To celebrate the centenary of the RSCDS, The RSCDS Wellington, Hawke’s Bay and Rangitikei Regions have combined to host a Tri-Region Ball in Palmerston North.
5.30pm, Saturday 4 November 2023
College Street School Hall, Palmerston North Click here for a map to the venue Music by Balmoral Band – Anne-Marie Forsyth (Auckland), Sharlene Penman (Christchurch), Iain McKenzie (Queensland)
As well as celebrating the centenary of the RSCDS, the Ball is celebrating the role of the ‘fertile crescent’ from Hawke’s Bay to Whanganui through to Wellington.
In many ways, these three regions were the birthplace of Scottish Country Dancing in New Zealand. For instance, the first three New Zealand Summer Schools were held in these three regions.
The Lower North Island RSCDS Centenary Ball will:
Feature an international band (The Balmoral Band)
Begin at 5.30pm so people have time to commute to the Ball and return to Wellington/Hawke’s Bay/Whanganui if they wish
Have a piped Grand March
Have a celebratory catered supper
Have a programme which features dances from Kiwi devisers, and well-known Society dances
Online ticket sales are closed. For a ticket now please contact Jeanette Watson beauwat@xtra.co.nz . There may be a limited number of tickets available at the door, provided not sold out beforehand.
Story of the selected dances
Download the story of the selected dances (updated September 2023) compiled by Rod Downey and Iain Boyd. They will be expanded upon as the year progresses, after consultation with people who are even more aware of the history of Scottish Country Dancing in New Zealand.
Instructions for dances that are not well-known
Download the instructions for these dances on the programme:
Original Committee Members of the Wellington/Hawke’s Bay Association. Photo: The Morison’s Bush Collection
Bruce Fordyce (Back row, fourth from the left) devised the dance Seton’s Ceilidh Band which is on the Ball programme to commemorate Jack Seton (Front row, centre), who was the original President of the Wellington/Hawke’s Bay Association.
1.00pm-4.00pm, Saturday 29 April 2023 St John’s Anglican Church Hall, 18 Bassett Rd, JohnsonvilleClick here for a map to the venue Afternoon tea provided. Bring own water bottle. Doors open 12.30pm. Cost: $10 cash at the door.
As part of the RSCDS Centenary events, the Wellington Region has organised a very special occasion for intermediate dancers and above celebrating the role of the extended region as the well-spring of Scottish Country Dancing in New Zealand.
Iain Boyd, Romaine Butterfield, Edith Campbell and Elaine Laidlaw have chosen dances from the early days of Scottish Country Dancing in the lower North Island, based around Morison’s Bush Collection and The Harbour City Collection.
These well-regarded tutors from our region will teach the dances as part of the Society’s Centenary Celebrations.
To add to this unique experience, The Cranberry Tarts—Aileen Logie and Hilary Ferral—will provide music from the original tunes and arrangements used by Peter Elmes for both books.
Early Wellington Dances: Our Tutors for this Special Occasion
Iain Boyd
Iain has taught at classes and weekend schools in the Region and throughout New Zealand, including at New Zealand Branch Summer Schools, and across the world. Iain has many books of dances as well as dances in various collections which are widely danced internationally.
Iain has two dances published by the RSCDS: The Loch Ness Monster (2nd Graded Book) and TheTrysting Place (Book 35/6). His dance Wild Mountain Thyme is in The Morison’s Bush Collection and On the Quarter-Deck is in The Harbour City Collection.
Iain Boyd as MC at the 2007-2008 Summer School Hogmanay in Wellington. With Sharlene Penman, Lynne Scott, Iain Matcham, John Smith, Peter Elmes and Carlton Downey in the band. Photo: Loralee Hyde
Romaine Butterfield
Romaine has four dances published by the RSCDS (the most of any New Zealand deviser); Catch the Wind (Book 45/5), The Bonnie Tree (Book 46/6), The Kissing Bridge (Book 47/9) and Come What May (Book 51).
Romaine has taught at classes and weekend schools in the Region and throughout New Zealand including at New Zealand Branch Summer Schools. She was a tutor for many years at the Island Bay Club (now Capital City) and is the current tutor of Waikanae Club.
Her dance Joy Be Wi’ You is in The Morison’s Bush Collection, and Cabbages And Kings and Let’s Meet Again are in The Harbour City Collection.
Romaine Butterfield as MC at the 2020 Wellington Region New Dancers’ Celebration organised by Waikanae Club. With Jason Morris, Aileen Logie and Hilary Ferral in the band. Photo: Loralee Hyde
Edith Campbell
Edith has taught at classes and weekend schools in the Region and throughout New Zealand including at New Zealand Branch Summer Schools. After moving from the UK to New Zealand with her Wellingtonian husband Bruce, Edith taught at Wellington Club (disestablished in 2006) for 10 years from 1963. In 1978, she and Bruce started Seatoun Club. She has now tutored the club for 45 years.
Edith Campbell as MC at the 2020 Wellington Region Hogmanay in Lower Hutt. With Glenice Saunders, Mary McDonald, Moira Croad, Jason Morris, Duncan McDonald and Lynne Scott in the band. Photo: Loralee Hyde
Elaine Laidlaw
Elaine has been on the Wellington Region Committee for many years including as President from 2011- 2013. She and her husband Michael have been involved in organising a number of Wellington Region events including the Wellington Region Diamond Jubilee Ball in 2012 at Government House as well as Hogmanays and New Dancers’ Celebrations.
In 2000, Elaine and Michael started Carterton Club in the Wairarapa. She continues to teach at the club. Elaine was awarded Life Membership of the New Zealand Branch in 2022 for her extensive service to the Branch in a range of roles including President. See more in this extract from the New Zealand Scottish Country Dancer 2022 No. 69 p4
Her published dances include The Tui’s Call in the collection From North Cape To the Bluff which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the New Zealand Branch, and The ‘Halfway House’, Petone (a tribute to the Community House in Britannia Street, Petone where the Region Committee meets) in The Wellington 60th Anniversary Collection.
Elaine as MC at the 2021 Wellington Region 60th Anniversary Ball in Lower Hutt. With Ann Goodbehere, Mary McDonald, Sharlene Penman and Lynne Scott in the band. Photo: Loralee Hyde
Early Wellington Dances: Our Musicians
The Cranberry Tarts: Aileen Logie and Hilary Ferral
Aileen’s musical life started in Scotland when she was five years old. As well as learning to play the piano, guitar and accordion, she learned Scottish Country Dancing. Aileen played in various bands before moving to Wellington in 2009. Within days of arriving, long-time Wellingtonian musician Peter Elmes contacted her and encouraged her to join in his gigs. From being Peter’s ‘apprentice’, Aileen now plays in a range of band line-ups, including the duo The Cranberry Tarts with Hilary Ferral.
As a child, Hilary initially learned piano, and then added violin lessons. The violin took over and she acquired a degree in violin performance. Hilary started Scottish Country Dancing at Tawa Club. Eventually, she was asked if she was interested in playing music for dancing. Subsequently, Hilary joined Peter Elmes’ band. After Peter’s retirement in 2018, she carried on playing with Aileen on a regular basis; in 2019, they named their duo The Cranberry Tarts.
At our special occasion of Early Wellington Dances, The Cranberry Tarts will provide music from the original tunes and arrangements used by Peter Elmes for dances from The Morison’s Bush Collection and The Harbour City Collection.
“Dance with your soul!” Miss Jean Milligan exhorted her students. It is the expression of soul—that quality of ‘soul’, which transforms a series of physical exercises into dance.
The desire to capture and keep alive this expression of Scotland’s soul and spirit prompted Miss Jean Milligan and her co-founder Mrs. Ysobel Stewart—supported by music publisher Michael Diack—to form the Scottish Country Dance Society in 1923.
To celebrate the ‘golden anniversary’ in 1973, dancers in the Wellington Region attended a ball in the rather cavernous Lower Hutt Horticultural Hall.
We were taken aback when the seemingly very large metre-square decorations with paper-sculptures depicting the titles of four popular dances were dwarfed by the space, however Peter Elmes and his Band soon filled it with music and the floor quickly filled with enthusiastic dancers from the Region and beyond.
Being a special occasion, Betty Redfearn, Gary Morris and I had put our heads together to devise the appropriately entitled Won’t You Join the Dance to tell the Society’s story. Rather than just ‘demonstrating it’, I concocted a floor show so that the dancers came on to the floor from the corners of the floor using their dance steps and figures to create an interesting spectacle.
I think they all enjoyed presenting the movements in ways rather different from the usual confines of their sets—exciting! Miss Milligan visited New Zealand the next year and she was delighted when we danced WYJTD for her.
Following the event’s success, it was decided to make it a biennial event. The next one celebrated fifty years since the Society first published a book of dances—one being TheTriumph—so the hall was decorated with triumphal arches.
The wall at the back of the hall’s stage was enormous so I made a triangular linen ‘curtain’ to suspend from a hook at the top; for the year to mark the beginning of Summer Schools we attached red crepe paper strips to it to look like a ‘big top’ to tie in with the Lammas Fair in the town of St. Andrews which always coincides with the Schools. There was also a market ‘stall’ on the stage with a striped awning.
Another year, crepe paper again was used to create the Beehive; on the walls were honeycomb hexagons each emblazoned with the Branch’s Regions and a representative emblem—the beehive of course represented Wellington.
One of our dancers was an excellent artist so another year he painted a number of the castles in dance names; the round tables had a covering of green card depicting Robert Adams’ white plaster roundels (cf. Wedgewood vases) as found in the many stately homes he designed.
Speaking of these round tables; one year it was decided to have them at their lower level; during the evening there was frequently the sound of crashing glasses—the tables were at the right height for kilts to sweep them to the floor!
Since my school days Scottish Country dancing has brought me great pleasure, not only through the rewards from many friendships and sharing its joys with others as a teacher and a fellow-dancer and a Scottish entertainer, but also from the many and varied opportunities if has brought my way to explore other avenues for creativity … dreaming up scenarios and making decorations!
Edith Lauder Campbell September 2021
Dance with Your Soul – biography of Dr. Jean Milligan by Florence Adams and Alastair McFadyen
Won’t You Join the Dance – manual of dance instructions by Miss Jean Milligan
When dancing shuts down over the summer, Wellington dancers still enjoy their sport thanks to the annual Dancing on the Grass organised by the Wellington Region of the RSCDS. This takes place on four summer Tuesday evenings on the grass in front of the Old Government Buildings in Lambton Quay.
Before getting on to the dancing, what about the venue?
The building was designed by William Clayton to accommodate all of New Zealand’s public servants. Originally intended to be made of concrete so as to be fireproof, that proved too expensive and so it was constructed all in Kauri instead, made to look as if it was stone, presumably to make the government look solid and dependable. It was, as building projects often are, over budget when completed in 1876.
Surprisingly, for nearly fifty years the building was heated with open fireplaces, but because of its wooden construction, smoking inside was banned right from when it opened, unlike in Wellington’s wooden-bodied trams which even provided smokers with metal plates fixed to the woodwork on which to strike their matches!
Having served the Colony of New Zealand from 1876, the Dominion of New Zealand from 1907 and housing government Ministers until 1921, the Old Government Buildings are now the home of the Faculty of Law of Victoria University.
But what about the dancing?
Dancing is outside (on the grass) in front of the main entrance, so we provide a bit of a spectacle. In previous years tourists on Lambton Quay liked to stand and watch but there weren’t many tourists this year. One night this year one of the bus drivers gave us a toot on the horn and a wave as he drove down towards the city.
Dancing on grass is quite a novel sensation. It’s certainly different than dancing on a flat floor, it’s a bit bumpy and in summer if there’s not been much rain it can be quite firm and scratchy. There’s also a large floodlight sticking out of the grass which you need to look out for when casting behind your line.
Some people wear their dancing shoes and some like bare feet. There are little acorn-like things hiding in the grass which can give you a nasty surprise in bare feet, like stepping on a piece of the kids’ Lego in the dark.
Dancing on the grass on 2 February. Robert is dancing just to the left of centre (with the statue of Peter Fraser, New Zealand’s Prime Minister from 1940-1949, behind him). Photo from video by Pat Reesby
Each of the four summer dancing sessions is led by a different tutor from one of the Wellington clubs. The dances are usually the fairly familiar ones that appear on many club dance programmes throughout the year although there were a couple of exceptions this year that confused quite a few of us. The tutors generally choose dances that are not too complicated and they’re walked, so it’s all a lot easier than trying to dance from just a briefing.
And what about the Lino?
Well, being Wellington in the summer, it can be wet and it can be cold. This year, for both those reasons, we danced inside for two of the four sessions.
The inside space is the student café of the VUW Law Faculty (it offers a very cheap vegan lunch). The door to the café is round the other side of the building from the grass and the main entrance.
The café is a good sized space with one extra feature, which is the series of columns that hold up the floors above. These are cunningly placed so that you have to dance round them when casting, or dancing a figure-of-eight, which adds to the excitement.
And the flooring in the café is lino, or to give it its proper name, Linoleum, which is made from jute and linseed oil. There’s a fine Scottish connection, as the city of Dundee was famous for “jute, jam and journalism”. Known in the 19th century as Juteopolis it was the centre of the global jute trade. Dundee was also famous for producing Keiller’s marmalade and for still being the home of D C Thomson, the publishers of well-loved comics like The Beano and Scottish cartoon strips The Broons and Oor Wullie.
Dancing on the grass is a great way to enjoy some dancing when clubs are closed for the summer. You get to meet people from other clubs, you might then see them later in the year at a dance. One of the four nights this year was a beautiful warm, still night and it was magical dancing outside as the dusk fell.
Being able to dance in front of Parliament (or at least the Beehive) seems so unlike what might be permitted in the UK, the USA or even in Canberra, where the people seem less able to get close to the seat of power.
There’s also something special about being able to dance right outside the heart of government, just across from the Beehive. This year it felt extra special to be able to dance at all, given the situation in many less fortunate countries.
Going back in time to the Roaring Twenties, groups of elegant dancers entered a beautifully decorated ballroom ready for an evening of dance and friendship: flappers in dresses decorated with beadwork, sequins or embroidery, feathers in their hair and long swirling strings of pearls; men in striped jackets, white trousers and boater hats or resplendent in black Prince Charlie jackets and kilts.
Wellington Region President at the time, Philippa Pointon, said the committee decided to have a 1920s ball to celebrate the decade in which the RSCDS was formed
Thanks so much to the committee of Melva Waite, Kath Ledingham, Eileen South and Philippa, who was also MC for the evening, for organising this grand affair on 5 July 2014.
The ‘1920s’ committee: Melva Waite, Kath Ledingham, Eileen South and Philippa Pointon
As dancers arrived, they were offered punch by three smartly dressed bartenders; Kevin Lethbridge, Pat Waite and Peter Warren.
Ready to serve the punch: Kevin Lethbridge, Pat Waite and Peter Warren
Everyone had the opportunity to pose in their finery in a gold photo booth, made especially for the purpose by John Gregory. Thanks to John for pulling together all the fantastic decorations for the evening, with the photo booth continuing to feature at formal occasions including the grand Johnsonville 50 Golden Years Celebration in 2016
Elegant Tawa dancers take their turn in the gold photo booth
Lively music from Aileen Logie, John Smith, Peter Elmes and Terry Bradshaw (with some sets containing 1920s tunes cleverly arranged by Peter), got toes tapping and dancers on to the floor throughout the evening.
MC Philippa Pointon with Aileen Logie, John Smith, Peter Elmes and Terry Bradshaw
Old favourites on the programme included The Sailor, Cadgers in Canongate and Sugar Candie. Dances published by the RSCDS in the 1920s were represented by Flowers of Edinburgh (Book 1, 1924) and Blue Bonnets (Book 3, 1926).
Enjoying the dance!
“A great night was had by all”, says Philippa. “I don’t think the Charleston had ever been played on an accordion before!”
On a balmy Wellington evening, more than 12 sets of dancers saw off the end of a challenging 2020 by cheering in the New Year at the Wellington Region Hogmanay on 31 December in Lower Hutt.
Thanks to Ann and Andrew Oliver and their team for organising this superb evening which was full of smiles and laughter after a disrupted year of dancing. A constant refrain was one of thankfulness for being able to celebrate Hogmanay together when so many around the world could not due to severe Covid-19 restrictions.
Dancing Double Culla Bay
Along with dancers from throughout the Wellington Region, we welcomed RSCDS New Zealand Branch President Linda Glavin, Vice President Debbie Roxburgh with Paul, and Communication, Publicity and Membership Coordinator Sue Lindsay. Others from outside the Region included Sue and Ian Pearson from Whanganui, Doug Mills and Lynda Aitchison from Marlborough and former Wellingtonian Xiaowen Yu, now living in Dunedin.
Thank you to the MCs who gave briefings and oversaw walkthroughs of dances during the evening—Ann, Jeanette Watson, Margaret Cantwell, Diane Bradshaw and Edith Campbell (who shared intriguing tidbits about the dance origins!).
We danced the night away to fine music from the Saltire Scottish Dance Band led by Mary McDonald on the fiddle, with Jason Morris (keyboard, clarinet), Duncan McDonald (drums), Glenice Saunders (fiddle) and Alastair McDonald (sound technician). Joining them were guest musicians Lynne Scott (accordion, octave-below fiddle, keyboard) and Moira Croad (flute, piccolo).
MC Edith Campbell with the six-piece Saltire Scottish Dance Band
Popular dances included the old favourites De’il Amang the Tailors, Pelorus Jack and the toe-tapping reel Mairi’s Wedding. The more experienced dancers took up the challenge of dancing Culla Bay, Best Set in the Hall (repeated for those keen to dance it a second time) and A Capital Jig.
Before midnight, Damon Collin led a singalong of Scottish songs—this time with the words projected on to a screen rather than the printed copies we’ve used since the last century!
The ceremony for welcoming in the New Year began by sweeping out the old year, with Lee and Michele Miller taking on the roles of the Old Year and the Sweeper while we sang Auld Lang Syne.
Singing Auld Lang Syne as the Sweeper sweeps out the Old Year
As President of the Wellington Region, Ann announced the arrival of the First Foot—the first person to come across the threshold in the new year, carrying gifts of coal for warmth, salt or money for wealth, shortbread for sustenance and whisky for good cheer.
Led by piper Doug Sinclair, First Foot James Scott walked a circuit around the hall before presenting the gifts to Ann. The First Foot then raised a toast to the RSCDS Wellington Region and we welcomed in the new year of 2021.
Wellington Region President Ann Oliver raises a toast to the Region
After wishing each other Happy New Year, it was time for the dancers to tackle the final three dances—the Eightsome/Thirtytwosome Reel, City of Belfast and The Reel of the 51st Division.
Watch the compilation video below by Alastair McDonald
