Athens – Ohio RSCDS

September 13 – November 22: Beginner series, 2-3 pm (with a bonus hour for our intermediate dancers from 3-4 pm), $50, Athens Community Center, 701 E State St, Athens, OH. Register online or at the front desk on your way in. No class on October 11. No partner or experience necessary! For scholarship information, please email anna@kitenet.net.

January 19: Burns Night celebration and dance, 6 – 7 pm, FREE, Nelsonville Public Library, 95 W Washington St, Nelsonville. Celebrate Robert Burns’ birthday with live music by the Brickersons, heart-pumping dance by the Athens Scottish Country Dancers, a Robert Burns reading by Todd Bastin, and tasty treats for all. Dance instruction will be given, so all can join in! This is a great chance to try out Scottish dancing to lovely music. No partner or experience necessary. If you can walk briskly, you can dance! (Spectators also welcome.) Doors lock at 6:10, so don’t be late.

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Info about our next class:

On September 13, in our easier first hour we will dance:

See You Again: https://my.strathspey.org/dd/dancevideo/6935/
The Flying Scotsman: https://my.strathspey.org/dd/dance/18497/#videos
Come to the Ceilidh: https://my.strathspey.org/dd/dance/7653/#videos

In the second hour, more experienced dancers will enjoy:

**We will be dancing this from one walk through. Please watch the video!** Sands of Morar: https://my.strathspey.org/dd/dance/5885/#videos. The trickiest figure is the tourbillon: https://www.scottish-country-dancing-dictionary.com/tourbillon.html
Starlight: https://my.strathspey.org/dd/dance/11769/#videos. Now that you’re all pros on hello-goodbye setting (https://www.scottish-country-dancing-dictionary.com/hello-goodbye-setting.html) the trickest part of this is the meanwhile figures. Be sure to pay attention to what non-1s do when watching the video.

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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