A hall packed with dancers!

The New Dancers’ Celebration is Wellington Region’s biggest annual event, celebrating those who have taken up Scottish Country Dancing in the past two years. To great astonishment, this year’s celebration had 19 sets taking to the floor—the largest celebration in the Region since pre-pandemic times!

Hosted by Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt Clubs on Saturday 12 October in the Knox Church Hall in Lower Hutt, with Chris Totton, Andrea Wells and Chris Kelly as MC’s, the evening was full of good cheer and lots of smiles.

Dancers came to the event from clubs throughout the Wellington Region. We also welcomed others from Whanganui, and RSCDS New Zealand Branch Secretary Joy Dick from Ashhurst.

The more experienced dancers helped the newer ones enjoy the special programme of easier dances, with the popular The Laird of Milton’s Daughter (with the Corner Chain formation) and The De’il Amang the Tailors (which can be devilishly fast) adding a few challenges.

Throughout the evening, we danced to toe-tapping music from Strings Attached—Lynne Scott on the fiddle, Sharlene Penman on the keyboard and Richard Hardie playing the double bass. Popular tunes were Anderson’s Rant, Flowers of Edinburgh and The Kissing Bridge.

A dance of regional significance was the strathspey The Halfway House devised by Elaine Laidlaw, which is a tribute to the Community House in Britannia Street, Petone where the Wellington Region Committee meets—the dance is published in The Wellington 60th Anniversary Collection.

Other dances devised by New Zealanders were New Year Jig by Wellingtonian Maureen Robson, which was on the programme for the Lower North Island RSCDS Centenary Ball in 2023, Balmoral Strathspey devised by John Charles, which was also on the programme for the Centenary Ball, and was the first dance from a Kiwi deviser adopted by the RSCDS, and Wellingtonian Romaine Butterfield’s Come What May and The Kissing Bridge.

A delicious supper provided by experienced dancers who came along was warmly welcomed by all halfway through this fabulous evening of dancing.

Thanks so much to Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt Clubs and their members for the work they did to put on this great celebration of dancing (especially as Lower Hutt had celebrated 70 years of dancing just a month before!).

Long may the joy and camaraderie of this night continue in our Scottish Country Dancing community!

Loralee Hyde
15 October 2024