Scottish Dance Research Paper

Before this event, I knew practically nothing of Scottish culture, or their traditional court dances. Quite frankly, I was under the impression that Scottish dances must be similar to Irish dances. My only reason for thinking this was due to the fact the Scottish and the Irish share a common ancestor: the Celts (Jenkins). The Scottish were actually Irish to begin with, but broke away from the Irish and settled in islands between Ireland and Great Britain (Jenkins). From this knowledge, I assumed that the two cultures would share many similarities, with only slight differences. And while certain aspects of the dances that I took part in had Irish similarities, I came to realize that the Scottish seem to have a friendlier, more connected way

These lively people perform at festivals and competitions alike; I learned that these types of troupes are actually quite common in the realm of Scottish dance (Brockbank). One man at the class was an actual Scotsman. He was extremely lively and brought everyone into the dance with him. The dance I took part in was called the Foxhill. This is one of the traditional court dances from Scotland. We were told that these court dances were a great time for young men and women to socialize away from their chaperones. This amused me because I realized that even though we are from greatly different times and places, these young Scottish people and I both did what we could to get some “unsupervised flirting time” with the opposite gender. I also was surprised to learn that while you do have one designated partner, you end up dancing with just about everyone else on the dance floor. This was the exact opposite experience I had with Irish dances; I realized that I had made a mistake in thinking the two cultures would be so similar. I also learned from the Scotsman that children are taught these court dances from a young age at schools. These people took socializing to a new level that I never had experienced growing up. I went to a