NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE AND DISTRICT RSCDS

Pauline Rice 1945 – 2008 (Photograph by Donald Barr-Wells)

Dancing at the Sage - March 2008

DECEMBER DANCE - THE EXPERIENCE OF A FIRST TIMER

It was a cold and windy night and the rain was hammering down as I was waiting for my lift to arrive. I was quite nervous – it was one thing practising the various reels and strathspeys in the comfort of my friendly class each Wednesday evening, but quite another at my first dance!

The hall was beautiful – huge ceiling and grand pillars. I was glad to see a few friendly faces from my class and we all chatted as we changed our shoes and got ready. The live band started. The first dance was called. I took my partner’s hand and I nervously joined the long line of dancers… my heart lifted and I danced! Once the first few steps were over, my nerves evaporated and I spent the next four hours thoroughly enjoying myself. It was especially good to dance to such a fantastic band - how can you possibly sit still when they play wonderful, lively music?

With sore feet and tired legs, we wrapped up to face the weather, said our goodbyes, and my first dance was over. I’d had a wonderful evening and was so grateful to all the kind people who kept me right and encouraged me in the more difficult dances.

Jane Curtis (Hexham class)

JANUARY DANCE - FROM A VISITOR

Jubilee Jig! A wave of relief swept across me as I saw that the first dance was a little familiar to me. This relief was soon reduced to panic as I carried on reading the rest of the programme for the 4th January dance at Ponteland. However, as so often happens at these dances I was rarely left sitting watching, and spent the evening being guided, pointed at, called to and basically being pushed around the dance floor, and what a wonderful time I had! I don’t think I upset too many people in the sets, on the contrary, everyone was very helpful and willing to push! The kind comments of support and encouragement helped to control the look of panic on my face as I saw someone approaching for the next dance. Fortunately, there were a couple a dances that no-one dared brave with me so I got the chance to enjoy the great live music. The cup of tea and chocolate biscuit were also very welcome.

I would just like to say thank you for what turned out to be a great programme and to all of you who helped to make it such an enjoyable evening for a willing novice! Elspeth Malcolm (living in Spain)

DAY SCHOOL - WESTFIELD SCHOOL

Pam Scott writes –

I would like to say how much I enjoyed the Day School this year in its new venue of Westfield School.

In the morning I attended Eric Finlay’s class where we learned about listening to the music and how it can help, and sometimes hinder, our dancing. I particularly enjoyed the exercise when we listened to a 32 bar tune played by the pianist, then had to decide what figures to dance to it. Our group managed to do the last 16 bars of the dance exactly as the original was written, much to our surprise and amusement, but it was also very interesting to see what the other groups did.

In the afternoon I enjoyed being taught by Helen Russell who showed us how to make smooth transitions between figures, while listening to the music. Again this was a very interesting and informative session and the music made me want to dance, even when my feet were tired.

Both teachers were easy to understand and patient when we got things wrong. I learned some very nice dances and met some more new dancing friends. What better way to spend a Saturday! Well done to everyone who worked so hard to make the day run so smoothly.

NEWCASTLE FESTIVAL - EMMANUEL COLLEGE, GATESHEAD

The 24th Newcastle Festival of Scottish Country Dancing took place on 23rd February 2008 and Emmanuel College, Gateshead, became a hive of activity. A host of willing helpers from the Newcastle and District Branch of the RSCDS had offered their services to ensure that the event ran smoothly. Some had been making preparations for many months, but most arrived early on the day to move furniture, set out refreshments, organise guests’ changing rooms, prepare the stage for adjudicators and scribes, accommodate musicians, check on sound equipment and generally attend to the many needs of the competitors and visitors who would soon be arriving.

This year’s festival produced the greatest number of entries to date: 9 Ladies’ Open teams, 14 Mixed Open teams, including an international team and 5 Under16 teams.

Peter Clark and Graham Donald were adjudicators once again and they received a very warm welcome. Peter Quince was Master of Ceremonies and it was a great pleasure to have him back in the UK for the occasion.

After a warm-up dance for all, the competitive dancing began at 11.10 am, and continued until late in the day. Participating teams received constructive criticism from the adjudicators before the winners were awarded their trophies and medals to applause from an appreciative audience. One vice-president declared that the highest-ever standard of dancing had been demonstrated during this festival. You can judge this for yourself. Malcolm Brown (York) has produced a video of the festival, price £10, which is available by contacting him direct.

Class 3, Under 16s, is always a captivating part of the programme. It is good to see young people happily demonstrating their enjoyment of dance and showing such promise for the future. Congratulations to Terry Chater and Darlington Junior SCD for winning the Chris Blair trophy. Terry is a faithful supporter of the festival, having entered a team for 23 of the 24 years of its existence.

At the end of the day, in a welcome release of tension, everyone settled back to enjoy the displays presented by eight of the competing teams. Everyone, that is, but the adjudicators, who had the most difficult task of deciding upon the winning performance! The accolade went to Corryvrechan for their fast-moving and colourful display.

A variety of musicians provided splendid music throughout the day but special thanks are due to Robert Whitehead, the official festival accompanist, whose friendly support and vibrant music is always greatly appreciated by the Branch.

After a delicious meal provided for all helpers by hard-working volunteers, it was on with the dancing! David Cunningham’s Band had arrived to play for the evening dance and more than 260 enthusiastic dancers soon filled the hall. A varied programme, with several encores, brilliant music and a repeat of Corryvrechan’s earlier display ensured a fantastic atmosphere.

As midnight approached, this year’s festival drew to an exuberant close. The chairman, Peter Avery, thanked everyone for their contribution to the success of the day and announced the date of next year’s festival: 14th February 2009. He added that this would be the silver anniversary of a very special event and certain to be celebrated in style.

Finally, no account of the festival would be complete without acknowledging the enormous debt of gratitude owed to John and Patricia Cass, whose commitment and attention to detail ensure that nothing is overlooked. Meticulous planning over many months results in an annual festival that has grown from small, local beginnings to the eagerly anticipated and important national event that it is today. Sincere thanks to them both for all their hard work.

Christine Belcher

THE FESTIVAL FROM A YOUNG COMPETITOR

On Saturday 23rd February 2008, Hexham Abbey Dancers competed in the 24th Annual Newcastle Festival of Scottish Dancing at Emmanuel College, Gateshead. There were many different classes in the festival, from age 8 to adult. In our class (under 16’s) there were 5 teams competing. Some had travelled to Gateshead from as far away as Dumfries, Scotland.

When the Hexham Abbey Dancers arrived at the venue, immediately we began rehearsing and perfecting our dances. We watched some of the other teams dancing and they looked perfect. Moments before the Under 16’s age group competition got underway, we began to feel very nervous. Nobody wanted to get the dances wrong and let the team down. Eleanor Valentine entertained us by dancing with our lucky mascot - a teddy bear dressed in Hexham Abbey’s uniform made by Amy McKeever.

At 4 p.m. we were called into the main hall, where the festival was taking place. Hexham Abbey Dancers were the third team to dance. We were certainly different to the other teams! The other teams wore traditional Scottish dresses and sashes. We wore black t-shirts and kilts! (Much more modern and fashionable in our opinion!) Also, the youngest member of our team was 8 years old! The members in the other teams seemed much older.

When it was our turn to perform, we all danced to the best of our ability. We performed Miss Gibson’s Strathspey which was a beautiful dance to amazing music, but includes some very fiddly moves. Our second dance, The Reel of the Royal Scots, is a very fun but fast dance. Although we had done well, we felt that the other teams had danced much better than us.

After all the displays were completed, the adjudicator gave feedback on each dance team. When commenting on the Hexham Abbey Dancers performance, he noted that we smiled throughout the reel and strathspey and he felt that we thoroughly enjoyed dancing. Finally, the adjudicator announced the results. We were surprised to find that we had come 3rd. Eleanor and Amy rushed up to collect the rewards. Lockvale SCD achieved 2nd place and Darlington Junior SCD won 1st place. The adjudicator accidently gave Hexham the cup instead of Darlington, the winners! Carol Sanderson made us reluctantly hand the cup to Darlington the rightful owners.

On behalf of the Hexham Abbey Dancers, Lucinda Air, Bethany Chamberlain, Amy McKeever, Eleanor Valentine, Emily Hardy, Jo Rann and Kathryn Walker, I would like to thank Carol Sanderson for all her hard work in training us and encouraging us to participate in the Festival. This has been both an enjoyable and learning experience. Hopefully we will return to Hexham with the cup next year.

Beth Veitch, Age 12

AFTERNOON WORKSHOP AND DANCE – 15th MARCH

Under the keen eye and expert instruction of Maureen Haynes, sixty of us learnt and practised the finer points of dances either written by or particularly enjoyed by her husband. Considering the recent weather it was very apt that we did "Gaelforce Wind".

Luckily, "Where the Snowflake Reposes" wasn't on the programme. We also learnt how to count in Cumbrian dialect, "Yan Tan Tethera" and how to trace the shape of a shield's markings in "The Clansman". Maureen's explanations were given with obvious and infectious enthusiasm. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and paid fitting tribute to "The Inimitable Derek". On behalf of everybody, many thanks Maureen.

Jill Ramsay

CONTD/

It was my privilege to organise the special workshop and dance in tribute to Derek Haynes. The event was very well supported by Branch members and other dancers

from around the area, and also by others from as far afield as Glasgow, Lancaster and Sutton Coldfield. The evening dance, even though a little crowded, was a very lively affair with some great music from Nicol McLaren and the Glencraig Scottish Dance Band. A very big thank you to Maureen who was a pleasure to work with both before and during the event and also to all who took part or contributed in any way. Everyone I asked offered their assistance most willingly, helping to make the day so successful.

Marion Luscombe

In a thank you card Maureen writes

“I felt it was a really good gathering of friends, old and new, with a lovely atmosphere the whole day. I thoroughly enjoyed it”.

BRINKBURN – 12th APRIL

It didn’t take us long to be caught up in the warm, friendly atmosphere of the Brinkburn dance. The company, the music by Ian Thompson and the programme devised by Jean Wright were most enjoyable. As Brenda Burnell writes in the latest RSCDS magazine, in Roy Goldring’s obituary, “His dances are great to dance – not too complicated but always with some new formation and extremely danceable”.

For a lovely evening, I shall say: “Ta! Jean, to you, to your team of helpers and to the band. You gave us a canny neet oot!”

Madeleine Quince

PS Pardon me French…

DANCING AWAY

A series of articles on dancing events in other parts of the country or world. We hope to include some of the enjoyable dance experiences Branch members have had elsewhere in Britain (or indeed, The World). We start off with Alison Hiller “Dancing down Under”, but where we go to next depends on you, our members, sending in your own brief reports (200 words at the most).

DANCING DOWN UNDER

Getting ready to leave on our retirement trip last October, we checked our tickets and packed our cases, not forgetting, of course, our dancing shoes.

After a brief visit to Japan we flew to New Zealand where we knew, via the internet, of at least one Scottish dancing class that had not yet finished for the season. So, one lovely sunny afternoon we drove down the Coromandel coast to a little town called Whitianga.

Having found the Town hall, we introduced ourselves to the group and asked if we could join in the dancing. We could not have been made more welcome. Here was an RSCDS class similar to many in our region - middle-aged people enjoying dancing, with the teacher putting them through their paces ready for their local Branch Dance the following weekend.

We thoroughly enjoyed learning some new dances and chatting over a cup of tea and cake at the end of the evening. Many of them said they would try and find a class when they next visited England, so we told them the Northeast was the place to come to.

Although this was the only Scottish dancing we found on our travels, it was by no means our only chance to experience dancing. A few days later I had the opportunity to try Poi dancing at a Maori gathering. This involved swinging a straw ball on the end of a string to music! Chris, however, declined the offer of taking part in a “Haka”.

Later in Fiji, we were entertained by several groups of islanders, ranging from older women sitting singing on the grass to young girls dancing, wearing grass skirts and floral crowns. But like here, the villagers were trying to ensure that traditional dance would not be lost. So they were also encouraging the teenage girls to do traditional dance movements to pop music and letting boys do more masculine dance routines, as if they were greeting Captain Cook, brandishing spears.

Later we watched teenage boys at a school on an island that had no electricity, dance to a battery-operated cassette player and at the end of our holiday we watched the supple hand movements of Classical Thai dancers.

When we started our trip we had not realised what a variety of dance we would encounter – from ballet at the Sydney Opera House to Maori, Fijian and Thai traditional dance, but of course the Scottish dancing was the best!

Alison Hiller

YOUTH DEMONSTRATION TEAM

The Society is holding a Workshop for Advanced Dancers at Queen Elizabeth High School, Hexham on Saturday 17th May from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. This is open to young people aged 16 to 35. The teacher is David Queen. The purpose of the workshop is to form a pool of young dancers for demonstrations. Further details and application forms are available from Carol Sanderson – Tel. No. 01434 602431

DEMONSTRATIONS

The Scottish Fiddle Orchestra performed at the Sage in March, and Newcastle Branch were asked to provide some entertainment in the foyer beforehand. A team of dancers and musicians from the Branch supplied a lively hour, displaying a range of dances and involving the audience in some ceilidh dances. This was very well received and everyone enjoyed the experience dancing at such a great venue (despite the unforgiving floor!). Afterwards some of us attended the performance, and later went to the informal ceilidh at the airport hotel, where the orchestra was staying.

In January the Branch team had a busy time performing at various Burns’ Night functions. These generated a lot of interest and enjoyment in our dancing activities, and also raised some substantial funds for the Branch.

If anyone feels they would like to take part in any of these performances, which help to raise the profile of Scottish Country Dancing in the area, we are always keen to welcome experienced dancers at the Thursday Branch class, from which the teams are drawn.

Roger Hall

MEMBERSHIP NEWS

Congratulations to Peter and Ginette Cass on the birth of their son Oliver. A brother for Emily and grandson for Patricia and John Cass.

Congratulations to Bethany Chamberlain (one of our young dancers from Hexham) who won the intermediate solo fiddle competition at the Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering in March this year.

Congratulations to Sophie Alexander from Waverley Primary School, Dumpling Hall, Newcastle who was one of the four winners in the Dance Scottish Week 2007 colouring competition among children of 12 years and under.

Pauline Rice (1945-2008)

Pauline Rice founded her Scottish Country Dancing (SCD) class in January 1980 (over 28 years ago). The only true founder members still active are Harry Shenton and John Moore. Mary Clark and one or two others have not been active for many years but nevertheless continued to take an interest in Pauline and her class. I joined a few weeks after the inaugural session and was instantly made to feel very welcome as a member of a happy and friendly group of people.

The class’s first home was the Church Hall of the Venerable Bede in Fenham.

Pauline’s class was mainly aimed at beginners although the membership embraced the complete range of experience and competence. It was a complete success right from the start. So much so that this hall eventually proved to be too small. So Pauline moved her little group to the West End U.R.C. Church Hall which was more spacious, airy and generally an improvement on the former venue but carried a higher rental. Here, we gained new members, including the Minister’s wife. However, after a while the numbers declined, for reasons which never became clear. The cause was certainly not the higher rental, because Pauline did not raise her fees.

In fact, whenever the class made a small financial loss, Pauline would absorb this out of her own pocket. Any profits were spent by Pauline purchasing new records or equipment. Pauline considered her SCD group as her own personal interest and hobby. She admitted that if ever the group had to be disbanded, she would be really dismayed and would hardly be able to bear the loss.

Anyway, the setback was short lived and the roll-call soon recovered and kept increasing, even when many other classes were declining. When new members joined, they would soon merge into a tightly knit, happy group. Pauline would always make sure that everybody would not only learn as rapidly as their capabilities permitted but would go home, having thoroughly enjoyed themselves, feeling that they had spent a useful two hours. The class motto could well have been, in the words of a well-known dance, ITS JUST FOR FUN. There were never any harsh words or recriminations exchanged.

The reason for the class’s success: Pauline could easily have added “Patience” to her Christian names. To use a good old Scottish word, she had patience galore. Whatever happened, she would remain completely imperturbable and never lost her charm and her smile. She would persevere with simple explanations until the least gifted of her pupils had conquered the intricacies of the more complex dances. Moreover, she also had the courage to teach any dance, however difficult. Only once did I hear her refuse someone’s request for an unusual dance by whispering “not with this class”.

Each session was spiced with humour and laugher. To quote one such simple case: for a period, Maureen Clark, daughter of John and Mary and sister of Diane, at that time a member of the Branch demonstration team, provided live music on the piano. At the start of a session’s step practice, Pauline called out “To-day, Maureen, could you let us have some reel music” to which Maureen retorted: “Why? Was my music unreal last time?”

Most of the group did not realise that Pauline spent a very considerable time and took much trouble preparing for each session very thoroughly. She devoted most of her Sunday afternoons to this task. I became aware of this when she would telephone and ask for help in obtaining a particular record to fit in with her programmes. This was especially so during the period of change-over from vinyl records to CD’s.

One of her favourite dances was the jig Macleod’s Fancy. At one of the sessions soon after her death, the class danced it as a tribute to Pauline. It has since appeared on the programmes of recent and forthcoming Branch dances.

Pauline received part of her education in Newcastle, although her family came from Norfolk, where, in Snettisham (on the Wash coast), her father ran the family business of estate agents. Pauline adored her father and once she asked for help in choosing and purchasing a deerstalker hat for his birthday. She was devastated when a few years ago he passed away. Then, unfortunately, her only brother who had taken over the business also died. Her visits to East Anglia then ceased. This situation may well have contributed to the decline in her own health. Pauline was a very private person and her illness was very advanced before most of us realised that she was not at all well.

Pauline loved Scotland and all things Scottish. She always sought more information concerning Scotland. She used to spend frequent holidays on the West Coast and subscribed to the Oban Times which provided her with much information, amongst others on properties in the Highlands. She used to pass on each issue to members of her SCD class who were interested.

In most years, usually, in July, she invited the group to an evening party at her house, which was always impeccably kept, until we all trailed in and out to the inevitable dancing on the lawn.

Her job as a primary school teacher kept her very busy but she found time to pursue other musical interests apart from SCD, especially performing in musical plays with the West End Operatic Society. These shows were attended by most of her dancing class.

Occasionally, a set from the dancing class spent an evening attending and entertaining a group of asylum seekers at a church in Fenham or at the Salvation Army. During Pauline’s illness and after her death, the class continued – which is what she would have wished – on an ad hoc basis. It is a pleasure to be able to report now, that following action by Harry Shenton and a very democractic meeting chaired by him, the class will continue to thrive in a viable and permanent way with a new teacher. At the meeting referred to above we decided to call it THE PAULINE RICE SCOTTISH COUNTRY DANCING CLUB to perpetuate her memory. Long may it be so!

Donald Barr-Wells

Lilian Austin

On January 27th, the R.S.C.D.S. lost one of its most valued members - Lilian Austin.

Lilian was much loved and respected by members at Lanchester, Sunderland, and Stocksfield, where she provided the music and dances from her own large collection. She also devised dances, including Rita’s Ramble, which has been danced in both Scotland and Canada. Lilian never gave less than 100% regardless of the task. She will be greatly missed by her husband David, with whom she spent many happy years, and by all those who shared the pleasure of her company.

Barry and Ann Stewart