News

The Primary Ingredient of Trad Dance the World Over

The Primary Ingredient of Trad Dance the World Over is the abridged version of an article by Dr Wendy Timmons, Convenor of Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland and Senior Lecturer at University of Edinburgh, originally published in Volkstanz Magazine – the major publication of the Folk Dance Society of Germany (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Volkstanz). Collectively, as two counterpart organisations Folk Dance Society of Germany and Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland, we represent thousands of creatives and grass-roots organisations from across Germany and Scotland, all striving for the safeguarding of traditional, social and folk dance – an integral part of the vibrant socially-engaged, participatory art practice in our contemporary world. We spent over a year in 2022 and 2023 of getting to know each other through a series of encounters in Boardrooms and Zoom rooms, festivals and the dancefloor as part of our Strictly Scottish and Schottisch project, made possible through the support of the Cultural Bridge consortium of seven funding partners, all encouraging the construction of bridges between the UK and Germany. For instance, together we explored, experienced and assessed Europeade – the longest running and largest nomadic festival of folk dance across Europe by attending its 58th edition in Gotha, Germany, as well as the 2nd edition of Pomegranates – the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland own flagship festival of world dance held across Edinburgh and Glasgow.

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The Primary Ingredient of Trad Dance the World Over

Dr Wendy Timmons

Convenor of the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland and Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh

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My own personal and professional interests in traditional dance forms initially drew me to the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland soon after it was established in 2014. I proudly joined the organisation – one of the three founding members of Traditional Arts & Culture Scotland (aka TRACS), itself a consortium of charitable bodies, organised as three forums which recognise and support dance, music, storytelling and consider seasonal customs as part of Scotland’s evolving intangible cultural heritage. In 2015 I became a board member of the organisation dedicated to the advancement of all forms of traditional dance in Scotland, representing a diverse network of organisations and individuals, supporting all forms of traditional dance practised across Scotland through free membership (since November 2022) and three major routes – residencies, festivals and productions.

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My research and practice over the past 40 years in Greece and the UK had taken me to explore one particular and very ancient traditional dance step, namely the Συστα οr Susta. Otherwise known as a spring or catalyst, this step is basically a triple step which appears today as the primary ingredient in almost every form of dance that exists.

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Arguably, the evolution of the human species and the fusion of the vertebrae and pelvis led the way for bipedal walking. Whilst this brought structural vulnerabilities, it also freed up the arms and hands to carry tools, ultimately also weapons, enabling the first humanoids to flourish and diversify. These anatomical characteristics marked the ascent to cognitive life.

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Bipedality came, therefore, with the potential for variation in human expression and expression through movement. The skipping of a heart beat, for example, can be represented through a twist on walking and when two steps are expressed as three, this becomes a triple step.

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From a personal perspective, my fascinations with the triple step have taken me to ancient Greek writings where the susta or triple step are clearly documented. Exported from the Kurrites and Minoan civilisations on the island of Crete the susta was, for example, performed and used by soldiers in Sparta as a means to portray their superiority and strength in Phyrric dance forms which were used for mental and physical preparation for war.

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As a dance step the ancient susta step is still fundamental in Greek traditional dances, performed as three steps over two main beats of music and in the same way the triple step manifests in most other traditional dance forms (e.g., pas de bas, polka, Schottische, top rocking and more).

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My work at the University of Edinburgh had already successfully enabled me to create a role for dance artists-in-residence at Moray House School of Education and Sport. This initiative has provided resident dance artists with a ‘home’ for an extended period receiving access, support and mentorship, as well as scope to explore and utilise the vast resources that the University provides. More importantly, and since 2012, the residencies at the University provide a sense of belonging and relatedness that surpasses the status of a visiting artist. Equally, through the residencies, staff and students at the University experience and learn alongside established dance artists in the context of higher education.

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By 2016, having already mentored four top resident dance artists from classical and contemporary dance backgrounds, we decided to extend this opportunity to traditional dance practitioners and artists for the first time in the University’s history. The first traditional dance artist-in-residence, Nic Gareiss, was in 2018/19 and this was also the first partnership residency between the University of Edinburgh and the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland. The focus of this successful residency was the triple step and the culmination – the Art of Treepling mini trad dance festival in June 2019 – a precursor of the inaugural Pomegranates 2022.

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Treepling, in Scots refers of course to the triple rhythms and steps associated with Scottish step dance. Nic Gareiss, a renowned step dancer from the USA, spent a whole year researching and practising the dying art of Scottish Step Dance whilst spreading and disseminating his work across Scotland and the USA through workshops and performances. As a result of this residency there has been a significant and renewed interest in Scottish Step dance which is now thriving and developing.

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In addition to the partnership residencies with the University of Edinburgh, the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland now also host and support residencies in state primary schools and arts organisations such as Dance Base, Scotland’s National Centre for dance and Citymoves, Aberdeen’s dance agency. In the primary schools the residencies which we facilitate, including  C is for Ceilidh – the first and perhaps the only Ceilidh dance artist-in-residence in a state-funded primary school in Scotland, allow traditional dance to be experienced and taught as part of the Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence, providing opportunities for a range of traditional dance forms to be explored.

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Sometimes, for example, the dance sessions are used as socially and emotionally enriched form of activity and an alternative to the government prescribed physical activity, e.g., the ‘daily mile’ of running or walking in the playground. Other times the dance experience is used as a means to educate through dance, e.g., teaching the Gallic language through traditional Scottish song and dance. In arts organisations the residencies focus on the traditional dance artists-in-residence themselves, providing a paid experience and access to a dance studio as a ‘safe space’ to experiment and explore their dance form. These residencies often also lead and develop into performative productions, for example our Thistles and Sunflowers choreographic fusion of dance from Scotland, Bulgaria and now Ukraine, was seeded through such a residency exploration.

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In 2018, I became the Convenor/Director of the Board for the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland and soon after we restructured the organisation, broadening our remit beyond ‘strictly’ Scottish dance to include all traditional and folk dance forms that are widely practiced in Scotland. By 2022 we had also re-contextualised the scope of our only staff member from a ‘development officer’ into a curatorial role which has further enabled us to grow and develop our goals, processes and outreach as a forum.

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Post-pandemic developments of the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland were seeded in Pomegranates on 28 and 29 April 2022 when our inaugural world dance festival took place in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh and the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland. As an apt metaphor pomegranates refers to our desire as festival producers to sweetly sow the seeds for diverse forms of traditional dance to flourish. During the 2022 Pomegranates festival, we facilitated one day of ten traditional dance workshops from countries around the world, including China, Scotland, Tibet, Mongolia, The Congo, Japan, a promenade celebratory performance and of course, a Scottish Ceilidh. This first step was a great success and it emboldened us to explore funding sources and support that would allow us to work globally to enrich and broaden our reach.

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In 2022 we collaborated with our counterparts in Egypt to create our first dance film To Begin the Dance Once More inspired by the cultural heritage and practices in Scotland and Egypt; in 2023 we also embarked on another cultural bridge project, Strictly Scottish Schottische, with the the Folk Dance Society of Germany (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Volkstanz).

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By April 2023 Pomegranates had grown to a three-day extravaganza with no less than 12 world dance workshops, the premiere of our traditional dance film, a triple bill of live performance productions and finished with a themed and choreographed promenade production that was grounded in 10 specially commissioned Sequins of Poems to Dance To by Ian McMillan rapped and interpreted through Hip Hop. The concluding statement of a Hip Hop Ceilidh finale, also provided the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland with an opportunity to present a convincing argument that Hip Hop is and should be represented in the traditional dance environment.

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For Pomegranates 2024, we have a long weekend four-day spectacular in the planning, so watch this space linktr.ee/pomegranatesfest and do save the date to join us if you can in 26-29 April 2024.

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One further and important focal point for the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland is to ensure that traditional dance, in whatever context or form, is practised as a quality and meaningful experience. This for us means not only supporting practitioners and artists to facilitate and lead quality dance sessions, workshops and productions but also to have top-quality dance musicians to accompany these experiences. Each and every of the ‘triple steps’, i.e. residency, festival and production we initiate and support, therefore, follows this format. We have set the bar quite high in this respect as we also believe in equal payment and fair opportunity for both dance and music practitioners which ultimately requires funding and support. Our aim, however, is to develop and grow a community of creatives, including dance practitioners and dance musicians, that work together symbiotically understanding and believing in always providing the best possible experience of dance, music, craft and storytelling traditions in any context.

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Finally, as all good things really do come in threes, the growing success and momentum of residencies, productions and festivals at the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland is enabling a platform where traditional dance can flourish.

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All ‘triple step images’ here are courtesy of the contributors to the news and reviews published on the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland website throughout 2022-2023

News

Fair Saturday Ceilidh House

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Did you know that Fair Saturday is a global mobilisation that creates a positive social impact and provides an empathetic response to Black Friday. It brings artists and performers together from all over the world to create a celebration of culture and community. We are delighted that Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland and TRACS are taking part in this year’s Fair Saturday Festival which comprises more than 40 events across the country.
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Join us this Fair Saturday, 25 November 2023 from 19:00 at our home in the Scottish Storytelling Centre to experience a twist on our Thistles and Sunflowers events, this time fusing Scottish and Ukrainian trad dance, live music and storytelling!

BOOK NOW
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Chris Lyons of Balkan Ceilidh Band 📷 by Chris Scott for Hidden Door Festival
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Our Fair Saturday event features the Balkan Ceilidh band led by our Blue Giant Orkestar friend Chris Lyons who for the first time will accompany the trio of Ukrainain folk dancers Inna Semeniak, Tetiana Hordiienko and Anastasiia Boiko from Edinburgh’s own Dance Studio Kvity Ukrainy, as well as the incredible Scottish storyteller Tim Porteus and his Ukrainian counterparts.

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You may have last seen Chris Lyons as part of our Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2023 debut as producers at the third iteration of our Thistles and Sunflowers show with the guest appearance of the award-winning vocalist Angela Rodel, embodying the power of the Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares. However, if you have missed it you can catch the highlights on our YouTube channel here.

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We have been working with Chris, the Irish-Scot with a passion for wild and weird European tunes and dances, since our second annual Pomegranates 2023 festival. Read more about Chris and his trajectory in his beautiful blog published by our friends at Traditional Music Forum. In his own words:
I quite often get asked how it is that I ended up playing these styles of music and/or instruments. I don’t really have a good or exciting answer except that I have always been fascinated by collecting and learning new instruments and try to be involved in as many different styles as I can. I am a classically-trained pianist and violinist and have been gigging as a jazz musician since I was around 14 but later on I gradually picked up other instruments and now my studio has a pile of Ouds, Sazes, Banjos and various Lauotos and Lyras. I run or co-run the only two Balkan-style Brass bands in Scotland as well as a project performing traditional Greek music.
Chris Lyons
Similarly, we discovered the Ukrainian folk dancers Oksana Saiapina and Anastasiia Boiko at our second annual Pomegranates 2023 festival and continued to support them as part of our To Ukrane and Love project and the Harpies, Fechters and Quines Festival 2023 – our contribution to the 10th edition of this festival with a series of performances, talks and screenings featuring the feisty women of trad dance – all documented for you to explore in our 11-segment YouTube playlist here.
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In the summer 2023 our project To Ukraine with Love continued to evolve, as we fostered a collaboration with Moray House School of Education and Sport, as well as Dance Base, Scotland’s National Centre for Dance to enable not only Oksana and Anastasiia but also another professionally trained trad dancer Tetiana Hordiienko to maintain their professional development by taking regular dance classes with Vincent Hantam.

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For the first time as part of our Fair Saturday event, we will be pleased to introduce you to another professionally trained trad dancer Inna Semeniak of Kvity Ukrainy who will take to the stage together with Anastasiia Boiko and Tetiana Hordiienko.

What else to expect while celebrating Fair Saturday with us in the lovely setting of the Scottish Sorytelling Centre’s Storytelling Court? A warm and relaxed evening of dancing, music, stories, friendship and food presented in the traditional Scottish ceilidh style, also in anticipation of the forthcoming St. Andrew’s Day.

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Fair Saturday Ceilidh House is curated by Daniel Abercrombie, Wendy Timmons and Iliyana Nedkova on behalf of TRACS, Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland and Scottish Storytelling Centre. It is supported by the Fair Saturday Foundation through the City of Edinburgh Council.

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#fairsaturday #fairsaturdayscotland #ceilidhhouse #thistlesandsunflowers #toukrainewithlove

News

Discover fantastic new music with the TMF’s latest Scottish Traditional Music playlist

The Traditional Music Forum’s latest monthly Scottish Traditional Music playlist features fantastic new releases from Jack Houston, Dan Brown, Jenny Sturgeon & Boo Hewerdine, Ryan Young, Heisk, Valtos & Gnoss, Spell Songs, Hildaland, Lyre, and The Furrow Collective.

Make sure to follow the TMF on Spotify!

News

The TMF’s monthly Scottish Music playlist has had a makeover!

We’ve got a fresh new look for our monthly Scottish Music playlist! (29) features new releases from Olivia Ross, Katie Macfarlane, The Unprepared, Rhona Stevens & Joseph Peach, Gloriosa Trio, Rowan Leslie, Maggie MacInnes, Calum Stewart, Skerryvore, and Ailie Robertson.

Make sure to follow the TMF on Spotify!

News

Week Two Highlights of the Scottish International Storytelling Festival – runs until 29 Oct 2023

There’s still 7 days to go before this year’s Scottish International Storytelling Festival’s (13-29 Oct) packed programme of over 125 events draws to a close.

In Edinburgh, and all across Scotland, in village halls, pubs, cafes, and public parks, stories connected to this year’s festival theme ‘Right To Be Human,’ are being shared by local and international storytellers, musicians, and artists, highlighting the strength of human courage and creativity, and the threats and challenges to our human rights as a global nation.

Some of the festival’s highlights still to come include performances from international Sámi storyteller Stina Fagertun and musician Øistein Hanssen. They will be sharing stories from the Arctic region with audiences in Aberfeldy, Dumfries and Glasgow (as part of the festival’s Go Local programme of events), and in Edinburgh where they will perform Northern TreasuresTales Around the Sami Drum (Wed 25 Oct),  and The Sun’s Ring (Sat 28 Oct) which takes audiences through the eight seasons of the Sámi people on a quest to find the magic ring before it is too late. 

Stina Fagertun is a Sámi storyteller, actor, screenwriter and poet who comes from the fjord part of Arctic Norway and represents coastal Sámi and Kven (Finnish descendant) ancestry. She is a teller and collector of ancient stories, fairytales and legends of the Sámi and Kven tradition. During the festival she will be accompanied by musician Øistein Hanssen who has roots from Sami, Kven and Norse ancestry and has spent decades studying these different cultures’ musical backgrounds. In Northern Treasures Stina’s stories and myths will be told with accompanying music from traditional prehistoric instruments made of materials such as bone, horn, wood and hollow plant stems.

Other highlights during week 2 include:

The Promise (Fri 27 Oct) told through the eyes of a child and performed by storyteller Anna Conomos-Wedlock. This tale is inspired by a true story of two seven year-old girls living in Smyrna, one Turkish Muslim, and the other Greek Orthodox in 1923 who are surrounded by war and destruction.

 

Fire from the Woods (Thu 26 Oct), which explores our right to know our ancestors’ stories and how fathers are often unable to express their emotions; preferring to stay silent, and thus leaving their children to grow up without stories. Performed by storyteller Daiva Ivanauskaitė who curates Lithuania’s first storytelling festival, with music composed and performed by Gaynor Barradell. This new commission is directed by Scottish storyteller Lauren Bianchi and supported by The Village Storytelling Centre.

Arise! (Thu 26 Oct) performed by the ‘Breadagogues’ (Marie Louise Cochrane, Suzanne Houston and Andrew Whitley). A humorous and extraordinary tale of wheat’s journey through history with humans, from wild grass to commodity grain; of refinement, adulteration and redemption in the hands of ordinary folk claiming their right to healthy food. All told in a gently amusing narrative that mixes catchy songs that lampoon those who profit from our belly-aches, with invitations to take this vital food into our own hands. 

The Breadagogues (Marie Louise Cochrane, Suzanne Houston and Andrew Whitley), who will perform Arise! on Thu 26 Oct

Plus for those who can’t make it along in person, week two of the festival’s online programme of workshops Global Lab (23-26 Oct) returns with daily discussion on our approach to human rights, our cultural rights, our place in nature, and empowerment of children. These sessions, led by nationally and internationally renowned guest speakers including – writer and activist Jemma Neville whose background is in human rights law and arts development; Dr Jennifer Markides Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary and Research Chair in Indigenous Youth Well-being & Education; science communicator and astrophysicist Joanna Ramasawmy; earth scientist David Hughes; and TRACS Director Steve Byrne – explore how it is often better to light a candle, than to curse the darkness in the world.

The Scottish International Storytelling Festival runs until Sunday 29 October. Tickets to each event in this year’s programme cost a maximum of £10, with family events costing just £5 per ticket. For those planning on attending multiple events, the Festival Pass (£20/£10)  offers discounted tickets to many live festival events, online and at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, as well as a discount at the Scottish Storytelling Centre’s bookshop and Haggis Box Café.

Full programme is available here  or visit sisf.org.uk for more details.
@ScotStoryFest #RightToBeHuman

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Mental Health takes a Prominent Role in this year’s Scottish International Storytelling Festival Programme

It’s World Mental Health Day and with just a few days to go until the doors open for this year’s Scottish International Storytelling Festival (13-29 Oct) we’re taking the opportunity to highlight some of the events that are themed around mental health and wellbeing, as part of a packed programme of over 125 events. 

In Edinburgh, and all across Scotland as part of the festival’s Go Local programme of events, village halls, pubs, cafes, and public parks will be brought to life through the telling of stories connected to this year’s festival theme ‘Right To Be Human,’ which marks the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

This year, the festival is partnering with the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival (SMHAF) on several of its events. SMHAF’s theme for 23 is ‘mental health is a universal human right’, chosen for World Mental Health Day (Tue 10 Oct), which also celebrates our ‘Right To Be Human’ and marks the 75th anniversary.

In partnership with SMHAF, the festival is presenting:

TALK. (Sat 7-Sun 29 Oct) an exhibition of portrait photographs by Edinburgh based photographer Graham Williams exploring men’s mental health.

Up the Middle Road: Stories from the Crichton Royal Asylum (Tue 17 Oct) which presents excerpts from Mike Bolam’s film of patients’ and staff’s telling first-hand, stories from Dumfries’ Crichton Royal Hospital which closed in early 2000s, and was known locally as ‘Up the Middle Road’. Audiences will also hear stories from Amanda Edmiston, a specialist in healing tales, and be invited to be part of a discussion on how stories can heal and dispel the stigma around mental health chaired by Dr Valentina Bold. The event was originally created for Scotland’s Year of Stories in 2022 and performed in the grounds of the hospital. 

SMHAF’s 10th annual Writing Awards (Sun 22 Oct) hosted by Scottish poet and playwright Hannah Lavery, the Edinburgh Makar, with a short live set from musician Jill Lorean and storytelling performance by Daniel Serridge. 

The Festival has also commissioned two new events for its ‘Right To Be Human’ series, related to mental health:

In the Hartwood (Mon 23 Oct in Edinburgh and Sat 28 Oct in Shotts) performed by storytellers Jane Mather and Heather Yule who pay tribute to all the patients and paupers who died in the now derelict Hartwood psychiatric hospital near Shotts, and are buried in the cemetery in its grounds. In Shotts this event will include a Q&A with Friends of Hartwood, a group of volunteers who tend to the graves, and whose interests are in removing the shame surrounding mental health, and uncovering the deep library of local knowledge and social history which is buried with the 1255 souls at Hartwood.

Fire from the Woods (Thu 26 Oct), exploring our right to know our ancestors’ stories and how many fathers are often unable to express their emotions and stay silent, leaving children to grow up without stories. Performed by storyteller Daiva Ivanauskaitė who curates Lithuania’s first storytelling festival, and regularly performs in her native land, her adopted home of Scotland, and internationally on stage and at community events; with music composed and performed Gaynor Barradell, this new work commissioned for the festival is directed by Scottish storyteller Lauren Bianchi and supported by The Village Storytelling Centre.

For those who can’t make it to the festival in person, there are six weekly episodes of the Festival’s first podcast Another Story  themed around our Right To Be Human available and the festival’s online workshop strand Global Lab. In week one of the festival  (16-19 Oct) Global Lab will look at our planet’s eco-system and how ecological passion drives twenty-first century storytelling, in association with Earth Charter International, and in Week Two (23-26 Oct) the focus returns to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the importance of valuing dignity, respect, equality and compassion in our lives.

The Scottish International Storytelling Festival runs from Friday 13 – Sunday 29 October. This year’s opening event is Tales of Exile and Sanctuary with storyteller Gauri Raje developed whilst she worked at a immigration detention centre in Oxford. Tickets to each event in this year’s programme cost a maximum of £10, with family events costing just £5 per ticket. For those planning on attending multiple events, the Festival Pass (£20/£10)  offers discounted tickets to many live festival events, online and at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, as well as a discount at the Scottish Storytelling Centre’s bookshop and Haggis Box Café.

Full programme is available here or visit sisf.org.uk for more details.
@ScotStoryFest #RightToBeHuman

News

Time for Another Story?

The Scottish International Storytelling Festival’s (13-29 Oct) new podcast series Another Story is the festival’s first ever podcast series. It includes six insightful and entertaining episodes featuring some of this year’s festival performers telling their favourite stories, and discussing this year’s festival theme ‘Right To Be Human’ chosen to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

Hosted by the festival’s Associate Director Daniel Abercrombie, Episode One opens with two hugely experienced storytellers, Ruth Kirkpatrick from the North East of Scotland (a well respected Tradition Bearer), and British Indian storyteller Peter Chand who is one of Europe’s most renowned storytellers and is in constant demand for his colourful tales from the Punjab. Both Ruth and Peter will perform together with double bassist Tom Lyne in Shadow Walking (Sat 21 Oct) where they will unapologetically tell stories to audiences that may be uncomfortable or have darker themes. This collection of stories will be challenging for them to tell, and also for the audience to hear, and in this episode they read from a few of these stories. They also discuss compromise and whether through changing stories to suit an audience, you lose that story’s integrity, and some of its beauty. And, whether through deciding not to tell certain stories, you are censoring your audience and following your own political or personal agenda, because everyone hears stories differently. They also question whether it is arrogant to think that as a storyteller, you can control that narrative and ask, more importantly, if stories don’t get told, what will happen to them?

Episode Two discusses migration and sanctuary with storytellers Anna Conomos-Wedlock, and Gauri Raje. Gauri will open this year’s festival with Tales of Exile and Sanctuary (Fri 13 Oct) which she developed with Seth Townsend when she was working at a detention centre for asylum seekers in Oxford in 2015. The stories are mainly from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia which were the nationalities of most of the people being detained there at this time. Many of the stories carry the spirit of what it means to be an asylum seeker, and others reflect Gauri’s own migration journey. 

Anna Conomos-Wedlock will bring her show The Promise (Fri 27 Oct) to this year’s festival which is inspired by a true story of two seven year old girls living in Smyrna, one Turkish Muslim, and the other Greek Orthodox in 1923. They are surrounded by war and destruction and the tale is told through the innocent eyes of a child which makes it ever more impactful. During the episode Anna and Gauri also discuss belonging and being a stranger in both your new land and your homeland when you return, and touch on the need for migrants to adapt and grow in a place, and what ‘hospitality’ actually means.

Episode Three provides a platform for two new generation storytellers Ailsa Dixon and Ffion Phillips who take inspiration not only from the tradition, but from their own life experiences when telling stories. Alisa is a traditional storyteller and musician who specialises in Scottish stories, often from her roots in Aberdeenshire and Orkney. She has an interest in narratives with feminist and environmentalist themes, as well as international myths, legends and wonder tales. Ffion Phillips is a storyteller based in Wales who started telling stories from the age of eight and loves sharing and reimagining Welsh tales. Both young storytellers discuss how they started out on the path to storytelling and share some of their favourite tales. During the festival Ailsa Dixon will join Sarah Wedderburn-Ogilvy at School of Storycraft (16-18 Oct) for young aspiring storytellers to give storytelling a try, and will also perform with musician Mairi McKeown in St Andrews (14 Oct) in Bennachie Speaks about the past, present and future of this great Aberdeenshire mountain.

In Episode Four we hear from Alice Fernbank whose new work Odin’s Eye and the Art of Seeing (Sat 21 Oct) will premiere at this year’s festival, and Svend-Erik Engh originally from Denmark who is also performing in a new piece Once Upon a Time There Was a War (Sat 28 Oct). Svend will perform this new work alongside musician Mairi Campbell and Danish artist Tea Bendix. Both events are part of this year’s Right To Be Human Series and will also tour as part of the festival’s Go Local programme to Oban (Odin’s Eye 14 Nov) and Mull (Once Upon a.. 13 Nov). In this podcast Alice and Svend share their love of the old myths and stories, and Alice gives a personal insight into her inspiration for choosing Odin’s Eye for her piece, based on her recent experience of being diagnosed with a tumour at the back of her left eye.

Episode Five discusses how storytelling can reach neuro diverse adults and young people with Ailie Finlay and Claire McNicol. Ailie has been developing a new multisensory piece called Town Mouse and Country Mouse (Sat 14 Oct) alongside artist Kate Lieper for this year’s festival, and Claire, based in Edinburgh, but originally from County Antrim, will be performing rhymes, music, dance and stories for younger children alongside musician Gica Loening in Makin a Brew (Mon 16 Oct). Claire will also feature as part of a festival special of Guid Crack (Fri 27 Oct) where audiences can take the floor and share a tale of their own at the Waverley Bar in Edinburgh. In this podcast they share stories, songs and some beautiful moments from their work with young people with additional needs.

Our final episode Episode Six, will be recorded live during the first of our Open Hearth sessions (Fri 13 Oct) and will feature storytellers Douglas Mackay, Fiona Herbert, and Tim Porteus accompanied by Rachel Newton (harp). Hosted by Daniel Abercrombie at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh, this promises to be a lively discussion, fuelled by some amazing storytellers sharing their passion and tales, and will be available online from Tue 17 October.

The music featured in the podcasts is from a new track called Bouncing by Mairi Campbell and David Gray.

This year’s Scottish International Storytelling Festival (13-29 October)  celebrates the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with a packed programme of stories themed around our Right To Be Human including tales of war, gender inequality, censorship; ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious prejudices; and other threats and challenges on our human rights as a global nation. Tickets to each live event costs a maximum of £10, with family events costing just £5 per ticket. For those planning on attending multiple events, the Festival Pass offers discounted tickets to many live festival events, online and at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, as well as a discount at the Scottish Storytelling Centre’s bookshop and Haggis Box Café.

To purchase tickets and browse the full programme, visit sisf.org.uk

A PDF version of the full programme is here.

News

Family Storytelling Events for the October School Holidays

With the October school holidays coming up next month, the Scottish International Storytelling Festival’s 2023 programme is packed with family events suitable for all ages.

This year’s theme explores our Right To Be Human, and celebrates the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Over the two-weeks of the festival (13-29 Oct) children and families can take part in craft and storytelling sessions, story walks, belly dancing and even a three-day school of storycraft where aspiring young storytellers can come and try to tell their own story.

Plus, for those living outside of Edinburgh, Go Local returns this year, with new voices from more regions in Scotland, including North and South Lanarkshire, coming together to share stories and songs. From Shetland to Dumfries and Galloway, there will be tales of battles, adventure, love and friendship shared by the fireside throughout October and November, and many of the main festival’s new commissions will also be going on tour.

We have listed all of our Family Events for you to explore in the list below. It’s really important to make sure that ticket pricing is accessible, which is why tickets to each event at the festival cost a maximum of £10, with family events costing just £5 per ticket.

Indoor events, Edinburgh-based:

The Town Mouse and The Country Mouse (Sat 14 Oct, 11am)
Scottish Storytelling Centre – £5 per child – all ages
This well-loved Aesop’s Fable about a proud town mouse who visits his cousin in the country is told by Ailie Finlay using multi-sensory props. Includes an arts and crafts session with artist/illustrator Kate Leiper. Particularly suitable for children with additional needs.

Isis and Osiris (Sat 14 Oct, 2pm)
Scottish Storytelling Centre – £5 per child – age 5+
This Ancient Egyptian myth is retold by Fergus McNicol and belly dancer Moyra Banks

School of Storycraft (Mon 16 – Wed 18 Oct, 10.30am)
Scottish Storytelling Centre – £15 per child – age 7-12
Storytellers Sarah Wedderburn-Ogilvy and Ailsa Dixon invite young aspiring storytellers to join in a series of fun-filled storytelling sessions and explore stories in their spoken form, through art, games and movement.

Makin a Brew (Mon 16 Oct, 11am)
Scottish Storytelling Centre – £5 per child – all ages
Musician Gica Loening and storyteller Claire McNicol share a mix of songs, rhymes, music, dance and stories aimed at small children with older siblings welcome.

Kamishibai Workshop (Thu 19 Oct, 11am)
Scottish Storytelling Centre – £5 per child – age 7+
The art of the Kamishibai storyboard with renowned storyteller, harpist and Urasenke Japanese Tea Master Mio Shudo. Along with enchanting harp music, Mio welcomes audiences to the world of original Japanese storytelling and shows them how to create Kamishibai and some secret tricks.Participants will also learn manga drawing techniques, story composition and performing skills.

Bear with Me: A Polar Bear in Scotland (Fri 20 Oct, 1.30pm)
Scottish Storytelling Centre – £5 per child – age 8+
This 2023 Edinburgh Fringe sell-out takes audiences on a rip-roaring adventure across heather, hill, ocean and snow as young Scottish polar bear Arty inadvertently ends up on a voyage far from home. A moving spoken-word show from critically acclaimed collective Stuart Kenny (poet), Grant Robertson (musician/composer) Lottie Whittingham (musician) and Lewis Gillies (illustrator).

The Well At The World’s End – Where the Heck Is It? (Fri 20 Oct, 2pm)
National Library of Scotland- Free, ticketed  – age 6 +
Allison Galbraith shares family-friendly folktales collected by John Francis Campbell. Escape with a gang of farm animals as they set out to live the dream. Meet a fox with a flea problem and help solve the age-old riddle: where exactly is the Well at the World’s End, and how do you get there? An interactive,vivid storytelling show filled with gentle humour and a Gaelic-singing frog.

Visual Fun With Sports (Sat 21 Oct, 2pm)
Scottish Storytelling Centre – £5 per child – age 5+
Presented by Deaf Action and performed at the Edinburgh Deaf Festival earlier this year with Petre Dobre & Craig McCulloch. Get ready to dive into the world of swimming, cycling, and skateboarding with lots of fun to be had along the way. ages 3+.

Family Samhuinn (Sat 28 Oct, 12pm)
Scottish Storytelling Centre – free, ticketed – age 3+
This delightful Beltane Fire Society tradition allows parents to share in the magic of the Samhuinn celebration with their little ones through storytelling, face painting and arts & crafts, in advance of the Samhuinn Fire Parade on Tue 31 Oct.

Outdoor events, Edinburgh-based:

Rewilding Cinderella: An Eco-Storytelling Concert (Sun 15 Oct from 1.30pm)
Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh – £5 per child, Storywalk 1 – Adults and 12+, Storywalk 2 – All Ages
Weaving together stories from all over the world about the ash-child told by a Choir of storytellers: Gauri Raje, Kestrel Morton, Laura Sampson, Wendy Shearer, Joanna Gilar and Fleur Hemmings; with poetry from Tunde Balogun, music from Heulwen Williams and artistic enchantments by Hannah Battershell.

Once There Was A Bug (Sun 15 Oct, 12-1.30pm & 2.30-4pm)
Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh – Free, drop-in- all ages (20 min sessions)
A family story session about trees, animals and bugs. 

Macastory’s Caddie Capers (Sat 21 Oct, 11.30am)
Edinburgh’s Old Town – £5 per person, age 5+
Interactive, entertaining storytelling on the cobbled streets of Edinburgh with Macastory’s Old Town Caddies,  where the characters of Deacon Brodie and Aggie the Fish Wife come to life through story, song and rhyme.

Go Local (out and about across Scotland)

Oban (The Rockfield Centre) – Tickets: therockfieldcentre.org.uk
The Laughing Mermaid and Other Stories (Tue 14 Nov, 4pm) – Pay What You Can age 7+
An hour of funny folktales from Denmark with storytellers Svend-Erik Engh and Alice Fernbank bringing you an assortment of stories from Svend-Erik’s book Danish Folktales. Meet laughing mermaids, giant snakes, a fat cat, a runaway sledge, giants, devils, and of course Vikings. 

Dunfermline (Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries)
Fabulous Fables (Sat 11 Nov, 2pm) – Free, ticketed – age 4-10
Local storytellers Mary Snaddon, Kate Walker and Sarah Wedderburn-Ogilvy craft and tell old stories of wonder and wisdom tales for today. Booking and info: Kate Walker – kate.storyteller@hotmail.co.uk, 07745 957 134

Falkland (The Stables)
Wild Adventures: Stories of Connection (Thu 19 Oct, 2pm) – £6/£4 adults free – all ages
Storytellers David Hughes and Sarah Wedderburn-Ogilvy host a family session of stories and wild crafting. Bring your grown-ups and join us for some nature crafting as we search for the wild stories that connect us. Booking and info: wildstoryweaver.eventbrite.com

Dornoch (Dornoch Library)
Tales & Tunes (Fri 13 Oct, 11am) – Free – age 7+
Enjoy a morning of stories and music in the company of storyteller Bob Pegg and listen to the sounds of Scotland’s oldest instruments. Info: Bob Pegg – catsback@gmail.com

Evanton  (Victoria Diamond Jubilee Hall)
Multicultural Ceilidh (Sat 25 Nov, 3pm) – by donation – all ages
Storyteller Lizzie McDougall invites you to a multicultural and family-friendly ceilidh of stories, songs and music, with tea and scones. A lively afternoon to celebrate traditional stories and music from Scotland and distant lands, with contributions from international musicians living in the Highlands. Info: Lizzie McDougall – lizzie.mcdougall@gmail.com

Biggar (Wiston Lodge)
The Wee Folk of the Woods (Sat 25 Nov, 12.30pm) – £8 – all ages
Follow the Path of the Little People with storytellers Kirsten Milliken and David Hughes for a family-friendly story walk with games and creative activities. Enjoy mulled apple juice and toasted marshmallows by the fireside, and hear tales of the creatures that live in the woods, in the branches of the trees and behind the faerie doors. Booking and info: www.wistonlodge.com, email: info@wistonlodge.co.uk 

Isle of Lewis (Museum nan Eilean)
Interactive Family Storytelling (Thu 19 Oct, 11am and 1pm) – free, ticketed – all ages
Family friendly sessions featuring storytelling, arts and crafts. Booking and info: Booking and info:
www.outerhebridesheritage.org.uk, email: w.seaborne@cne-siar.gov.uk

The Scottish International Storytelling Festival will take place Friday 13 – Sunday 29 October. Tickets to each event cost a maximum of £10, with family events costing just £5 per ticket. For those planning on attending multiple events, the Festival Pass offers discounted tickets to many live festival events, online and at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, as well as a discount at the Scottish Storytelling Centre’s bookshop and Haggis Box Café.

To purchase tickets and browse the full programme, visit sisf.org.uk and browse the full programme.  

News

Scottish Traditional Music Archive Directory – Call for Organisations

Organisations which hold collections of audio recordings of Scottish traditional music are invited to submit their details for inclusion in the Scottish Traditional Music Archive Directory.

Scottish Traditional Music Archive Directory

The Traditional Music Forum (TMF) is developing a Directory of organisations inside and outside of Scotland with collections of Scottish traditional music as part of our work towards a Scottish Traditional Music Archive.

The Directory will act as a signpost to help people interested in Scottish traditional music identify pertinent collections, contact collection holders, and make links between material.

We seek to include the broad range of traditional music found in and coming from Scotland, including traditional music made by people who have come to Scotland and by those who have moved away.

Listings for every collection holder will include a brief overview of organisational information, contact details, and relevant collections. The Directory will also be searchable by topics such as the region collections are from, the periods they were made in, and the instruments they contain. It will be free and publicly available via a website and downloadable file.

Call for Organisations 

Organisations which hold collections of Scottish traditional music recordings are invited to submit their details for inclusion in the Directory. Respondents may complete a downloadable table (available here) and return it via email to archive@tracscotland.org, or submit their details via an online form (available here).

While the Directory is not currently able to accept responses from private individuals, we hope to be able to include these in the near future. Further updates will be available on the TMF website.

Responses are requested by Friday 13 October to enable the Directory to launch later in the autumn.

For further information please contact the Archive Researcher via archive@tracscotland.org.

Traditional Music Forum

The TMF is a national network of traditional music organisations and individuals covering every aspect of traditional music in Scotland. The TMF aims to develop, sustain, support and maximise the potential of traditional music in Scotland. 

The TMF is one of the Forums brought together by Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland (TRACS), a co-operative network which champions our shared traditions of music, song, storytelling, dance, crafts, customs and local languages. TRACS empowers communities across Scotland to discover, develop and practise their unique traditional arts and heritage in the context of our daily lives.

News

Elegies

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Elegies is the first dance adaptation for the screen and stage of Hamish Henderson’s series of poems Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica, specifically curated to premiere as part of the 34th edition of the Scottish International Storytelling Festival at Edinburgh’s Scottish Storytelling Centre on 11 November 2023 and available to tour thereafter.

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PROGRAMME NOTES

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PRESS PACK

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★★★★☆ Evocative and relevant
Allan Wilson in All Edinburgh Theatre

★★★★☆ Respectful and sincere. Sombre and considerate
Dominic Corr in Corr Blimey

“There is no beauty in war. But within Elegies, laced amidst the pain and harrowing truth, beauty flourishes in sombre and considerate ways. Superlative, short and concise, Elegies adapts Henderson’s work into a powerful recitation of spoken word, paired with tightly and nuanced choreography to offer a firm and resilient response which champions the skills and power of storytelling as a first line of defence of natural, communal, and reverent good against those who would utilise it for ill.” Dominic Corr in Corr Blimey

 

Elegies premiere night marked four important anniversaries – the 105th anniversary of the signing of the agreement to end the fighting of the First World War; the 104th birthday of the author Hamish Henderson (1919-2002); the 75th anniversary of the first publication of Hamish Henderson’s Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica and the 75th anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights resonating with the festival theme Right To Be Human and issues of social justice, peace movement and anti-militarism. It explores aspects of our common humanity.

 

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The Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica are considered by many as the finest poetic writings to come out of the Second World War and have won the Somerset Maugham Award 1949. The epic poems highlight the tragic chaos and waste of life without losing sight of humanity and what we can do even now to save ourselves from ourselves.

To listen to Hamish Henderson‘s own reading of the Prologue and the First Elegy, explore this audio recording from 1964 here.

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“Our ambition is for this new adaptation of the Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica to become an innovative dance celebration of Hamish Henderson, the soldier-poet and scholar-folk revivalist, but also a dance poem of serious reflection – a lament for all lives lost in our challenging world of wars and pandemics, political and economic oppression, ecocide and inequality.”

Jim Mackintosh, Iliyana Nedkova and Wendy Timmons, Elegies co-curators/producers

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This new dance theatre production is led by a duo of dancers and choreographers Helen Gould and George Adams who together with a community cast of dancers from DannsEd, including Nicola Thomson and Edwin Wen, will embody and represent the characters from the ten elegies by interpreting swing and lindy hop – the popular social dance culture of the 1940s whilst creating a cultural bridge to the present day.

“We intend to explore various aspects of these social dance forms, including those that express the social conventions and traditions of the Home Front in the late 1930s and early 1940s, such as the rituals, leisure and mass forms of dance hall entertainment that boomed during this time. We will also reflect on the fact that social dance is a complex form of discipline and social control, yet also pleasure, intimacy and connection. The Elegies choreography and dance will thus convey the ubiquitous time and place of the social dance but also connect with deeper concerns of the social body, trauma, fragmentation and wholeness of the soldiers as depicted in Hamish Henderson’s first-hand accounts.”

Helen Gould and George Adams, Elegies dancers/choreographers

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Photographs of Elegies rehearsals at the Dance Studio at our academic partner Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh featuring Helen Gould, George Adams, Nicola Thomson and Edwin Wen. Images by Jeyden Xie. Watch the accompanying video on our Instagram feed here auhored by Ling Hong.

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Through their movement directorship Gould and Adams will also weave in the reading of the Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica by spoken word artists Morag Anderson and Stephen Watt. The reading and the dance will be accompanied on the stage by specially composed and newly arranged trad music by Cera Impala. Elegies will also be set against a backdrop of newly-commissioned audio-visuals by filmmaker Roddy Simpson. The visuals will utilise still and moving imagery reflecting the #RightToBeHuman festival theme. The costumes will be designed by upcycling artist guru Katie Duxbury.

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All of those attending the world premiere of Elegies will also be able to pick up a FREE copy of the book Alias MacAlias. Writings on Songs, Folk and Literature by Hamish Henderson, edited by Alec Finlay and published by Polygon Books, Edinburgh in 2004. The donations will be warmly welcome towards the further development and tour of Elegies.

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Through the production of Elegies, we continue to celebrate the bonds of trad dance and poetry and mark National Poetry Day – the annual mass celebration on the first Thursday of October that encourages everyone to make, experience and share poetry with family and friends.

On #NationalPoetryDay 2022 we launched our newly commissioned poem Beira and Bride by storyteller extraordinaire Donald Smith as part of Scotland’s Year of Stories 2022. Donald’s epic poem became the starting point for our new screen dance To Begin the Dance Once More and show Dances with Ouds and Fiddles reimagining the river landscapes inhabited by the Celtic and Egyptian mothers of Earth, including Beira and Bride. Listen to Donald’s reading of the poem as part of our Trad Dance Cast podcast (about 19.50 minutes in)

While devising our new production Elegies and to mark #NationalPoetryDay 2023, we selected a work penned and performed by each of the featured poets inspired by Hamish Henderson‘s Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica.  

Listen to Elegy for an Island by Morag Anderson performed by the artist herself.

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Watch Stephen Watt perform his award-winning poem Deep Fried Nationalism.

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Watch Jim Mackintosh perform Anzio – one of the poems from The Banes o the Turas, the book of his poetic translations from the original Italian poetry of Pino Mereu.
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Elegies is produced by Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland. Curated by Jim Mackintosh, Iliyana Nedkova and Wendy Timmons. Commissioned by the Scottish International Storytelling Festival through the Scottish Government’s Expo Fund. Additional funding provided by Creative Scotland. 

Further research and development enabled through Cultural Bridge’s Strictly Schottisch and Scottish project. Cultural Bridge is a celebration of bilateral artistic partnerships between the UK and Germany through the collaboration between Arts Council England, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, British Council, Creative Scotland, Fonds Soziokultur, Goethe-Institut London and Wales Arts International / Arts Council of Wales.

In-kind support by our academic partner Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh and DannsEd – The University of Edinburgh Dance Company and Society – our major partner for the community cast and crew of Elegies, including Nicola Thomson, Edwin Wen, Jeyden Xie, Marianella Desanti and Ling Hong. DannsEd enables professional dance artists to pursue their practice, including students and alumni of MSc Dance Science and Education at Moray House School of Education and Sport.