "The First 50 years". At the age of 88 he recorded an album and video with his son, "Dancing with the Shands".

More than 330 compositions are credited to Jimmy Shand. He recorded more tracks than the Beatles and Elvis Presley combined. In 1985, British Rail named a locomotive Jimmy Shand.

Dissatisfied with the chromatic button-key accordions available on the market in the 1940s so he designed his own one. The Hohner company still manufactures the "Shand Morino" to his specifications.

The statue, as I earlier said is in Auchtermuchty, there is also a memorial in East Wemyss/

How many of you out there remember doing "Strip theWillow" during our school years, or even after at a cèilidh

[bread--quest]

had one of those "moments that could've happened exactly the same 100 years ago" today (took a break from country dancing to cool down by standing in a doorway listening to the rain and making sympathetic noises as a friend told everyone about the hole in her shoe). beautiful thing

[goryhorroor]

masterpost of horror lists

here are all my horror lists in one place to make it easier to find! enjoy!

sub-genres

action horror

analog horror

animal horror

animated horror

anthology horror

aquatic horror

apocalyptic horror

backwoods horror

bubblegum horror

campy horror

cannibal horror

children’s horror

comedy horror

coming-of-age horror

corporate/work place horror

cult horror

dance horror

dark comedy horror

daylight horror

death games

domestic horror

ecological horror

erotic horror

experimental horror

fairytale horror

fantasy horror

folk horror

found footage horror

giallo horror

gothic horror

grief horror

historical horror

holiday horror

home invasion horror

house horror

indie horror

isolation horror

insect horror

lgbtqia+ horror

lovecraftian/cosmic horror

medical horror

meta horror

monster horror

musical horror

mystery horror

mythological horror

neo-monster horror

new french extremity horror

paranormal horror

political horror

psychedelic horror

psychological horror

religious horror

revenge horror

romantic horror

dramatic horror

science fiction horror

slasher

southern gothic horror

sov horror (shot-on-video)

splatter/body horror

survival horror

techno-horror

vampire horror

virus horror

werewolf horror

western horror

witch horror

zombie horror

horror plots/settings

road trip horror

summer camp horror

cave horror

doll horror

cinema horror

cabin horror

clown horror

wilderness horror

asylum horror

small town horror

college horror

plot devices

storm horror

from a child’s perspective

final girl/guy (this is slasher horror trope)

last guy/girl (this is different than final girl/guy)

reality-bending horror

slow burn horror

possession

pregnancy horror

foreign horror or non-american horror

african horror

spanish horror

middle eastern horror

korean horror

japanese horror

british horror

german horror

indian horror

thai horror

irish horror

scottish horror

slavic horror (kinda combined a bunch of countries for this)

chinese horror

french horror

australian horror

canadian horror

decades

silent era

30s horror

40s horror

50s horror

60s horror

70s horror

80s horror

90s horror

2000s horror

2010s horror

2020s horror

companies/services

blumhouse horror

a24 horror

ghosthouse horror

shudder horror

other lists

horror literature to movies

techno-color horror movies

video game to horror movie adaption

video nasties

female directed horror

my 130 favorite horror movies

horror movies critics hated because they’re stupid

horror remakes/sequels that weren’t bad

female villains in horror

horror movies so bad they’re good

non-horror movies that feel like horror movies

directors + their favorite horror movies + directors in the notes

tumblr’s favorite horror movie (based off my poll)

horror movie plot twists

cult classic horror movies

essential underrated horror films

worst horror movie husbands

religious horror that isn’t christianity 

black horror movies

extreme horror (maybe use this as an avoid list)

horror shorts

[the-dreaming-plastic-dinosaur]

Death Eater Partyyy

Internet. I am VERY DISAPPOINTED in you. HOW COULD NONE OF YOU PEOPLE NOTICE THAT THERE IS A MUSIC AND A SCOTTISH DANCE LITTERALY "SLYTHERIN HOUSE"

Now, after grinning madly at my girlfriend, we had the idea of Death Eaters dancing that dance. And the Basilisk. With heart glasses. Because.

Now be affraid.

And, of course, for curious people, here is the music:

[dancemary]

fourth evening: i wore a glitter vest! it made all the difference.

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Ava Max - Torn 2019

"Torn" is a song by American singer Ava Max, released on August 19, 2019, as the third single from her debut studio album, Heaven & Hell (2020). The song was written by Max, Madison Love, James Lavigne, Thomas Eriksen, Sam Martin, and the producer Cirkut. It is a dance and pop song with lyrics describing the internal struggle between wanting to stay and leave in a relationship. An accompanying superhero-themed music video was directed by Korean-American director Joseph Kahn.

In Poland, "Torn" peaked at number three on the Polish Airplay Top 100 chart and was certified double platinum in the country. The song reached number three in the Netherlands, number four in Slovakia, and number nine in Slovenia. On the Scottish Singles Chart, "Torn" bowed at number 18, while it peaked at number 87 on the UK Singles Chart. "Torn" was certified gold in Austria, Brazil, France, Italy, and Switzerland.

"Torn" received a total of 58,4% yes votes.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Word List: Dance

for your next poem/story

Allemande - a 17th and 18th century court dance developed in France from a German folk dance; a dance step with arms interlaced

Beguine - a vigorous popular dance of the islands of Saint Lucia and Martinique that somewhat resembles the rumba

Bourrée - a 17th century French dance usually in quick duple time

Cabriole - a ballet leap in which one leg is extended in midair and the other struck against it

Chaconne - an old Spanish dance tune of Latin American origin

Czardas - a Hungarian dance to music in duple time in which the dancers start slowly and finish with a rapid whirl

Estampie - a usually textless, monophonic musical work of the late Middle Ages consisting of several repeated units that probably accompanied a dance

Farandole - a lively Provençal dance in which men and women hold hands, form a chain, and follow a leader through a serpentine course

Gavotte - a dance of French peasant origin marked by the raising rather than sliding of the feet

Hora - a circle dance

Juba - a dance that was accompanied by complex rhythmic hand clapping and slapping of the knees and thighs and that was performed on plantations in the southern U.S. by enslaved Black people

Kolo - a central European folk dance in which dancers form a circle and progress slowly to right or left while one or more dancers perform elaborate steps in the center

Lavolta - an early French couple dance characterized by pivoting and making high springs or bounds

Matachin - a dance performed by a matachin (i.e., a sword dancer in a fantastic costume)

Maxixe - a ballroom dance of Brazilian origin that resembles the two-step

Mazurka - a Polish folk dance in moderate triple measure

Passacaglia - an old dance performed to a passacaglia (i.e., an old Italian or Spanish dance tune consisting of variations usually on a ground bass in moderately slow triple time)

Pavane - a stately court dance by couples that was introduced from southern Europe into England in the 16th century

Quadrille - a square dance for four couples made up of five or six figures chiefly in ⁶/₈ and ²/₄ time

Rigadoon - a lively dance of the 17th and 18th centuries

Saltarello - an Italian dance with a lively hop step beginning each measure

Strathspey - a Scottish dance that is similar to but slower than the reel

Tarantella - a lively folk dance of southern Italy in ⁶/₈ time

Varsovienne - a graceful dance similar to a mazurka and popular in many European countries, Mexico, and the U.S.

Zamacueca - a South American especially Chilean courtship dance

More: Word Lists

[olderthannetfic]

Re the Harry Potter wank, and people thinking that fanworks promote the creator's transphobia.

I do Scottish Country Dancing. It's an old traditional dance form, but not a dead one and new dances are devised all the time. On any given night, we might do a dance from the 1700s followed by one that was made up last year.

Most of the group are older women and the group leans left politically. They're the kind of people who don't know what transphobia is, but support trans people when they encounter them. They're the folks who say things like "My sister's kid says he's nonbinary, so I guess he isn't my nephew, but he's not my niece either. I don't get, but he's so much happier now and I'm glad for him. Oh! I just remember they like to be called "they"!" (paraphrased from an actual conversation)

So the other night we did dance called Slytherin House. It was devised in 2016 and has been in our archives ever since. It's a fanwork, though whoever made it up might not think of it in those terms.

When the dance group leader said what dance we were doing next, someone asked if that was a place, and someone else goes "no, it's from those Harry Potter books", and someone else explained that connection with snakes and how the dance figures look like the symbol from the story.

And that was that. No political discussion, no transphobic dogwhistles, not a peep about who the author was or what she's getting up to on Twitter. Just "hey neat, it's snakey".

People on Social Media might use Harry Potter as a shorthand for displaying their stance on the author's bigotry, but in real life it's just some fun kid's book and has absolutely nothing to do with JKR and her twitter account and the human dignity of trans women.

--

[styusha-10]

"I would have given everything to be with you. For some endless minutes I considered whether I should rush after you, into that furious, roaring abyss, in the hope of reuniting with you in the afterlife, but in the end I abandoned the idea. I have always compared you to a falcon in my mind, for your keen gaze and the bird-like tilt of your head when you are interested, for your almost predatory habits when it comes to chasing criminals, and in those minutes I prayed that you would be one, that you would rise from the bottom of the Reichenbach Falls and soar over the abyss that buried your sworn enemy.

Somewhere in the depths of my soul still glimmered the hope that you were alive; that I, not being your most gifted student, had missed something in my reasoning, and that you would meet me with open arms and a sincere smile at the doorsteps of our hotel.

I waited there for two days.

Finally, when the owner began to look at me with pity bordering on fear for my mental health, I packed my things, paid for both of our rooms and went back to England.

Three years have passed, Holmes, and I still dream of mountains. On other nights, when a merciful Providence grants me peace, I simply fly — over the jungles of India and the pastoral plains of England, the wild Scottish moors and the green hills of France. But in the end I almost always find myself in the Swiss foothills of the Alps. The cold wind beats on my chest, and I feel an unprecedented freedom, and I want to dance endlessly with the winds, but my unusually sharp eyesight always unerringly finds that same ill-fated waterfall in which I once buried you, my dear friend. I descend and descend until I am directly above the crevasse. Then, folding my wings, I throw myself down like a stone — and always wake up before I have time to reach the bottom.

Every morning the rarefied air and the pure smell of the mountains freeze in my lungs, which cannot be confused with anything, and my hair is tousled more than usual, as if by gusts of a furious and biting wind. And every morning I almost believe that I have rescued you from that distant mountain country, that my prayers were answered, that now the door of my bedroom will open, and a familiar silhouette will appear on the threshold...

But every day I leave the house, and nothing changes, and I force myself to forget — until the next night..."

…Dr. Watson will put the letter aside, ashamed of his own sentimentality, but will not crumple it up and throw it in the wastepaper basket, and will simply stuff it into the far drawer of the table, and will soon completely forget about it, being by nature a person not prone to excessive fantasies. He will firmly decide to move somewhere where everything will not be such a painful reminder of his dear friend.

And naturally, he will not notice how the next morning this letter will migrate to a stack of papers in a filing cabinet along with a falcon feather that appeared out of nowhere. And at the very bottom of the paper will be a black three-fingered trace — like a signature, like a promise.

It was heavily inspired by a song called Korolevna (it means Princess) by Melnitsa. And though I think it can't be translated without inevitable loss of it's beauty, I found a video for you with English subtitles (turn it on) and please watch it, it is beautiful and basically has it's own fandom.

English is not my first language, so any corrections are more than welcome! I hastily translated it from my mother tongue, because it has been sitting in my notes since November, and though it is misty and autumny, I wanted to finally set it free.

[woso-scotland]

Sam's got the Bayern girls doing scottish country dancing now 😂

They're actually pretty good for their first attempt

[scotianostra]

IT'S A PURE DEAD GIVE-AWAY THAT YOU'RE SCOTTISH IF :-

1. You consider scattered showers with outbreaks of sunshine 🌞 as good weather.

2. The only sausage you like is square.

3. You were forced to do Scottish country dancing 🕺🏻

every year at secondary school.

4. You have a wide vocabulary of Scottish words such as numpty, aye, aye right, auldyin, baltic...

5. You destroyed your teeth when you were young using Buchanan's toffee, Wham bars, Penny Dainties, MB Bars, Cola Cubes etc

6. You have an enormous feeling of dread whenever Scotland play a 'numpty' team like the Faroe Islands.

7. You happily engage in a conversation about the weather with someone you've never met before.

8. Even if you normally hate the Proclaimers, Runrig, Caledonia , Deacon Blue and Big Country, you still love it when you're in a club abroad and they play something Scottish.

9. You used to watch Glen Michael's Cavalcade on a Sunday afternoon with his side kick Lamp Paladin.

10. You got Oor Wullie and The Broons annuals at Xmas.

11. You can tell where another Scot is from by their accent - "Awright, pal, gonnae gies a wee swatch oa yur Sun ? Cheers, magic pal." Or "Fit ya bin up tae ? Fair few quines in the nicht, eh ?", etc

12. You see cops and hear someone shout 'Errapolis'.

13. You have participated in or watched people having a 'square go'.

14. You know that when someone asks you what school you went to they only want to know if you are catholic or protestant.

15. You have eaten lots and lots of random Scottish food like mince 'n tatties, Tunnock's Caramel Logs, oat cakes, haggis, Cullen skink, Lees Macaroon Bars, etc.

16. A jakey has asked you for money.

17. You think nothing of waiting expectantly for your 1p change from a shop keeper.

18. You know the right response to 'Ye dancing ?' is 'Y'askin?' followed by 'Ahm askin' and finally 'Then ahm dancin'. 💃

19. Whenever you see sawdust it reminds you of pools of vomit as that's what the jannies used to chuck on it at school.

20. You lose all respect for a groom 🤵 who doesn't wear a kilt.

21. You don't do 🛒 shopping ... you 'go the messages'.

22. You're sitting on the train 🚂 or bus and a 😵 drunk man sits next to you telling you a joke - and asking 'Ahm no annoying ye ahm a?' and you respond 'Naw, not at a', yer fine. This is ma stoap, but'. 🛑

23. You can have an entire phone 📞 conversation using only the words 'awright', 'aye' and 'naw'.

24. You have experienced peer pressure to have an alcoholic drink 🍷 when out - regardless of the circumstances.

25. You know that ye cannae fling yer pieces 🍞 oot a 20 storey flat, and that seven hundred hungry weans'll testify tae that. Furthermore you're sure that if it's butter, 🧀 cheese or jeely, or if the breid is plain or pan, the odds against it reaching earth are 99 tae wan.

26. You know that going to a party 🥳 at a friend's house involves bringing your own drink.

27. Your holiday abroad is ruined if you hear there is a heatwave in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 while you're away.

28. Your national team goes 2-0 up again the Czechs in a qualifier in Prague and your mate says we'll end up losing 3-2 here and you think "Probably". ⚽️

29. You can properly pronounce McConnochie, Ecclefechan, Milngavie, and Auchtermuchty.

30. Your favourite pizza is deep fried and battered from the chippy.

31. You're used to 4 💨 ☔️ ☀️ ❄️ seasons in one day.

32. You can't pass a chip shop or kebab shop, without drooling, when your 🥴 drunk.

33. You can fall about 😵 drunk without spilling your drink.

34. You measure distance in minutes.

35. You can understand Rab C Nesbitt and know characters just like them in your own family.

36. You go to Saltcoats because you think it's like being at the ocean.

🌊

37. You can make a whole sentence out of just swear words.

38. You know what haggis is made with and still eat it.

39. Somebody you know used a football 🥅 schedule to plan their 💒 day date.

40. You've been at a 👰 🎩 wedding where the footie results were read out.

41. You aren't surprised to find curries, pizzas 🍕 kebabs, Irn Bru, nappies and fags all for sale in one shop.

42. Your seaside holiday home has Calor ⛽️ gas under it.

43. You know that Irn Bru is an infallible hangover 😵 cure.

44. You understand all the above and are going to send it to your pals.

45. and, finally, you are 100 per cent Scottish if you have ever used these terms - "How's it hingin'?", "clatty", "boggin", "cludgie", "dreich", "bampot", and "dubble nugget"..

😂🕺🏻🥳

[mascula-sappho]

Dances I think the Noldor would have:

valle (Albania)

traditional Georgian dance except everyone dances the "mens" part

tarantella calabrese

Scottish country dancing

Polka

Dances I think the Sindar would have:

Irish dancing

Waltz

Polka

traditional Greek dancing

[lisbetadair]

New Fic: Birl

Summary: It’s Burns Night, so Soap gets in on promoting cross-border cooperation through the medium of haggis and Scottish country dancing, but it’s all a bit too much for Ghost.

Tags: Men in kilts, camp Scottish nonsense, haggic, ceildh dancing, Burns Night, Platonic Relationships

Rating: T+

Read it here

[dancemary]

third evening: got new shoes, feels like happy tapping along with the others. no happy coordinating my limbs though. brain says what?!