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A Brief History
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The Scottish "war brides" who came to Peterborough after WWII formed a group to do the traditional social dancing of their homeland here nearly 60 years ago.
By 1985, a number of the group's members had seen Scottish Country Dancing as standardized by the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society (RSCDS) of Edinburgh at the annual Summer School held in Ontario by the Teachers' Association (Canada)/TAC. This, and the presence in the group of prospective RSCDS-trained teachers, prompted a move towards structured teaching as well as just social dancing in Peterborough. In 1990, the group initiated two classes, one for new dancers and the other for experienced dancers, held concurrently and in the same location, thereby enabling all members to mingle socially at the tea break in mid-evening. Membership that year reached about one and a half sets in each class and continued to grow to the point that the group was obliged to move to its present location in the middle of the following season. In the 20 years since then, the group's membership has grown steadily and is presently at 80 dancers, with members ranging in age from 16 to over 80. A final name change to "The Peterborough Scottish Country Dance Society" (PSCDS) and acceptance as an Affiliated Group of the RSCDS, with appropriate constitution, soon followed Peterborough's formal status as a teaching group. Several of its current staff of 4 teachers holding the RSCDS Full Certificate have served on the Executive of the TAC and one is an Area Representative and Resource Contact for that body. |
