Welcome to our Archive from 2021, here you will find a collection of pictures, videos, articles and other dance media.
Cupar group
After 12 happy years of teaching Circle dance at Cupar and St Andrews, I am so thankful to all the many dancers who have danced with me during this time.
We have shared many happy mornings at Cupar’s Old Parish Centre, and at The Boys Brigade Hall in St Andrews.
I have lovely memories of you all, which I will never forget, as they always make me smile.
Love to you all, Rose xx
Contact: Rose Cross, Tel: 01334 657896, Email: Rose
November 2021 – Remembrance Day
June 2021 – Virtual St Andrews
Every cloud has a silver lining
Mid-June usually sees a group of 25-30 dancers arriving at St. Andrews University for a weekend of circle dancing led by a visiting teacher.
Lilly Sell, a prolific choreographer and experienced dance teacher was preparing to lead the group, but when the weekend was cancelled, immediately offered to hold a dance session via zoom.
What a wonderful afternoon, dancing together in various parts of the country; some outside, whilst others found space in kitchens, etc.
We enjoyed a variety of dances; from the lively “Summertime Blues” (Eddie Cochrane), and Queen’s “Crazy little thing called love” to the powerful “The Distance Between”.
Feedback from the afternoon was very positive, with many lovely special comments about Lilly’s choice of dances. Appreciation was given to Vern (Lilly’s husband) and Jenny Collins for working on the technical side of things.
The Committee have invited Lilly to lead us in 2022 at St. Andrews, so please look out for more information. Fingers crossed it goes ahead.
Lynne Barlow
Thanks for the steps and for yesterday. It was good to see you and have your lovely clear teaching. I have learnt an enormous amount from dancing with you especially the regular videos during lockdown. My own teaching has improved, I think, and has become more graceful from watching you and Lesley!! […]. Thanks again Lilly.
Bridget xx
that was great… thank you so much.
I can feel a few new ones will be joining my repertoire – definitely the aboriginal one, Raven Moon and a Funny Little thing.
Some are already firm favourites. […]
Love Miggy x
February 2021 – Mandy de Winter
We at CSCD (Central Scotland Circle Dance) knew Mandy de Winter very well. Every year in June at Summer Solstice, Mandy came to St Andrews in Scotland, to run a residential dance weekend for us. She did this every year from 2004 – 2017.
Mandy’s summer weekends were a much loved event, always fully booked and much anticipated by her devoted followers.
Mandy delighted us with her mix of traditional and choreographed dances, and her wonderful teaching, but perhaps more importantly, her enormous sense of fun and her love of the dance that emanated with her every step.
A message from Judy King:
Mandy sadly died in 2018, but for thirty years she was a leading light in the world of Circle Dance. In addition to her regular groups, she led workshops and holidays in the UK, and throughout the world. She had regular trips to Greece, Germany, Holland and Brazil, as well as teaching in Australia, Canada and USA.
She was known not just as a dance teacher, but also as an accomplished and versatile musician with a talent for enabling others to sing and play.
Happy teaching traditional dances and modern choreographies, she was known for her knowledge of and skill for teaching dances from The Balkans. She also introduced many a dancer to the irregular and interesting rhythms so common in that part of the world.
Mandy’s love for Balkan music and dance led her to develop a course called Exploring Balkan Rhythms and Dance (Dum Dum Diddily Dum Dum). This course provided participants with a detailed introduction to the varied and often irregular rhythms so common throughout the region.
To accompany the course, she produced teaching DVDs in which she demonstrates a range of Balkan dances. Not only explaining, for instance, the difference between a Makedonsko and a Râčenica in 7/8 metre, but also showing how to teach the dance.
These DVDs represent an extraordinary body of work which was originally only available to course participants. This is now available to everybody in the form of DVDs or as downloads of individual dances.
Each DVD comes complete with a CD of music and booklet giving the dance notation and notes about the dances. Downloads include the video clip, the MP3 music track (sometimes more than one) together with the dance notation and notes.
Below is a sample video clip you can download for free. Visit Judy’s website for details of DVDs and downloads of Mandy’s course. Every penny raised from dance video sales will be donated to Shropshire’s Severn Hospice, where Mandy spent her final days.
January 2021 – An Invitation, by Rose Cross
An email dropped into my inbox from Rosa about the Spring Grapevine. “Might you be willing to submit an article, a story, a poem, a letter, a photo, a memory, your hopes and fears for the network?” Thank you Rosa, what a wonderful invitation and so I had this ‘crazy idea’ to cover them all.
Let’s start with an article, which I guess this is, so that’s the first box ticked. As a child, I was always encouraged to write thank you letters for my Christmas presents. Father Christmas gave me a SAD lamp this year. I think it ought to be marketed with a better name, because it doesn’t make you sad at all, it does just the opposite. I have basked under its glow at my desk and it is beaming down on me as I write. It is amazingly close to feeling like sitting in the light of the sun.
A story
My dictionary gives the definition of a story, as a narrative, either true or fictitious, in prose or verse, designed to interest, amuse, or instruct the hearer or reader.
So dear reader, I will tell you the story of what has kept me going during this pandemic. I’ve never been one to exercise at home but give me some music, and I’m up dancing immediately. So, during the pandemic, I shared my love of dancing with anyone who wanted to dance, and found companionship. We’ve chatted via our WhatsApp group and by emails. We’ve shared photos, funny video clips, favourite music, our ups and downs, and so much more.
We have been dancing together since March 2020, using videos on our Scottish CSCD website. We are also proud of our dance libraries and are indebted to those who contribute their choreographies and videos. In addition, we are hugely indebted to Jenny Collins, our amazing webmaster, who has made this possible.
A poem
I am now looking through my book of favourite poems, but for the moment, I have a couple of uplifting quotes to share with you, sent to me by Lucy, my 22 year old scientist grand-daughter:
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”
Marie Curie
“Above all don’t fear difficult moments. The best comes from them”
Rita Levi-Montalcini winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Medicine
Both of these quotes seem very poignant in these current times.
A letter
Looking through my book of poems just now, I found a letter inside from my lovely Mum, who died 20 years ago. Just an ordinary everyday letter, as she would often write to me. This one was about her Sunday, but reading it, the years dropped away and it felt as fresh and new as if written yesterday. My first thought was to write a reply, as I used to do, but then I remembered …… aargh, sadly not. So, if you have someone special who has written to you today, then seize the moment, and write a reply straight away whilst you have the chance.
A photo
I am sharing with you a photo of a painting I received as a Christmas present from my sister (Hazel Rutter).
Hazel’s painting is of the last rose still flowering in her garden in October last year.
The rose looks so full of petals and the green leaves are looking as fresh as if picked in summer.
A memory
Where do I begin? Cue for a song there I think. So many memories to choose from but as this is an article for Grapevine, then one about circle dancing would be best. My abiding memory is of my very first time of dancing in a circle in 2001. It was with Lilly Sell at her weekly gathering in Benson, Oxfordshire. Just an ordinary evening class for Lilly and her dancers but for me the moment was magical and life-changing. From that very first class I knew this dancing was what I wanted to do, where I wanted to be, where I belonged. At the end of the class, the lights were turned out and we gathered into a hug-hold around the centrepiece, a first for me. I was transported into the joy of this deep sharing with others; we looked into the glow of the candle light, we said a closing mantra together, we were ‘as one’.
My hopes and fears for the network
Well, I am an eternal optimist, so I have no fears, only hopes. My hope, and this probably applies to most of you, is that we shall see a return to Circle Dancing as we remember it, holding hands in a circle and feeling a closeness with those sharing the music and the same steps. I firmly believe it will happen. It might take longer than we imagined back in March 2020, it might even take another year according to some scientists. But ‘while there’s life, there is hope’(Stephen Hawking), and I feel that hope is the way forward.
And just to complete my ‘crazy idea’, here’s a poem:
Until we meet again by Andy Walker
Keep well and strong each day my friend
Until we meet again
You’re in my prayers each day my friend
Until we meet again
For health and peace each day my friend
Until we meet again
