Scottish Country Dancing in the Yukon
- seanchaidheangaeli
- Feb 23
- 2 min read
A wee bit of recent history around Scottish Country Dancing in the Yukon:
Since Scots have been in the Yukon as early as the late 1800s, there would probably be some kind of dancing if a piano or a fiddle was in the building. More recently, there has been organized Scottish Country Dancing in Whitehorse since the early 1980s. At that time, there was a Scottish Society, which included pipe band activity, Highland Dancing and Scottish Country Dancing. In the early 1990s, the umbrella Scottish Society was disbanded, and the various Scottish groups each set up their own society.
The purpose of the Scottish Country Dance Society of Whitehorse is to promote and preserve Scottish Country Dance, the culture of Scotland, and encourage healthy physical and social activity. The group has been active since the early 1980s when there was a teacher or leader available. So there have been a few breaks in the past 40 years. Our most recent resurgence of the group came together in 2017.
Since 2017, we have had regular Fall, Winter and Spring dance sessions, which included weekly evening dance classes. In the early 2020s, we started Saturday afternoon classes as well. The idea was to have an option for those who couldn't do evening classes. and have an option for families so they could have a space that would suit bringing along their children.
SCD Whitehorse also organizes public Ceilidh dances once or twice per year. Prior to COVID, we did have a couple of Fall Ceilidhs and a Spring Fling. These events did include other performers such as the Midnight Sun Pipe Band, storyteller -- Al Pope, the Klondike HIghland Dancers and various musicians. In the past 5 years our Ceilidhs have been more simplistic and all about the Scottish Country Dancing. We do get live musicians from time to time and do use recorded music as well. This makes the event very affordable for participants.
Find out more about the origins of Scottish Country Dancing:
Post by: Kat Secord of the Scottish Country Dancing Society
Comments