|
|
HISTORY of the NEW WORLD SCOTTISH DANCERS
The Beginning
| Originally, the dancers who would
become the New World Scottish Dancers were students in one
of
the many country dance classes active in the San Francisco
Branch of the RSCDS. These dancers made their debut
as a team at the Vallejo Games in 1989. By 1992, the team
had become sufficiently professional in standards to be
told that it ought to start entering in the adjudications
at the Santa Rosa Highland Games as a performing group
rather than as a social group. By 1997, a small combined
step
dance and country dance team began to perform at various
Highland Games in the Bay Area. |
The
dancers in the 1989 picture of the Vallejo Adjudication
Set are Steve Wyrick, Suellen Noland, Bill Griffith, Colin
Johnson, Claire Tongue, Jennifer Capra, Bud Wisecarver,
and Kasma Kelley. The team included teenagers as well
as adults.
|
The Transitional Period
| 1997 and 1998 were pivotal years:
the team began to explore various directions in which it
might develop.
New dances were created by members of the team, one of them "Caelan's
Fancy," created by Heather Farquhar, to the music of
the Scottish rock band "Brother," being particularly
innovative and influential. The traditional white dresses
worn since
1989 were replaced as the team began to develop a "California
style" with a repertoire, interpretation, and costuming
to match selected periods of California history. In 2000,
because of the emphasis on Scottish-California history, the
performing group acquired the name by which it is now known:
the New World Scottish Dancers. |
George
Gates, Bonnie Wakeman, Heather Farquhar, Greg Reznick, Michael
Howard, Lori Howard, Steve Wyrick. Woodland, Sacramento
Games 1999.
|
The
Here and Now
| Today, while both traditional
country dances and step dances are performed with an eye
toward authenticity,
the NWSD emphasizes creativity and a willingness to experiment
in a manner appealing to the upcoming generation of dancers.
The NWSD has appeared not only at Highland Game venues around
Northern California, but also at the Oakland Museum of California,
with groups such as Molly's Revenge and the Wicked Tinkers,
in period recreations at John Muir Ranch Days at Martinez,
and in various ethnic dance festivals around the Bay Area,
as well as at other events with a Scottish flavor. |
Lori
Howard, dancing on the Cutting Edge of the 21st century.
|
|