Looking for dance groups | The Strathspey Server (2024)

I will be in Canterbury this weekend Thursday to Sunday. Does anyone know of dance groups or events in the area, please?Thanks in anticipation of Strathspey coming up trumps,Margaret Lambourne,Nieuwegein, the Netherlands

Which Canterbury? UK, US, other?**************Get the Moviefone Toolbar. Showtimes, theaters, movie news & more!(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1212774565x1200812037/aol?redir=http://toolbar.aol.com/moviefone/download.html?ncid=emlcntusdown00000001)

Canterbury, Kent, UK,Margaret

Hi Margaret, Looks like you're in luck... Canterbury St Andrews SCD group meet on Fridays in central Canterbury, and also they happen to have their Autumn dance this Saturday (22nd) at Littlebourne, just outside Canterbury. General info here http://www.kass.org.uk/Canterbury%20St%20Andrews.html Contact them at xxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx for more details. Best regards, Jan Beaconsfield, UKRSCDS London Branch

Thanks, Jan, for the information as I couldn't find them on either the RSCDS website or the list in the Reel.Best wishes,MargaretNieuwegein, the NetherlandsRSCDS International and London Branch

> Thanks, Jan, for the information as I couldn't find them on either >the RSCDS website or the list in the Reel.>Hi Margaret, No, I looked there first too, but in the end I found them by googling forcanterbury scottish dancing. Evidently this group don't send in their information to be included in either the London & SE England list of groups/diary of events on the London Branch website, or The Reel. If you do go along, you could suggest it to them... (As far as I knowthere's no charge for groups to advertise themselves on the list/diary on the website, but there may be a small charge towards printing costs for an entry in The Reel.) Best regards, Jan Beaconsfield, UKRSCDS London Branch

> Thanks, Jan, for the information as I couldn't find them on either > the RSCDS website or the list in the Reel.> Hi Margaret, >> No, I looked there first too, but in the end I found them by googling for> canterbury scottish dancing. >>Evidently this group don't send in their information to be included ineither >the London & SE England list of groups/diary of events on the London Branch>website, or The Reel.This exchange about the Canterbury Group reinforces for me the need for theRSCDS to act as the real umbrella group for SCD, by offering such groups an"associate" (or whatever name) membership, as opposed to affiliation, whichwould provide listing on an RSCDS maintained database of dancing groupsworldwide. The cost could be nominal, but to me this is a role that RSCDSreally should be playing. We all want to know if we can dance when wetravel and to have a central database with all groups on it would be souseful, rather than having to scurry around between The Reel, various branchwebsites, the Celtic Circle etc etc (where does one establish that thereactually are dancers in Beunos Aires?) . The benefits to the RSCDS aresubstantial, they can talk with authority on behalf of all SCDancers andquote numbers of dancers worldwide. There is little overhead, apart fromensuring annually that details are still correct.Campbell TylerCape TownIf you do go along, you could suggest it to them... (As far as I knowthere's no charge for groups to advertise themselves on the list/diary on the website, but there may be a small charge towards printing costs for an entry in The Reel.) Best regards, Jan Beaconsfield, UKRSCDS London Branch

By no means all groups have websites. So web searches give incomplete answers.It would still be very useful to have a single (web page) spot where ALL SCD groups world wide can post their information (including their URL) free of charge. Any SC dancer who travels would look there first.RSCDS or a volunteer: who will be the first to get this on-line?Eric

Yes it would be wonderful to be able to look at a particular area ofintended travel to see what dance opportunities existed but it is notas simple as it seems. I have been trying since 2007 to build a more accurate picture aboutthe SCD scene in Poland, currently there are 3 entries in Grand Chainand through the festival events I have compiled a list of 25 emailscontacts however although I am aware of at least eight dance groupsonly one has responded to the suggestion that they include their groupdetails in Grand Chain (Celtica SCD). There seems to be a general reluctance to submitting the informationbut I hope that during 2009 we can improve on the situation and allthe groups we have worked with have been made aware of the RSCDSaffilliation procedures if they wish to go down that route. It can be difficult to search out groups but getting into one site canactually produce "linked" information regarding another group, oneexample I would use is a Bratislava group called Sillmarion who appearto be active in various forms of dance and musichttp://www.sillmarion.sk I came across them through browsing the Polish webs and was surprisedthat I had not noticed any other reference to them elsewhere in thedance group lists I had searched. Bob McArthurChristchurch UK

Campbell Tyler wrote:| > Thanks, Jan, for the information as I couldn't find them on either| > the RSCDS website or the list in the Reel.| >| > No, I looked there first too, but in the end I found them by googling for| > canterbury scottish dancing.| ...|| This exchange about the Canterbury Group reinforces for me the need for the| RSCDS to act as the real umbrella group for SCD, by offering such groups an| "associate" (or whatever name) membership, as opposed to affiliation, which| would provide listing on an RSCDS maintained database of dancing groups| worldwide.Or you could save even that minimal expense, and tell people to justuse their favorite search site. My first response to the question wasalso to ask google for "Scottish Country Dance Canterbury UK"(without the quotes). The very first of about 30,000 hits was a linkto the group's web site. I tried a few other places where I knew orsuspected there was an SCD group, and in every case, google got itright the first time.Not that I'd object to RSCDS headquarters (or anyone else) doing thejob, of course. But we might discuss whether it's worth the effort.If a group's name, description and contact info is listed in any website, googling for "Scottish Country Dance" plus your town,state/province and country will find it right off. So maybe we don'treally need a specialized web page for this info. We just need toteach people to use the big search sites to answer such questions.(Actually, I'd encourage developing such a web page anyway, if we canfigure out a way to produce one that contains almost all the SCDgroups in the world. But we've seen that that's not an easy task.It's easier to be lazy and let google do the work.)--I ♡ Unicode

It already exists, it's called "affiliation" - as opposed to "becoming a branch/local association of the RSCDS" BUT... nobody, including the RSCDS, could (or should!) force every single dance group in the world to register on one database (which would be absolutely massive and require quite a bit of maintenance to keep up-to-date.) There are plenty of places where groups can advertise their presence, some regional (Celtic Circle), some global (Strathspey, Grand Chain) if they so wish. Many groups nowadays have a website or at least a mention/contact details on a neighbouring group's site, so it should be easy enough to find them with your favourite search engine.The group where I first started dancing now boasts 2-3 sets, qualified teachers and even their own musicians (as opposed to a handful of ladies, one with a copy of Pillings, plus the church minister and a pile of LPs!) but they are still essentially a church social group, even though not all the dancers are church-goers by a long shot. The group isn't an association in the legal sense (with a constitution, committee, etc.), ie. not a "moral person" (if that is the correct term in English). That is probably why they aren't affiliated. It doesn't stop them dancing and quite a few of the regulars are RSCDS members (mostly IB or HQ).Sophie>----Original Message---->From: xxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xx.xx>Date: Nov 20, 2008 14:49 >To: <xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx>>Subject: RE: Looking for dance groups>>This exchange about the Canterbury Group reinforces for me the need for the>RSCDS to act as the real umbrella group for SCD, by offering such groups an>"associate" (or whatever name) membership, as opposed to affiliation, which>would provide listing on an RSCDS maintained database of dancing groups>worldwide. The cost could be nominal, but to me this is a role that RSCDS>really should be playing. We all want to know if we can dance when we>travel and to have a central database with all groups on it would be so>useful, rather than having to scurry around between The Reel, various branch>websites, the Celtic Circle etc etc (where does one establish that there>actually are dancers in Beunos Aires?) . The benefits to the RSCDS are>substantial, they can talk with authority on behalf of all SCDancers and>quote numbers of dancers worldwide. There is little overhead, apart from

Nobody is talking about "forcing" anyone.What the RSCDS could easily do would be to set up web pages where every SCD group world-wide is encouraged to announce its basic contact information, its classes and events (i.e. just as the Celtic Circle does within Continental Europe). That would be a boon to all SC dancers who travel - many of them RSCDS members I'm sure. The cost is minimal; each group remains responsible for its own information, and could be allowed to input the information itself via a form. It makes no sense to ask these groups to "affiliate". The only result would be that many groups will not join in, and the list loses its usefulness. The RSCDS members would be those who lose out most.I cannot understand the reluctance of the RSCDS to do such simple things quickly and efficiently, without long discussions, as a service to SCD world-wide. After all, our prime aim is to "Promote SCD".

Eric Ferguson wrote:| By no means all groups have websites. So web searches give incomplete| answers.Indeed. But all it really takes is that your group's info be on someweb site. It's best if it's your own web site, so you can edit itquickly and easily, but this is by no means a requirement.| It would still be very useful to have a single (web page) spot where ALL| SCD groups world wide can post their information (including their URL)| free of charge. Any SC dancer who travels would look there first.True. But making it useful would require doing a good enough job thatpeople would learn to go there first rather than "just googling it".Google sets some sort of threshold that you have to reach.Of course, if you look at google's info for a few groups, you'llquickly realize that this threshold isn't very high. Google returnslinks to data in all sorts of different formats, and it isn't verycomplete. Also, it's not easy to find out about groups anywherewithin a hour's drive of where you'll be. A well-organized SCD listcould at least partly solve these problems, and produce somethingmuch more informative than what google gives us.| RSCDS or a volunteer: who will be the first to get this on-line?Let's all volunteer Anselm. ;-)Actually, I've thought about it a bit. The main problem I see is thatto work, it would have to be fairly open to anyone claiming to be agroup leader, and such a site would be an instant target for thespammers. I'd want to do a bit of study, and perhaps look at how thevarious "wiki" packages deal with the spam problem. It's probably notsomething that one could do in a weekend, and it would likely qualifyas a real "learning experience". There are people out there who seean opportunity for profit in any attempt to make an open andinformative web operation.--I ♡ Unicode

John Chambers wrote:> | RSCDS or a volunteer: who will be the first to get this on-line?>> Let's all volunteer Anselm. ;-)I'm getting there.The main thing holding this up right now is management of »locations« such as towns/cities (to tie dance groups to) and dance venues (to tie classes and social functions to). This is mostly there but needs to be re-designed to a certain extent (I won't bore the list with the sordid details) and the requisite forms for entering and modifying them added. Once I get that nailed, putting group listings on top is not a big deal at all. In fact the group listings are already there, too -- what's missing is, again, a convenient way to enter and modify them, which doesn't make a lot of sense until you can also enter and modify locations (see above).Anselm-- Anselm Lingnau, Friedberg, Germany ..................... xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxxLife admits not of delays; when pleasure can be had, it is fit to catch it. -- Samuel Johnson, Letter to Boswell

Anselm wrote: "Actually, I've thought about it a bit. The main problem I see is thatto work, it would have to be fairly open to anyone claiming to be agroup leader, and such a site would be an instant target for thespammers. I'd want to do a bit of study, and perhaps look at how thevarious "wiki" packages deal with the spam problem." Meanwhile, I agree that google is hard to beat. Recently, I've had reason to look for SCD in China and Malaysia, and both times google came up with useful answers, which none of the "usual suspects" could provide. Chris, New York. **************One site has it all. Your email accounts, your social networks, and the things you love. Try the new AOL.com today!(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1212962939x1200825291/aol?redir=http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp%26icid=aolcom40vanity%26ncid=emlcntaolcom00000001)