Figure 1.--Most of the dancers at Highland Gatherings are girls, but there are also some enthusiadtic boys. Notice how he wears his cap with more of a flourish than the American boys doing Highland dancing on this page.

Higland dancing along with the kilt are two beloved symbols of Scotland. Its origins lie in the art of the ancient Celtic Scots. Modern Higland dancing is usually performed solo and is characterized by its typically sharp movements and the accompanying music. It's typically dance to the tune of the bagpipes. The dances are made up of different parts, called steps. There are usually four or six steps to a dance. Traditional Highland Dancing generally refers to a relatively few dances, especially the Highland Fling, Sword Dance, Seann Truibhas, and the Strathspey and Highland Reel or Reel of Tulloch. The basic movements in Higland dance are both strong and graceful. The hands are used expresively, quite different from the traditional dance of the neigboring Celtic people, the Irish. Higland dance was traditionally performed by Scottish men. Highland dancing is now performed by both men and women. In fact most competitors at Highland dance competitions are the lasses. Highland dancing is one of the few arenas where men and women compete equally. The dancers perform in elaborate costumes, however, the kilt and other costume garments appear to be relatively recent in origin. A dancer usually wears a kilt, Argyle socks and jacket/vest. Girls women wear vests or jackets of velvet and men wear a formal jacket such as a Price Charlie along with a cap and sporran.

Figure 2.--Boy Higland dancers wear jackets, white shirts, bowties, kilts, and kneesocks. These American boys wear Balmoral caps with colored poms.

Types of Scottish Dance

There are several types of Scottish dance two of the most important are step dancing and Highland dancing. There are many misunderstandings and distortions about Scottish step dancing--all that nonsense about Queen Victoria's "infatuation with the Highlands" which had a "lasting effect upon the style of music and dance". Perhaps it is an attempt at retroactive "Royal bashing" for it has no bearing whatsoever on reality. Queen Victoria appears to have taken a sincere and supportive interest in Scotland's culture and languages and would urge others to read her journals before making such sweeping statements. There are also accounts from oral tradition, such as one which was re-told to me by my colleague, Dr John MacInnes, of Queen Victoria advising the Duke of Atholl to employ a Gaelic-speaking nursemaid so that the language would not be lost. If only twentieth century mothers had applied her clear-thinking principle, Gaelic and Celtic culture in general would be in a much healthier state.

Step dancing

Irish step dancing is today most associated with Ireland, but step dancing in Scotland and Ireland shares many of the same Celtic roots. In view of the fact that by far the greatest influence on Scottish traditional dance did not appear until well after Queen Victoria's death, it might be as well to remind readers of the facts. Ironically, (though too often the case with people who "mean well") the woman who undoubtedly had the greatest influence on dance had every intention of "preserving" it. She was Miss Jean Milligan, lecturer in Physical Education at Jordanhill College of Education in Glasgow, and as such, was in the ideal position to train teachers in every aspect of the dances she clearly loved. She did not, however, love the wild, undisciplined ways of the "untrained" village hall or kitchen-floor dancers, who, at that time would dance in whatever footwear they happened to be wearing, or, as was often the case in summer, in bare feet. She was certainly willing to study dance, and if, for example, she watched several versions of a particular reel, she would decide on a standard *correct style*, then, with missionary zeal, set about "correcting" rural dances. Beginning with footwear (dance-pumps, please) she tackled "position", having decided it should be based on classical ballet.

Highland Dancing

Interest in Highland dancing increased during the 20th century. Dancing contests have become increasingly competitive. Instruction became authoritative, and the dancing technique became more defined. Since there were differing ideas on technique and judging, the Scottish Official Board or Highland Dancing and its traditional and accepted technique of competition came into being.

Scottish dancing came to North America towards the end of the eighteenth century and during the first half of the 19th century large numbers of Scots went abroad either willingly to seek a better life or unwillingly as part of the infamous Highland Clearances. Many Scots settled in Canada and the United States. I believe it is this phenomenon which has resulted in the survival of much of the old culture. But what were the dances that these early emigrants took from the old country to Cape Breton nearly two hundred years ago? Understandably they were the dance which were popular in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland at the time of their departure. Only Reels are truly indigenous to Scotland. Reels of one sort or another were known in every district of Scotland, in all classes of society, and were particularly popular in the crofting regions; in these latter regions most dancing took place in the kitchens of the croft houses, and Reels, with their compact traveling figures and well-contrasted periods of vigorous stepping, were ideally suited to the restricted dancing-spaces available. Even as late as the end of the 19th century, the Scotch Reel was so popular in the West Highlands and Western Isles, that on many occasions it was almost the only dance performed. Examples are given of dances in Glen Roy in Lochaber in 1885 and in Glen Urquhart at the turn of the century where it would be Scotch Reel upon Scotch Reel... with the Highland Schottische, and perhaps Flowers of Edinburgh... but chiefly these Reels all the time. At this point you may be wondering why I am concentrating on a social dance for four people, which is not often danced now, and not the more widely recognized solo step-dancing, but it is simply because today's solo step-dancing developed out of the stepping within the old reels. It is this fact which defines step-dancing in Cape Breton today and also goes some way to explain why it had almost died out in Scotland until very recently.

You see, at the same time as the old Reels were taken over from Scotland, there was a body of more formal solo step-dances, which also went over with the early settlers. These include the 'Fling,' 'Sean Truibhas,' 'Flowers of Edinburgh,' 'Tullochgorum,' 'Jackie Tar,' 'Irish Washerwoman,' and 'Princess Royal.' These dances were taught by the early dancing-masters, but their complexity and the requirement to dance the steps in a prescribed order, meant that they had to be learnt, and eventually fewer and fewer people danced them. Margaret Gillis from South West Margaret is perhaps one of the few people in Cape Breton who can still dance some of these old step-dances. She learnt them from her father, John Alex (1880-1975), who learnt them from his father, Allan, who learnt them from his father, Alexander, who had emigrated from Morar in Scotland in 1826 and whose profession both in Scotland and in Cape Breton was that of dancing-master. Margaret Gillis said:

I think the Flowers of Edinburgh was one of the dances in Scotland, and you'd have the Jacky Tar and all the hornpipes that were danced individually. There was form to it, a format. Even the Seann Truibhas was a different dance then than the one that they do in Highland dancing today.

Figure 3.--Both Highland and Irish dancers perform the Horn Pipe. The costume is always a Royal Navy uniform, worn with long bell-bottom trousers.

Dance evolved in Scotland during the 19th Century. The introduction of country dances from England produced a smoothing out of traveling steps and a greater emphasis being placed on the figures of the dance rather than on the stepping, which was the fundamental component of the old Reels. An Englishman by the name of Colonel Thornton, who was touring in the Highlands about the year 1804, remarked: During the 19th century, the old solo step-dances were being danced regularly in competition at Highland Games and in performance at concerts, and the style became ever more open and balletic perhaps to suit the larger arena.

The introduction about the turn of the century of soft-soled dancing-shoes hastened this change in style, so that what we see now in modern Highland dancing is the direct descendant of the old step-dances. When the 80-year-old James Neill, the respected Angus dance-master, was asked in 1908 about the new fashion, he replied: "It is more scientific, but it is not so Highland, so to speak. The steps they dance are not the real Highland steps." There are still a few people, like Sheila MacKay and Mary McHarg (of Airth) in Scotland, and Margaret Gillis in Cape Breton, who have older versions of today's Highland dances. I would like to ask all those present who have an interest in Scottish solo dancing to address the question of whether we are going to allow these older versions to disappear completely.

The 1700's saw the full formation (and instructions) for Scottish country dancing. Scottish country dancing flourished throughout the drawing rooms and ballrooms of the 1700's and the first part of the 1800's. By the middle of the 19th century, country dancing was losing popularity.

Figure 4.--Notice the difference in the costumes worn by the boys and girls. The girls wear blouses and the boys wear jackets, shirts, and bowties with Balmoral caps. Some girls wear dresses rather than kilts.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Scottish Country Dance Society (SCDS) was formed. This group "standardized" the dances, probably at some loss to regional variations and historical accuracy. The society received the Royal designation sometime later. At first, the society was dedicated to publishing older dances, but since the 1950's they have published new dances as well. In the 1950's, some field work was done to record dances, dance forms, and dance steps from before dancing was "standardized" by the SCDS.

So to recap, what we had at the beginning of the 19th century was a dance heritage common to both the Gaels who stayed in Scotland and those who emigrated - i.e. the old Reels and the solo step-dances. In Scotland, social changes, especially the contact within which dance was being performed, and the proximity to our English and European neighbours, has produced the rich and varied dance tradition which we now enjoy. In Cape Breton, geographic isolation and social stability has led to a much narrower seam of dancing, which was exposed to very few external influences until very recently.

By the 20th century, the old dancing-schools teaching the formal step-dances had ceased, and most people learnt stepping in their youth just from being exposed to it, hearing the music and not being able to resist dancing to it. Some were taught by a parent or older relative but many learnt simply by imitation, through watching a step and keeping the "music," i.e. the rhythm of it in their heads, until they could practice and perfect it. This ability to learn intricate step-work through imitation, I believe, is similar to learning music by ear rather than from a written score.

Judging

The best dancers are considered those who are the neatest and keep their steps small - "close to the floor" is the expression most often used. Lightness on one's feet and a relaxed naturalness is also looked for, as is the ability to dance on one spot. He could "dance on a dime" is considered high praise. Perhaps the most important attribute though, is keeping good time with the fiddler and not only in terms of the main beats of the bar, but in actually matching the rhythms of one's steps with the notes of the particular tune being played. Many of the great dancers are also musicians, and most of the musicians can dance. It is hard to over-emphasise just how closely the music and the dancing is linked. The coming together of a good dancer and a good fiddler produces something greater than the sum of the two parts.

The Music

For fiddlers and step-dancers alike, their favourite tunes are nearly all from the old Scottish piping repertoire. Well-known tunes like 'Calum Crubach' and 'The High Road to Linton' are played alongside tunes that are rarely heard in Scotland today, like 'Moulin Dubh' and 'Put Me in the Big Chest'; and tunes which in Cape Breton are still being played in their original simple two-parted state, like 'Pretty Marion' and 'Caberfeidh,' have in Scotland been turned into complex competition tunes by the addition of a further 2, 4 or even 6 parts. But why pipe tunes, when the instrumentation today is almost always fiddle and piano? The answer is, of course, that both in Scotland and Cape Breton, it was pipers who traditionally played for dancing. Indeed the last of the old-style pipers, 84-year-old Alex Currie, was still playing for step-dancing as late as the 1970s.

Figure 5.--This Scottish boy wears a classic highlands dancing costume complete with Balmoral bonet and feather, jacket, jabot, lace cuffs, kilt, sporan, and Argyle kneesocks. He wars soft, balet-like dancing shoes.

It is not only the repertoire, however, which has remained largely unchanged but also the style of playing the old tunes. The rhythms and tempo required for step-dancing are very well defined - 8 even beats of the par in strathspey time and 2 on-beats and 2 off-beats in the bar for reel time, with the strathspeys being played at 40 bars per minute and the reels at between 52 and 54 bars per minute. It is this speed and unremitting rhythm in strathspey time which produces the excitement and there is almost tangible relief when the musician breaks into reel time. I'm sure there will be many who doubt that strathspeys were ever played this way in Scotland but there is much evidence for believing that this is indeed the case. Margaret Bennet of the School of Scottish Studies made many visits to the Codroy Valley in Newfoundland, an isolated valley with a strong community of Scottish descendants. In her book, The Last Stronghold, she describes finding Gaelic singing and story-telling, old style piping, fiddling and step-dancing still being practiced in the original intimate setting of th e ceilidh or house-party. The strathspeys and reels were played exactly like the Cape Bretoners play them today and Allan MacArthur (1884-1971) confirmed that he learnt them from his mother Jenny who was born in Moidart in Scotland.

Dances

Scotland was and is famous for its dancing, and the variety of dance styles is testimony to the richness of our Scottish dance heritage. Higland dancers have many different dresses:
The Highland Fling: The Highland Fling originated as wild dance of triumph following victory in battle. It is said to be inspired by the capers of the stag, the dancer's upraised arms representing the animals antlers. Danced vigorously and exultantly, it is now highly stylized and calls for the greatest skill in technique and exactness of timing. Despite the variety of steps, it should, for example, be danced throughout in the same position on the board, perhaps because originally the Highland Fling was said to have been done on the shield of the clansman. It has become the classic solo dance at m odern competitive dancing events, and is often selected at competitions to decide who will be judged the best Highland dancer of the day.
The Sword Dance: Like the Highland Fling, the Sword Dance, or Ghillie Chalium has war as its basic theme. Today it is both picturesque and popular at Highland Games; legend has it that in older times it was danced on the eve of battle, and that for the soldier to touch or displace the sword portened evil in the comping fight. There are many other theories regarding the origin of the Sword Dance, and one of the most attractive of these is that which tells how the great Malcolm Canmore, after having defeated one of MacBeth's chiefs at the Battle of Dunsinane in 1054, seized his opponents sword, placing it over his own to form a cross, over which he danced triumphantly to the wild music of the pipes.
Seann Truibhas: Seann Truibhas is Gaelic for "old trousers." After the unsuccessful rebellion of Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745, the British forbade the wearing of the kilt. The shaking movements of the leg indicate the shaking off of the hated trousers. The end of the dance is similiar to the Highland Fling to show the Scotsman joy in the return to the kilt.
Reels: Reels are dances performed by four dancers to a lively tempo. The dancers intertwine to indicate the graceful movements of the deer in the valley. There are actual four types of reels: the Strathspey and Highland Reel; The Strathspey and Reel of Tulloch; the Strathspey and Highland Reel and Reel of Tulloch; and the Hulluchan. They are all very similar. These are the only Highland Dances danced by one than one person: they are danced by a team of four. The four weave in and out in a figure-of-eight pattern, sometimes performing what it called a propell-pivot, the forerunner of the square-dancing dosey-doe. This dance was performed in a church aisle to keep warm on cold winter mornings (or cold summer mornings).

Boys Dancing Costume

The key elemements of the Higlands dancing costume is:

Figure 6.--The boys in this group of Higland dancers wear sailor suits which are thev costume for the hornpipe, named for the accompaning instrument.

The Kilt

The kilt is worn by almost all boys doing Higland dancing. Girls also wear the kilt, but some wear tartan dresses.

Footwear

There are various styles of Highland dance shoes. The most important is the Ghillie style. "Billy Forsyth" dance pumps are popular. Specials shoes are worn for the jig. Jig shoes are made in red, green or red/green.

Highland dancers hose

All Highland dancers wear kneesocks, often with flashes. The dancers generally tartan socks to match the tartan of the kilt, but some wear white kneesocks.

Waistcoats

Waistcoats are made in velvet, mostly with gold or silver trim. The velvet is made in a wide range of colors to complement the dancers kilt.

Shirts and blouses

Boys generally wear white shirts with bowties. Some boys with fancy costumes might wear a lacey jabot.

Blouses are worn by the girl dancers and come in various styles. The square neck is popular. They are now mostly made in white poly-cotton broderie-angise trim with half sleeve.

Highland dancers capes

One of the most popular styles is the Inverness hooded cape with or without tartan trim. They are mostly made in red, burgundy, emerald, navy and olive.

Figure 7.--This Scottish boy is dancing the Highland Fling at a Higland Gathering. Note his Balmoral cap which is rather lke a Tam O'Shanter cap. He emerged with a couple of prizes.

Caps

Girls often dance bare headed. Boys usually wear caps. The Balmoral is the most common cap. The Glengarry often worn by pipers is less commonly worn by Highland dancers. The cap is often adorned with a colored pom or feather.

Swords

The sword is an important element for many Higland dancers. It is of course used in several dances.

PersonalmExperience

Some personal accounts are available from the dancers.
Irish boy in Scotland: The 1960s

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