Scottish Country Dancing: Controlled Abandon

One of the reasons for founding the society was of course to preserve the old dances.

CEILIDH MUSIC

In graceful measures handed down from generation to generation,

the spirit of an old country endures and those who watch feel gathered to its hearth.

There are different forms of dance in Scotland.

You have the Highland dancing which is largely solo dancing.

You have ceilidh dancing which is largely unregimented...

very accessible.

Scottish country dancing, I think, is the next step on from that.

It's often been described as ceilidh ballet.

Scottish country dancing, I think you can say, is much more controlled and much more elegant.

You cannot throw people about the floor in a Scottish country dance as people do in ceilidh dances.

I think a good dancer is someone who moves well with the music.

I mean, it has to look as though it's easy, I would hope it looks controlled.

Elegance, joy, listening to the music,

and, as much as you can in terms of your ability, getting the steps right because the steps are precise.

Pleasant things, handing, looking at people, dancing with the rest of the team, are all important.

Yes.

Nothing that stands out. You have to...you should blend, really.

There's a lot of control of the movement and the rhythm and the preciseness of where you have to be,

but also the abandonment of enjoying it and letting yourself go

and getting into the rhythm and the moment and the flow if it.

It's the balance between the two, and...

So combining the technique aspect with the sociability aspect

and how those two components can work together.

If there was no abandon, it would be dull,

and if there was no control, you'd be off the other end of the hall,

everybody else would be doing something, you know...

it wouldn't be a dance, it would just be people jumping about in a room.

Music: "Caddam Woods" by 100 North East Fiddlers

We love Scottish country dancing.

At weddings, Hogmanay, local ceilidh or formal dinner dances,

it can be an art form with the precision and nuance of ballet, or just a great big glorious hooley.

When two women set up the Scottish Country Dance Society in 1923, they had no idea what they'd started.

Today it's not just the Scots who birl an eightsome reel.

Scottish country dancing is popular worldwide.

But where did it come from?

Did the druids of Orkney perform religious reels?

Are there blueprints for dances in their cryptic carvings.

Is this a fertility ritual mimicking the mating behaviour of a rutting stag?

Scots have aye loved to dance.

In medieval times,

ring dancing was brought to Scotland

by travellers from Europe.

Dances could celebrate the harvest and tell stories about who we were.

In the Highlands, the dances and tunes got more and more complex.

Well, it's one way to keep warm!

But dancing wasn't just for crofters.

Mary Queen of Scots' court loved the fashionable dances she brought with her from France.

These courtly dances have left a trace in today's Scottish country dancing.

Pas de basque,

pousette, allemande.

The Calvinists banned dancing as the work of the devil.

After all, witches were known to dance.

And even these killjoys couldn't stop the Scots.

King James VI hated witches,

but in 1580

he is said to have paid the huge sum of ?100

for dance lessons.

By the 18th century,

country dancing was the latest thing in the English court.

The Scots of course had their own versions.

The strathspey rhythm is unique to Scottish dancing,

developed and popularised by the tunes of Neil Gow.

Soldiers returning home from the Napoleonic Wars

spread the influence of the waltz and the quadrille.

In the 19th century, country dancing fell from favour across Europe.

But Queen Victoria loved her Dashing White Sergeant

so it remained as popular as ever here.

And it became a big part of military life.

Maybe they liked the discipline, the need for total mental and physical awareness...

or maybe they just enjoyed the dressing-up.

After the First World War, the new generation turned their back on tradition,

and Scottish country dancing was finally swept aside

by the sensational Charleston.

Then, in 1923, two enthusiasts decided enough was enough.

Ysobel Stewart and Jean Milligan

formed the Scottish Country Dance Society

to preserve, standardise and encourage the take-up of the tradition.

In 1951, they even gained royal patronage.

Oh, yes!

Now, 90 years old, the society has tens of thousands of members in branches throughout the world.

Are you ready? Go!

And round...

Together, these two women melded their vision to form a society which became worldwide.

I think they were two very different types.

Ysobel Stewart, I think, was quite a quiet lady, landed class, etc.

Miss Milligan, used to shouting at her students in Jordanhill

when she was teaching them physical education,

quite a rumbustious woman.

Mrs Stewart eventually emigrated to South Africa, effectively leaving Miss Milligan in control.

You've got to dance from your heart, you know.

You've got to feel that music.

You've got to express the music.

Dancing is the physical expression of the music, you see.

One of the reasons for founding the society was of course to preserve the old dances.

They felt that they were in danger of disappearing,

and unless you had some kind of central body that collected them,

then, in coming generations they would be forgotten and they would not be able to be retrieved.

It was in the age where ballroom dancing had Victor Silvester

and everything was very formal and regimented and very...quite rigid in a way.

There was very much a right and wrong way to do things.

And that suited the time,

because people, when they learned to dance, were looking for a discipline, they wanted to dance well.

The phenomenon of suburbia came about.

People started living in larger homes,

and various new trends came about,

and one of them was to send your wee girls to dance school.

They would teach ballet and tap dancing and they would teach character dancing and so on,

and among the things they would teach was Scottish dancing.

And this wasn't as people in Scotland did it,

but as it could be interpreted for that particular type of person and that particular type of context.

The progressive step is known as the skip change of step.

PIANO PLAYS THE TUNE

Here it is in dance tempo.

Each step occupies one bar of music as in the pas de basque.

There's no doubt

that Miss Milligan was an avid, avid enthusiast in her dance,

and she wanted to conserve dance,

but part of her hadn't realised that you get variants in tradition.

No more could we standardise a form of speech or dialect than we might do with dance.

She hadn't considered that if you speak a certain way,

it doesn't mean to say that people in the next village are wrong.

They might be different, but her aim was quite, I believe,

to standardise dance.

Miss Milligan, of course, at times is accused of having changed some of the steps of the dancing,

and people, elderly people, particularly in the '30s and '40s,

complained because they knew the dances they referred to...

complained quite bitterly that she had done this kind of thing,

but she felt at the same time that having drawn on quite a fluid tradition,

that there had to be some kind of standardisation inside Scottish country dancing,

and I think that this is correct.

I mean, you can't really accuse Jean Milligan of having butchered dances.

She took certain movements, she looked at them,

and perhaps if she felt that they didn't fit into the framework

of what she envisaged as a Scottish country dance then she could, with impunity, alter them.

Ready, first couple, Petronella, go!

And turn...

You might compare it to dialect.

For Scots speakers they saw this quite a lot.

They had to learn to speak a certain way at school, and none of your dinna and winna and cannae,

but the minute they were home they were doing their own dialect, and dance was a bit like that.

You could fit in with the formality of school

and you could fit in with the informality and the naturalness of home,

and it didn't actually affect how you performed the dance on the Saturday night.

I'm not sure whatever would have happened if Miss Jean Milligan had walked through the door!

I imagine my grandmother would have made her a cup of tea and hoped she wouldn't speak.

Can you look a little more cheerful, some of you?

Gay!

Come on, up with those heads.

There is no doubt in my mind that Miss Milligan is one of the most important people

in the 20th century in Scotland.

Think of it this way...

Miss Milligan not just wants to start classes in Scotland,

but she wants her organisation to go worldwide.

This is a huge vision, and not only is it a huge vision, it's a tremendously benign vision,

because you try and quantify the amount of joy and happiness

that this woman has given to tens of thousands of people.

Tell me about the strathspey, why is it named that?

Well, it began, the first dancing to that type of music

was done up across the River Spey.

The soldiers were there and they danced on the banks of the River Spey and it was called the strathspey.

That's as far as we know.

And at that time everyone was a soldier and a dancer?

Oh, yes, I'm afraid we were a fighting people in Scotland and also a dancing people.

The strathspey was Miss Milligan's favourite dance form and she has one dedicated to her memory...

..Miss Milligan's Strathspey.

Unlike a reel, a strathspey is slow and stately.

And here's how it's done...

Strathspey is setting steps...

..with the first couple casting off into reels on own sides,

giving hands to one's partner in acknowledgement.

Eye as well as hand contact is important here.

Taking hands

while setting on the sides.

The first and second couples

turn partners halfway,

then lead them down the set,

crossing over to their own sides.

The knot is a modern figure,

not unlike the Gay Gordons hold.

This movement requires good timing between the couples.

Miss Milligan's Strathspey was published in 1973 for the Society's golden jubilee,

a most elegant tribute to Miss Jean Milligan.

It has become a favourite.

In 1927, Miss Milligan set up the first Society Summer School here in St Andrews.

Aside from a couple of breaks during wartime, it's been held every year since.

Experts and beginners from all over the world arrive for a week or two of intensive jigging.

It's like a massive family gathering.

You're dancing in classes in the morning,

you're practising various things in the afternoon, and in the evening you're dancing.

It's a complete day.

Time flies, it was absolutely wonderful, it was one of the best holidays we've ever had,

even though we had to work so hard.

Are you happy about where you're going, Andrew?

Usually, it's the same people go the same weeks which is really good,

so you can book a week and you know you'll see certain friends there,

so it's catching up with people you haven't seen for a year

and learning more about dancing

and going swimming and walking in the sand dunes

and partying away.

It's a fantastic place to be.

We cater for everybody, from all backgrounds, all classes.

It's simply those who wish to enjoy the music

and to move in time to the music

and get a great deal of pleasure out of it.

Yes, we try to teach the proper steps

which means that you point your toes downwards at all times,

you keep your heels forward, but we also encourage good posture.

We encourage good use of hands.

We particularly try to encourage the social aspect of the dance,

which means you should look as if you're enjoying it,

you should be smiling to your partner, smiling to others around,

just acknowledging the presence of the others, because after all it's teamwork.

Some of our more experienced dancers, they're really looking for the challenge,

because they've mastered the steps, they've mastered the formations,

they've mastered much of the technique,

and they're really looking for the challenge to be in the dance itself.

So it's ever-more complicated formations, ever-more complicated linkages between formations...

Some people just live for that.

Others much prefer to see just simple dances done well.

At summer school, you can hone more than just your country dancing skills.

There are also classes in ceilidh, ladies' step and highland dancing,

including the ever-popular sword dance.

I'm Alina Petrisan.

I am from Bucharest, Romania.

I'm coming here to study Scottish country dancing

and to bring it back home.

I'm trying to develop Scottish country dancing into my country.

I just finished my Highland class and my practice for Thursday's demo.

I'm going to have my first demo in Highland.

I'm a little bit nervous.

I was a little bit confused, let's say.

I wasn't very sure if I'm going to get all the steps and all the technique.

I don't think it's dangerous, no.

No, all the swords are peaceful on the floor.

Nothing's going to happen, no, no.

We're not fighting with them, we're just dancing above them.

PIANO ACCOMPANIMENT

You have these three notes at the end of the phrase, that's a hornpipe, the reel to the hornpipe.

Very characteristic type of tune and people like them. People like them, don't they?

Things have changed since we started.

When I started, there were probably only about 240 dances.

So what you'd learned was quite easy to do, not a lot to remember,

but now since the late '60s, hundreds of dances, about 15,000 now.

You can't possibly know them all.

Just come in a little, take hands if you like.

Dance out.

Round it off.

Through the middle.

I didn't start doing it till I was over 40, and a lot of people start doing it at school.

So it's a lot different learning something when you're older,

because, well, when you're younger it's quicker to learn things by heart,

because there's less rubbish in yourself for it to get into your heart,

to learn something by heart.

When you get older, obviously, you get a lot of baggage in the way,

and it's...you have to penetrate, push the stuff through the rubbish,

to get it into your heart because you do have to learn it by heart.

If you try to learn it mechanically and robotically, it just looks mechanical and robotic.

It should flow from within, ideally.

It seems to be indicative that a lot of the people that are involved in country dancing

are involved in some kind of accurate work,

whether it's legal, astronomy... programming is very common.

Mostly precise work that involves sequencing and memory, for sure.

Ready, and...

The people that play for dancing regularly

have to get to know how to play

in that tempo that works for the dancing.

It requires a great amount of precision with the tempo.

I practise with a metronome to get it right,

and the actual margin of error is quite small.

Over a track that is 4 minutes and 32 seconds, that's a standard track,

there's only a margin of error of about 3 or 4 seconds.

It's been my life, I would say, it's been my family.

When I was working in school,

it was my release of tension,

and...because when you're dancing

you don't think about anything else but dancing.

It's one of the great joys of my life, I'd say.

The music helps you.

Quite often you walk through a dance...

in fact we always walk through a dance,

because we can't remember what we have to do without walking through,

and it doesn't work very well,

but once the music is there and you fit in your movements to the music,

then that's much, much easier.

The rhythms are different in the different styles that we have.

A reel is a very even beat,

you have four even beats so it goes one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four.

A jig is an uneven beat, so it goes one and two and three and four and one...

And a strathspey is half the speed of a reel, so it's one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four.

They all fit very well and there's so much you can do within these rhythms.

For ceilidhs and just, like, in sessions in pubs, you can play kind of any tempo,

it's not so important, but for the dancing it has to be really, really strict tempo.

The style of tunes you need to play needs to fit whatever steps they're doing,

whatever figures they're learning.

There's an awful lot of things that you need to sort of know and respond to within the class.

If they're doing something that requires small steps and something that requires large steps,

you can really emphasise and play a bit louder,

to give them the push they need to do the large steps, that kind of thing.

You're really giving them the impetus when they need it in the dance.

I just...I love dancing and just to be able to actually play for dancing,

and people get so much enjoyment from dancing and to be able to play for that,

and get the enjoyment from people is really great and I love the music.

Scottish music has always been my real passion.

Our next dance is one you'll definitely know, Strip The Willow.

Also known as Drops Of Brandy, it's a real favourite

for both ceilidh and Scottish country dancers.

The first couple turn

by the right hand at the top,

usually a birl at ceilidhs.

The first lady turns second man left hand,

her partner right hand, working her way down the line of men and turning her partner in between.

The first man then dances up the ladies' side, turning them by the left hand, partner by the right.

Here, unlike in ceilidhs, the turn is controlled.

First man and his partner then go down the set on opposite sides...

..turning partners as well, until they arrive at the bottom, when the new top couple starts.

As the dancing couple turn, they take a controlled hand grip for safety as well as elegance,

since this dance, now most popular with ceilidh dancers, can be boisterous, leading to injury.

This is a very old dance, but was given the blessing of Miss Milligan and Mrs Stewart

by being included in their first book of dances, published in 1924.

Books of new dances are issued by the Society on a regular basis, to date 48 and counting.

The Queen, patron of the Society, is no stranger to the dance floor,

as we can see here at the Society's Golden Jubilee Ball in 1973.

The Queen is patron of the Royal Scottish Country Dancing...

And here she is in 2013 meeting the Society's current generation.

Are these dances that you do quite a bit?

Yes, I would say so.

Those intervening years have seen plenty of ups and downs in Scottish dancing's popularity.

Over the years, it's been portrayed as too posh, too army, too old-fashioned

or just too silly for successive generations of thrill-seekers. Ach!

Come on, then, Tom! OK.

CHEERING Oh, shut up!

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE All right, then.

WOLF WHISTLE

The freedom you girls have...

It's lovely!

All right, darling?

Now, look, sort of point your feet and keep your legs as straight as you can.

That's the secret of this.

BAGPIPES PLAY Come on!

Bad luck, you two,

and well done, you two over there, and once again, Bill, thank you and your society.

Thank you.

There's a bit of a misunderstanding about Scottish country dancing

that it's all about pointy toes

and very specific arm movements.

I think to our parents' generation... Yes. ..it has...

it has quite a bad press,

because of that image of white dresses, tartan sashes and long white gloves.

It's not the kind of coolest of activity

when you've got a constant exposure to all the different types of dance

and the challenging dance, you know, through TV and the media.

I think the positives of Scottish country dancing is its social nature,

that you don't have to compete, you can go along

and enjoy the dance and strive to be as good as you can be

without that pressure that sometimes comes with other dance forms

where people are always aspiring to get better and better

and sit one kind of medal test after another.

You get quite evangelical about it.

You can't understand why everybody else isn't out there enjoying themselves doing the same thing,

and you can't understand why it took so long for us to get involved in that.

You've exercised your body, you've exercised your mind.

I can't think of a more pleasurable form of vertical exercise at any rate than country dancing.

You can interpret that as you like. Not sure about that.

It was a bit of a double entendre.

Some cultures, they use dance

to get into an altered state of consciousness.

I have been in an altered state of consciousness on the dance floor in a Scottish country dance.

In a Scottish country dance, you really understand how it's operating.

You can therefore release your mind from your body,

and then it's quite sad at the end of the dance when you realise it's all over,

and you come back to earth and walk off the dance floor.

You can actually go home quite high.

You've still got adrenaline in you.

I've heard of pop stars on the stage

who are so high with adrenaline that they, you know, kind of trash the hotel rooms.

It's not like that,

but sometimes you cannot sleep for an hour or two because you've still got these chemicals in you.

The chemicals of joy.

Music: "The Dashing White Sergeant"

Our next dance is another classic

synonymous with celebration,

The Dashing White Sergeant.

To begin, dancers form up in lines of three,

forming a circle, eight steps round and back.

The centre person in the line

faces the dancer on the right,

sets to him or her,

then turns with both hands.

The dancer then turns and sets to the other person in the line, again a two-hand turn,

followed by reels of three, a figure in so many Scottish country dances,

the dancing couple giving left shoulder to the person they are facing.

As the lines of three reform, you've time to draw breath,

before sweeping through raised arms to form another set, another circle.

The Dashing White Sergeant, with its very distinctive tune,

is said to owe its origins to an 18th-century English general

and to the tradition of Swedish circle dancing.

It's another dance which is popular with ceilidh dancers,

who usually use the elbow turn,

though the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society prefers the more sedate reel of three,

and without the foot stamping and clapping before the lines of three sweep forward to form new sets.

As always, a bow and curtsey for the pleasure of the dance.

You have to have stamina to do it.

It's more the mental... remembering things.

Remembering where you're meant to be and what formations come next and who's dancing where...

You do rehearse enough that you kind of can do it in your sleep, usually,

it gets into your head that much.

Also because it's more just different formations that are just stringed together,

and if you know the formations then you tend to not worry too much about it.

It's what order the formations come in.

Over the years, pupils and teachers have tried

to come up with useful ways to remember the sometimes complicated steps and formations.

In the 1950s, FL Pilling developed an elaborate system of visual annotation

that became a big hit.

Pilling's little green book is still a must-have accessory for the eager dancer.

Its strange hieroglyphics are a language all of their own,

although some find them completely impenetrable.

As a programmer working I deal with a lot of code which is obviously cryptic...

to most people it would be cryptic language written down in very structured and formulated ways,

and I can read through that and very quickly see what's going on

and draw conclusions from that, why something's not working, how to make it work better...

what things need to be changed,

and so reading through a software programme or a blueprint for something in engineering,

I can quickly understand it.

It was quite a shock coming to dancing and thinking these skills, these attributes that I have

would be transferable to reading a crib sheet to understand a dance,

but I found that wasn't the way. It was quite frustrating.

It took me a while to realise that with the dancing I had to learn...

maybe because my body was involved, I had to learn through experience and repetition

and physically dancing a dance, usually a number of times, before I'd actually get it.

There's a general feeling that if you are an experienced dancer, if you know what you're doing,

and you are in a set of people with one or two people who are less experienced than you

and don't have as good an idea of where they're going, that you will help them,

you will point them in the right direction, a discreet nod...

There's little hand signals, body language which we've learned now

that indicates where you have to go in the dance so you don't muck it all up.

But you also...

the more you dance, the more you start to recognise the basic patterns of movement,

you know that you're in a particular sequence which means you've got to go there at this point.

You get to understand the rhythms of the dance much better,

and the steer on the elbow just now becomes just a quick glance

to make sure you're going in the right direction.

Toyoki Toriyama from Tokyo is an excellent dancer and accredited RSCDS tutor.

For years he's been making the annual pilgrimage to St Andrews.

My first St Andrews occasion was 1991.

I prefer easy dance, not complicated dance.

Reel Of The 51st Division, I most...

one of my most favourite dances.

Music: "Reel of the 51st Division"

Great friendship with all together, but not so complicated.

Very easy dance, but enjoyable.

I'm teaching in the traditional-style country dancing

because I like the traditional ones.

I'm Andrea and I'm from Munich.

My name is Helmut, I come from Munich.

It's a Bavarian skirt, er, shirt

and a Scottish kilt.

He teach judo... Martial art.

Martial arts,

and the Scottish dancers are in the class before him and so he looked into the room.

Heard music, Scottish music.

I look, "What's this?

"Scottish dance. Oh, OK!"

Martial arts is number one and dancing is number two.

Summer school ends in an evening of dance demonstrations by the students.

These displays of skill and technique are meant to be fun,

but this performance is open to the public.

There's also a real pressure to get things right.

You might want one of these, dear.

When you're dancing over swords,

the worry is that you're going to kick the sword,

and then it's out of position,

and then everybody else is going to fall over it.

So that's the kind of responsibility, and we're in a team, and we're all hopping over the swords

one behind the other, so if you go wrong, then you've messed up for everybody else as well.

You're in front of an audience of people who really know about dancing, so, if you mess it up, they'll know.

The door is open, I can still run away!

I still have time.

You can stand there.

It was OK. It wasn't perfect, but we got through it.

Well, we had a few mistakes. A few slips.

We saved each other.

The key is being able to recover, I always think.

We were really like a team.

I mean, when somebody hesitated the others were there for them.

It was nice teamwork.

It went fine, but dancers know when dancers make mistakes.

It's not about being the best. No, been doing it too long.

It's about enjoying it and if you go and dance...

when we used to dance in demonstrations,

it isn't the individual that matters,

it's the look of the whole team. Yes. And it's not necessarily the footwork,

it's the covering, the handing, the pleasure you try and see on people's faces.

It's not just who's a good dancer.

90 years since the founding of the Society, Summer School 2013 draws to an end.

Dancers from all over the world say their goodbyes...

until next year anyway.

Cultures have changed, and we've got to adapt to what's happening in society,

and I don't think it's very easy to do.

There are young people dancing, there are young people playing... But not in their 20s.

You're back to the standard complaint of older people, dear,

that more young people ought to be doing it.

Does it matter if the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society has an average age of 70,

if there's more people coming on?

So long as it's vibrant and growing and people are writing new dances.

But it is an interesting debate within the Society.

I mean, clearly there are some people who dance

and who feel very passionately

that it should be done in a particular way, in a particular style.

One wouldn't ever want to assume either that it's got to remain the same, nothing does.

In tradition, the whole point about it is that it evolves.

You get the wear and tear, the repairs,

the continuity that's kept and goes in different directions.

The music's constantly evolving because you have young people writing tunes

and using more probably contemporary influences when they write their music in exactly the same way...

You could describe the dances in exactly the same way. Yeah.

There's always people creating new formations and taking a different twist on set formations

and combining that with the new music,

so I do think it definitely is evolving and moving in a forward direction,

but still maintaining and using the foundation knowledge.

The first modern dance

to be recognised and published by the Society

was created during World War II,

The Reel Of The 51st Division.

Devised by a Scottish prisoner of war, James Atkinson,

this much-loved dance symbolises Scottish patriotism and courage.

The first couple set,

cast off two places,

and lead up to first corners.

Arriving too early means standing instead of dancing.

The first couple set to first corners

and turn them by the right hand.

Then, left hand joined with partners,

with the two corners they form part of a St Andrew's Cross.

The first couple turn to second corners,

set to them, and complete the cross formation.

The dancing couple return to their own lines

for six hands round and back...

..with the first couple beginning the dance again from second place.

The dance was originally for five couples, all men,

but is now a four-couple dance for men and women.

Atkinson recalls how, while trudging through France with fellow prisoners,

he imagined a Highland dance based on the insignia of the Highland Brigade,

in particular the St Andrew's Cross.

It was published in Book 13, The Victory Book, at the end of the Second World War.

When drawings describing the steps of the dance were sent home, the Germans thought they were code.

It really is quite remarkable

how Scottish...the Royal Society of Scottish Country Dance has literally spread the world over.

You can hardly name a country where they haven't heard of it or where there isn't a team.

You can find probably thousands in Japan or China...

the United States, thousands and thousands, and with real enthusiasm,

and for some people the only thing they know about Scotland

is this is the dance and that's the costume they wear.

The people that come to the summer school, and they come from all over the world,

some of the best dancers are in fact Japanese and they take it very, very seriously.

Now, you think about Japanese coming to St Andrews, it costs thousands of pounds.

They are so clued up about the dancing,

they wear kilts, they are very well aware of the sort of Scottish tradition.

And Miss Milligan knew that the Germans and that those who came from other countries

were really her worldwide ambassadors,

so she had to send them away with the message that high standards had to be maintained.

Music: "The Chequered Court" by James Gray

HE SPEAKS JAPANESE

I work as an office worker

for importing or exporting industrial products.

But I am not so good office worker.

My interest is mainly Scottish country dancing,

second is office working.

So...and my manager always,

"Come, do the work.

"Do the work! No dancing, work."

I like teamwork and eye contact and also...and the friendship.

I'm using Japanese, English and Scottish words

for the movements and formations.

It was very difficult for me.

I didn't know the words and the movement,

set, cast off, first couple, second couple, third couple...

..anything.

But continuing is power, I think.

Continuing is power,

so day by day I knew the Scottish country dancing gradually.

I always encourage eye contact to my classes.

In summer school, eye contact, but when I return to Japan,

I'm very, very disappointed.

No eye contact. Always face down.

I think most Japanese people like to learn.

Japanese people have something in...

like an etiquette and it's common...

I think Scottish country dancing

and Japanese people's mind have common things.

The Hatchobori Royal Scottish Country Dance Society branch in Tokyo

is celebrating its 15th anniversary.

It's, like, elegant...elegant...

and manly...how you say manly?

Like a man and strong!

I love strathspeys because,

you know, some of the strathspeys called Ayr type of strathspeys...

THEY SPEAK JAPANESE

..like Robert Burns' tunes are so beautiful and amazing, and some are so sad.

Dancing is to be social, to be very polite.

When you are dancing, you must be more smiling and be polite and gentlemen and women,

and we used to have that kind of custom before,

but younger people don't know how to be polite.

Our next dance is The Glasgow Highlanders.

Devised by a Glasgow military man towards the end of the 19th century,

this strathspey calls for skill and elegance.

On the second chord,

the first lady crosses

to stand beside her partner.

The second lady steps up,

her partner crossing to join her.

Right and left,

bringing the dancer back to his or her original position,

is a recurring figure in Scottish country dances.

Is there a more attractive figure in the Scottish country dance repertoire?

The strathspey travelling step.

At the bottom of the set, in a fluid movement,

the second man hands the two ladies over to the first man

and follows the trio up the set.

The two couples end in a line across the set, facing their partners.

A reel of four across is the last figure in this appealing dance,

but the dancers must get into their correct places for the repeat.

The Glasgow Highlanders is one of the loveliest

but most technically taxing dances in the repertoire.

It was devised for a Highland Volunteer Regiment company in Glasgow,

and was first performed in the city towards the close of the 19th century.

Although the setting for the reel has a strathspey step common to both men and women,

the men in this demonstration

dance a rocking step

on the second time through.

This is a dance for the alert dancer,

who must know where he or she is to end up after a movement.

The Glasgow Highlanders has an original tune of the same name.

The Munich Caledonians,

a mix of ex-pats and German enthusiasts who meet each month to celebrate all things Scottish.

BAGPIPES PLAY

When we started in the '70s, there was six or seven, you know, bands,

and by now you'll really find,

I should say, 40 or 50 bands all over Germany.

And they're really getting a good standard.

I think for the size of the country, Scotland, you know,

they have spread all over the world their culture and the dancing.

My partner, she is a dancing teacher.

She's got certificates from St Andrews and all that.

Wherever she goes, Russia and Poland, dancing, Scottish dancing, country dancing is popular.

For me, personally, I think after this terrible Second World War,

nationalism wasn't very popular in my country, you know,

so we weren't educated in that way,

but you had to be proud of something,

and this instrument and the costume and all this...kilt and stuff and all that...

it makes you proud wearing it.

Like no martial arts, like no Scottish dance!

Our final dance was devised in 2000

in honour of a famous dolphin,

Pelorus Jack, who piloted ships through Cook Strait.

The first couple cross by the right hand,

cast off one place,

then right hands across with the third couple.

Now come the dolphin reels,

involving the dancers changing places

as they go round four corners with skip-change steps.

These reels are intended to show the grace and agility of dolphins.

It's a modern composition by New Zealand dancer Barry Skelton.

Pelorus Jack calls for good timing and consideration for one's partner,

so that the corner change doesn't become too tight.

Well, I hope 90 years from now it will still continue.

Scottish country dancing is definitely a kind of living, breathing entity.

It's constantly evolving.

To be able to do this on autopilot, that's the objective, the ideal, that's the dream.

Occasionally, you get the flashes,

particularly around some of the simpler movements when you do think, "Yes, I am doing that!"

The ideal would be to be able to feel like that for movement after movement.

We're a way off that yet. Oh, I don't think I'll ever get there, actually.

I mean, I have to think really hard where I'm going.

Sometimes there's an atmosphere built up by the band.

You know, the band is phenomenal that evening, the people are in a particularly happy mood,

the venue is beautiful and just something happens, and you go into another zone.

I mean, there's a lot of stuff going on in life

and a lot of things happening, you know, career-wise and family-wise and things,

and then getting into a dance and really getting into the music and the vibe,

and everyone else sort of joining in and really getting into the flow of things,

and it can just totally go out the window.

It's like being in a different world, yeah, it can be at times.

It totally separates everything else off and you sort of put all the rubbish away,

and, you know, enjoy this now and it's happening now,

there's nothing to worry about the future, nothing to regret about the past, this is happening now.

So what will we do when we can't dance?

Well, this is something that one looks forward to... one does not look forward to.

The idea of the future is trepidation and fear,

because it will not be enough to sit and watch YouTube

and watch other people of a younger generation doing these dances.

I really have to say quite frankly, and this is not being macabre,

this is the preferred, our preferred choice of leaving this blessed earth.

If you could just slowly sink to your knees in a strathspey

and that was the end of your life,

then, wouldn't that be wonderful?

That would be absolutely wonderful, instead of ending up in a home.

Dying on the dance floor seems to me blissful.

Maybe not to die in an eightsome reel, it's a bit strenuous!

It has to be at the end of the dance,

so it doesn't disturb the whole dance for other people.

So they can just carry you off the floor

and get on with the programme! They can just carry on.