RSCDS Brighton Branch
Scottish Dance References
This page contains useful links for
* local Scottish dance groups in Brighton and Hove, Sussex and south-east England,
* about dances and dancing,
* for dance supplies and
* Community and activity sites for Brighton, Hove and Sussex
The images representing the linked sites are mostly displayed using images directly from the linked sites, and belong to them, not us.
Scottish dance groups in Brighton and Hove, Sussex and South-East England
Sussex Association of Scottish Societies (SASS) is an "umbrella group" with representatives from each local SCD club and the branch. SASS co-ordinates SCD events in East and West Sussex. It also runs dances to raise money for charity.
SASS provides a list of Sussex Scottish dance clubs and the calendar of Sussex dance events .
Brighton and Hove SCD Club
meets on Thursday evenings during termtime and organise more than eight Saturday dances a year.
Bognor Regis SCD Club
As well as evening and afternoon dances, Bognor run a day-school once a year.
Crawley SCD Club
meet on Thursday evenings, September to May for social Scottish country dancing.
Horsham SCD Club
meet Mondays September to May.
Mid-Sussex SCD Group
meet in Hurstpierpoint Community Main Hall every Tuesday evening from 7.45, with the first half of the evening directed to beginners. Mid-Sussex are affiliated to RSCDS.
Southwick SCD Club unfortunately stopped dancing in 2016.
Croydon and District Branch RSCDS
originally the East Surrey - West Kent Branch, Croydon branch run classes for beginners, intermediates and returners on Fridays and an advanced group on Wednesdays. They also run a Scottish dance ball in April.
RSCDS London Branch
As well as details for their own activities, London provide details of all dance classes and events across the south-east of England - the SE Dance Diary.
Scottish country dancing in Hertford
are the South East Hertfordshire Scottish Dance Society.
RSCDS Royal Tunbridge Wells Branch
MacLennan Scottish Group
based in London, are available to perform demonstrations of Scottish dances and highland dances such as the sword dance. Follow our link to the MacLennan Scottish Group web site for more information.
SERTA South-East Region Teachers' Association
SERTA supports teaching and teachers of Scottish country dancing, particularly in south-east England, and runs workshops.
Go up to the top of this page
About Dances and Dancing
Royal Scottish Country Dancing Society, RSCDS
RSCDS "headquarters" site provides details of all the workshops arranged in Scotland and from there you can find all branches and affiliated clubs around the world.
The United Kingdom Alliance of Professional Teachers of Dancing and Kindred Arts
The UK Alliance of Professional Teachers provides support for our highland teacher and provides graded medal tests - and the medals themselves - for RSCDS Brighton dancers.
Grand Chain
Useful resource with a large number of references to information on country, highland and ceilidh dancing, music and bands. Maintained by Ian Brockbank in Edinburgh.
The Strathspey Server
This excellent Strathspey Server, run by Anselm Lingnau, is dedicated to sharing oodles of information about Scottish country dancing. I find the following services are especially useful
- a dance database with over 2,000 dances. As well as abbreviated instructions it includes information about the original publication, the music, recordings made and from there you can find the full instructions too.
- the mailing list, a forum for discussing any aspect of Scottish country dancing, be it dance descriptions, technique, the history of dances and dancing, learning or teaching, dance music and so on.
- Strathspey archive where you can search for earlier conversations in the mailing list.
You can find over 4,000 dance instruction cribs and Scottish dancing YouTube Videos (try Polharrow Burn for example). Then there are sections on footwork, set structure, timing, hand positions, and 34 simple figures like casting and 24 complex figures like the espagnole or schiehallion reels, citing dances which contain them. It also lists various types of Scottish dance with examples.
You can find dance instructions for 219 dances at the Dance Archives; these come from from the extensive Donald Collection held at the Central Library in Edinburgh.
The International Branch of RSCDS is open to anyone interested in Scottish Country Dancing. Their web site includes Campbell's Lists and find out which dances are currently popular in SCD programmes across the world. What dance appears most frequently in UK programmes? What are the most popular dances to start and finish a programme?
YouTube - selection of Scottish country dance videos
Marucho's little dancing men
Not a Scottish Dancing site, but Marucho's Folkdance Site has these lovely gif images of a highland fling (left) and the country dance "Petronella" (right).Go up to the top of this page
Dance supplies
St Andrews Shoemakers
St. Andrews Shoemakers, previously known as James Senior, sell specialist shoes, clothes and accessories for Scottish (and Irish) dancing. You can buy ghillies, pumps and brogues here online. The web site is fairly easy to use and there are many satisfied customers in the Brighton branch but prices have been rising.
Arabesque is an online shop saying it sells James Senior shoes. It may be worth looking as their colour range is different from James Senior, but watch out for higher prices.
Scottish Dance Shoe Company of Wembley sell just one style of ghillie and one style of pump but their shoes are cheaper than James Senior. I have not tried their shoes.
Thistle Shoes make shoes and sell them online - boots, brogues and ghillies as well as shoes for highland and country dancing.
The RSCDS online shop
Visit the RSCDS shop for CDs and books and for a range of dance accessories like the silver kilt pins, greetings cards with the crown motif and RSCDS tartan by the metre.
John Kinloch Anderson
Leading kiltmaker and supplier of all Highland dress accessories who requested a link. Website looks good, waiting for consumer feedback.
Go up to the top of this page
Community and activity web sites for Brighton and Hove and Sussex
This Activity Finder is provided by Brighton & Hove City Council in their Sport and Activity pages. The council encourages local people into physical activity by providing a directory of activity groups and sports groups.
escis is the East Sussex Community Information Service, maintained by East Sussex County Council.
WestSussex.Info is the West Sussex information service, telling you what's on and where.
Sussex Folk Association, SusFA provide an excellent classified directory of various folk dance clubs, organisations and events in Sussex including a section on Scottish country and highland dance.
Brighton & Hove City Council has a section on its web site with information on local transport and libraries, plus details of city-sponsored arts and cultural events.
.png)
Visit Brighton is the tourist board web site for hotels and tourist information.
Go up to the top of this page
Scottish Country Dancing Holidays
Visit scottish-country-dancing-and-walking-holidays.com to find out about their range of dancing holidays for the coming year in places like Harrogate, Great Yarmouth, Eastbourne(!), Matlock, Symonds Yat and Morecambe.
This company is recommended by one of our members who thoroughly enjoyed holidays with them in Scarborough in 2014 and Budapest in 2015.
