Athens – Ohio RSCDS

May 16: Porchfest, 1-2 pm. Drop by West End MFG Facility: 3 N Shafer St in Athens to watch and/or dance to live music by the Brickersons. FREE!

March 29 – May 31: Intermediate series, 2-3 pm (with a bonus hour for our most advanced dancers from 3-4 pm), $45, Athens Community Center, 701 E State St, Athens, OH. Register online or at the front desk on your way in. For scholarship information, please email Chris at chrisknisely5@gmail.com.

***

Info about our next class:

On April 26, first-hour dancers will learn:

St. James’ Courtyard: https://my.strathspey.org/dd/dancevideo/12321/, including the new figure Celtic Reel: https://www.scottish-country-dancing-dictionary.com/celtic-reel.html
Hooper’s Jig: https://my.strathspey.org/dd/dance/2979/#videos

Second-hour dancers will learn:

Kathy’s Fascinator: https://my.strathspey.org/dd/dance/20049/#videos, including the new-to-some figures set and rotate (https://www.scottish-country-dancing-dictionary.com/set-and-rotate.html) and the knot (https://www.scottish-country-dancing-dictionary.com/knot-for-2-couples.html)
Indian River Strathspey: https://my.strathspey.org/dd/dance/7560/#videos, in a triangular set for three couples, including the new-to-some figure half rights and lefts: https://www.scottish-country-dancing-dictionary.com/rights-and-lefts-halfway.html

If enough dancers want to stay late for a from-a-talk-through-dance, we’ll end with:

Chased Lovers: https://my.strathspey.org/dd/dance/16465/#videos (Definitely refresh your memory on this one if you want to dance it!)

In general, in this term, we’ll be learning dances for the Midway dance (preview here: https://my.strathspey.org/dd/list/64806/). If you’re ready to commit to the Midway Workshop and/or Dance, you can sign up using this flyer: 2026 Midway flyer.

***

Footwork tips:

***

Shoe info:

The traditional shoes used for Scottish Country Dance are called ghillies. Here are two affordable online places to order from: https://www.keilys.com/…/highlan…/james-roy-ghillie-red/ and https://corrsirishshoes.com/…/james-roy-highland-dance…

In both cases, DO NOT ORDER YOUR USUAL SHOE SIZE!! Ghillies use UK sizing, and you also want them pretty tight. (They should feel too tight at first, then you wear them while sitting around and the warmth and moisture of your foot will mold them to size.) If you have wide feet, though, you *will* want to order wide ghillies.

Both of the sites I recommended include sizing information, and they might be willing to take the information from your foot tracing and check it against their ghillies to help you choose the right size — it is worth contacting them and asking!!

Consider going half a size up if you want to include insoles (recommended!!!) and/or have high arches. You will want an insole like this that you can cut to fit in your ghillies: https://amzn.to/48KLHrB

***

From out of town and want to drop in? We’d love to have you! Email anna@kitenet.net for more information.

***

Stay in Touch

Want to get emails about when, where, and what we’re dancing? Sign up for our email list here.

Prefer facebook (where we also post videos of dances we’ve enjoyed)? Join our group.