Winter Term 2025

This year term started on 15th January and finishes on 14th May when we have party night with music by Ian Slater. Further details on the Club events page. We don’t have an Easter break.

Trial use of cribs

At our December committee meeting the idea of putting a crib, with links to videos, for each week’s class on the website was on our agenda.  Arguments for and against were discussed. It was agreed this will run for a trial period following which it will be reviewed. 

It is thought that having a crib available will help dancers to become more familiar with dances.  There is no obligation to look at the dances beforehand, if you don’t wish to.  We understand that some dancers prefer to simply come along to the class without having to prepare first. Others may wish to see what is planned. The dances will be taught and walked as now.  

The programme may vary – some dances dropped, others added, depending upon numbers and who is present on any particular week.

The link to the cribs and videos for the class on 23rd April.

If you want the crib on your phone, the mobile crib app is very useful. Use the dance list reference 59311 to load the full list.

One of the dances on the list is Bratach Bàna. John Drewry’s dance is one of the most popular Scottish country dances. It has been in the top thirty most frequent dances appearing on dance programmes, for decades. “Bratach bàna” is the title of a traditional, mouth music, waulking, Gaelic song thought to originate from the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. The words are taken from the first line of the waulking song Bratach Bàna – Song, “A mhic Iarla nam bratach bàna” which means “O son of the Earl of the white banners”. Literally, Bratach bàna means “of white flags” or “of white banners”.

Waulking songs are Scottish folk songs, traditionally sung in the Gaelic language by women while waulking (working, fulling) cloth. This practice involved a group of people beating newly woven tweed rhythmically against a table or similar surface to soften it. Simple, beat-driven songs were used to accompany the work.

The notes above have been extracted from the Scottish Country Dance Dictionary, a mine of interesting information on Scottish country dances.

A further resource for beginners is the Lower Hutt site. It has short YouTube videos of a great many basic figures as well as quite a lot of advanced ones.