Athens – Ohio RSCDS

June 7 – August 9: Beginner series, 2-3 pm (with a bonus hour for our intermediate 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. No class on July 26. No partner or experience necessary! For scholarship information, please email anna@kitenet.net.

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Info about our next class:

On June 28, in the beginner hour, beginners will enjoy:

Footwork! If you have time to practice one thing at home, make it skip-change. The sooner you get this into muscle memory, the easier everything else will be. Here’s a video to help you out: youtube.com/watch?v=iF-QZqMxb20&time_continue=142
Sands of Morar: https://my.strathspey.org/dd/dance/5885/#videos, including new footwork I’ll teach in class and the new figure the tourbillon: https://www.scottish-country-dancing-dictionary.com/tourbillon.html

In the second hour, intermediate dancers will enjoy:

Starlight: https://my.strathspey.org/dd/dance/11769/#videos, including the new-to-some figure hello-goodbye setting: https://www.scottish-country-dancing-dictionary.com/hello-goodbye-setting.html
Bonus dance if you study up and are ready to dance from one walk through: The Clarsach: https://my.strathspey.org/dd/dancevideo/3482/, including the new-to-some figures diagonal rights and lefts (https://www.scottish-country-dancing-dictionary.com/rights-and-lefts-diagonally.html) and set and link for three couples (https://www.scottish-country-dancing-dictionary.com/set-and-link-for-3-couples.html — notice that the second time through, the lines is across the set rather than on the sides)

In general, experienced dancers will be learning dances for the Dayton ball this summer and fall: https://my.strathspey.org/dd/list/71896/

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Footwork tips:

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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

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

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