In spring 2024, the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland – the only charitable organisation of its kind in Scotland, advocating, supporting and safeguarding all Scottish and world traditional dance forms practised across the country – was one of the contenders in the Scottish Charity Awards Partnership of the Year. However, this award-worthy partnership dates back to 2018 when we first laid the ground for our major and ongoing collaboration with our partner – the University of Edinburgh, in particular Moray House School of Education and Sport and the innovative and unique Masters in Dance Science and Education course which gives dancers the scientific theory and specialist skills to push the frontiers of dance and dance education, including traditional dance.
Today we look back to the three early milestones of our partnership.
In 2018 we secured funding from Creative Scotland which led to the year-long joint residency of the outstanding US percussive dance artist Nic Gariess (pictured above) with Scotland-wide public events throughout 2019. This residency continues to yield its legacy by saving Scottish Step dance from extinction. Our ambition is to award at least one 12-month-long joint residency per year in 2025-28.
Since 2018 we have continued to offer year-round placements for postgraduate dance students-in-residence at the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland with curatorial mentorship and hands-on experience of world dance across Edinburgh. Most recently, in 2023/24 we hosted not one but three residencies of the postgraduate students and dance artists Yingzhou Xie, Lingqiao Hong and Jiarui Liao.
In June 2019, to celebrate Nic Gareiss’ residency we jointly co-produced the mini-festival for global percussive dance which we staged across Edinburgh. This gave us the confidence to work together with our academic partner and aim for bigger and bolder collaborative projects. Forward to April 2022, when co-launched Pomegranates – Scotland’s first and only annual festival of Scottish and world traditional dance forms practised up and down the country.
The first three years 2022-24 of co-producing the Pomegranates festival of Scottish and world traditional dance not only featured the cohort of postgraduates. We were reassured that our partnership makes a huge difference in the professional development of 50+ students and staff and our 230+ members. We also knew that it impacted positively on the health and wellbeing of all our other festival participants and audiences. Every year Pomegranates has become the platform for our diverse Forum members, alongside students and staff to teach, learn and perform. We couldn’t have done this without the in-kind access to the world-class hybrid facilities at St Leonard’s Land Dance Studio, Moray House School of Education and Sport or the pro-bono expertise of the academics and dance scholars at the Institute for Sport, Physical Education and Health Sciences, including Dr Wendy Timmons.
In addition, the festival provides a wider public showcase for the range of our artists’ residencies and dance theatre productions open to new and returning audiences, including families and young people. From the outset Pomegranates was recognised as an innovatively curated and affordable festival with equality, diversity, inclusion and internationality is at its core, not an add-on. It is also an integral part of TRACS (Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland) major festivals and we are aiming to celebrate its 5th anniversary in 2027.
We will continue to advocate for the vibrancy and visibility of Scottish and world trad dance practised across the country as part of our global intangible heritage through our three major routes at Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland – festivals, residencies and productions, all of which rely on our academic partnership with Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh. Our ambition is together to develop world trad dance courses and provide certified continuous professional development opportunities to dance artists across Scotland and beyond.
In the meantime, join us to celebrate the latest of our collaborations The Bright Fabric of Life and the second of our trilogy of screen dance productions which will be preceded by the hybrid symposium as part of the Critical Dance Pedagogy Network.
