Delaware Valley RSCDS: Links

Philadelphia Area
Nearby Branches and Dance Camps
SCD Here, There, and Everywhere
Key Resources
Articles & Historical Resources
Speciality Stores

Philadelphia Area

• Seven Day Guide to Folk, Swing, and Traditional Dancing In and Around Philadelphia. Every detail about every event and regular dance in the Philadelphia Region! Maintained by the Philadelphia Folk Dance Council.
  
  
• Swarthmore College Scottish & English Folk Dance Club & Class.
  
  
• Bryn Mawr & Haverford Colleges' Bi-Co Scottish Class.
  
  
• Germantown Country Dancers English Country Dance, Community Dance, Longsword, Garland, Colonial. Also a Regional Dance Listing for Country Dance, Contra Dance, and other Anglo/American dance groups in the Philadelphia region.
  
  
• Thursday Night Contra Dance Page for the Glenside, PA contra dance in Philadelphia's northern suburbs.
  
  
• Philadelphia Folk Song Society
  
  
• Craving live Scottish dance music? Check out our local band, Glenfiddle.
  
  

Nearby RSCDS Branches & Dance Camps

• Pinewoods Camp Boston Branch RSCDS sessions and English-Scottish session.
  
  
• Scottish Weekend at Timber Ridge
  
  
• Harrisburg, complete with animated and audible bagpipes....and a list of Susquehanna Folk Music Society events, including SCD in Lancaster, PA,and highland dance classes in Gettysburg.
  
  
• Lehigh Valley
  
  
• New York City region
  
  
• Baltimore
  
  
• Washington, DC region
  
  

Scottish Country Dance Here, There, and Everywhere

• Royal Scottish Country Dance Society
  
  
• TAC - Teacher's Association of Canada
  
  
• The Intercity Scot -- A newsletter of Scottish Country dance events in North America
  
  
• Looking for dancing elsewhere in the world? RSCDS' branch & affiliate listings, also Anselm Lingnau's SCD locations around the world: Google Map
  
  
• Can't find what you're looking for?? NEFFA Links--the most extensive set of USA folk music & dance links on the Web.
  
  

Key Resources

• check out the wealth of information Anselm Lingnau offers on the Strathspey Server. It includes the Strathspey listserv and its extensive Archives for 16 years of RSCDS-related conversations. While you're at it, and join his My Strathspey online community, which hosts the database and posts other useful goodies.
  
  
• Grand Chain Scottish Dancing Resource Pages (from Edinburgh): Ian Brockbank maintains an extensive list of articles on every RSCDS topic imaginable, including many Scottish music links, and a list of Scottish Bands around the world.
  
  
• Search Alan Paterson's extensive database of SCD dances: cribs, tunes, recordings, and publications.
  
  
• WWW Scottish Country Dances Index: Oberdan Otto's index of dances--available on the Web and for download onto your own computer.
  
  
• MiniCrib is a free database of 3000+ Scottish Country Dance instructions. Create your own cheat-sheet in minutes (MS Word application)!
  
  
• Scottish Dance CD Index
  
  
• Scottish Dance Archives A select collection of dances published from 1972-1982 by Drewry, Foss, Campbell etc., some of which can be printed out from the site.
  
  
• Need to find a tune? John Chamber's tune search accesses thousands of Scottish / Irish / English traditional tunes, available in multiple formats (abc, pdf, gif, midi, etc). Simple to use and invaluable for dance musicians and teachers! John also posts a large collection of his Scottish Country Dance music sets.
  
  
• Tune into Take the Floor, BBC Scotland's 1.5 hour program of Scottish Dance Music with Robbie Shepherd. (In fact, the longest running radio show in Scotland...starting in the 1930's!!) Now dancers don't have to go to Scotland or avoid scheduling Saturday dinner to enjoy this toe-tapping show.
  
  
• Lyrics to Scottish Songs
  
  
• Index for Scottish Country Dancing Web Ring
  
  

Articles & Historical Resources

• SCD injuries: An extensive compilation of information and links on preventing and healing dance injuries--shin splints, heel spurs, ankle pain, wise warm-ups, icing and other immediate care for injuries.
  
  
• Unwritten Rules of RSCDS--a handy guide from Mel Briscoe of all the things Scottish dancers "know" but don't always tell. Lots more information and commentary on Mel & Ellie Briscoe's site.
  
  
• In addition to the Strathspey Server and Grand Chain sites listed above, the Folk Dance Association also posts Links to SCD articles
  
  
• Jenny Beer & Joanna Reiner's Dancing on Campus, for anyone starting or leading a campus-based dance group: Notes from a discussion and presentation at NEFFA 2002.
  
  
• Don't forget the newsletter articles on our own website!
  
  
• Articles on Scottish Fiddlers & Tunes: Scottish Fiddling overview, Wikipedia biographies of Scottish fiddlers,  18th century Scottish music.
  
  
• Dancing in James Scott Skinner's day. Excerpts and explanations from the Skinner Collection, plus video clips based on his 1905 ballroom guide. Note how they did the poussette!
  
  
• Library of Congress Dance texts An unbelievably rich collection of several hundred dance manuals -- most in .pdf copies of all pages as well as text files of each book. Browse facsimilies of Playford, Walsh, Young....
  
  

Specialty Stores

• The RSCDS Shop at Headquarters sells all in-print RSCDS books, audio and video recordings, and accessories (RSCDS pencils anyone?). They will be offering PayPal payment soon.
  
  
• Scottish Dance Videos for Highland, Ladies' Step and Scottish Country, RSCDS history.
  
  
• San Francisco Branch Bookstore has a largee inventory of SCD music and dances from California that you can order using PayPal or check: CDs of California's superb musicians, SCD dance books, SCD instructional videos , the excellent Branch songbook......plus free downloads of recently devised dances, and Keith Eric Grant's articles on dance & health.
  
  
• TAC posts PDFs of their music and dance book catalogues online.
  
  
• Our local source of dance shoes has retired :-(   though there are local shops around the Philadelphia area selling Irish Dance ghillies. To order shoes for SCD: St. Andrews Shoemakers (formerly James Senior) and Hullachan Pro.
  
  
• But hey, we do have a local kilt maker in Phoenixville! Your webmaster spotted a kilt-wearing crew in a grass field in Valley Forge. Turns out USA Kilts & Celtic Traditions was there for a photo shoot. They make all kinds of kilts, and carry all the other supplies you need: socks, flashes, sgian dubhs, sporrans, jackets, etc. But no dance shoes. They primarily work for pipe bands but said local Scottish dancers were welcome to contact them about individual kilts.
  
  
• Buy RSCDS's brand new official tartan! Kilts plus sashes, dresses, scarves, ghillie bags, skirts... in silk or wool. (And note the models' languid pose. Hey, straighten up! Close in 3rd! You're an RSCDS dancer!).
  
  
• Tartans of Scotland has a huge database, with interesting explanation about the sources of the sett patterns. Tartan Finder from House of Tartan gives you a bitmap of any tartan. Or look up a tartan's name by its colours.
  
  

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