Scottish dance at the crossroads 2006

Thoughts on where Scottish Traditional dancing is at in 2006. Traditions are forever changing and evolving but I see the pace of this change accelerating. The processes of change of yesteryear were slower but many aspects of our life are speeding up and the way traditions evolve is one of them. We look at the impact of modern technology and ease of travel, and how this contributes to the breakdown of the communication within families and communities, which leads to the breakdown of how traditions are orally transmitted. Looking at Scottish dance, where dance traditions and repertoire were once maintained by individuals and community groups, to the emergence of Dancing Masters who speeded up the rate of change and expanded the repertoires in many communities round the country, to the formation of associations who stipulated rules and guidelines. Today global access to information and traditions nurtured abroad in the diaspora is having an impact on the current Scottish dance scene, but not without resistance and debate whether to embrace or reject these influences. One aspect of Scottish dance today is the ‘greying’ of it. Many communities still have a good mix of ages that come together for a Ceilidh, but the youngsters are less inclined to go traditional dancing, so the majority of dancers are of an older generation. In the youthful world of competitive Highland dancing youngsters are plentiful, mainly girls from the age of 4 to their mid-teens. This leaves an age gap between the young girls competing for medals and the greying Old Time and Country dancers. The age groups in-between dance but not regularly and often their dancing knowledge is relatively small. An observation is that foreigners often know the Scottish dances better than the local mid-thirties/forties population. Some of the reasons for this are discussed in relation to the current image of traditional dance and funding and support. Finally this paper looks at the level of local and national attempts to promote and foster traditional dance in current day Scotland. Several projects have run and are currently running to this effect but how well are they working?