Gaelic Cape Breton Step-Dancing

Gaelic Cape Breton Step-Dancing
Author: John G. Gibson
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 464
Release: 2017-07-04
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0773550615

The step-dancing of the Scotch Gaels in Nova Scotia is the last living example of a form of dance that waned following the great emigrations to Canada that ended in 1845. The Scotch Gael has been reported as loving dance, but step-dancing in Scotland had all but disappeared by 1945. One must look to Gaelic Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and Antigonish County, to find this tradition. Gaelic Cape Breton Step-Dancing, the first study of its kind, gives this art form and the people and culture associated with it the prominence they have long deserved. Gaelic Scotland’s cultural record is by and large pre-literate, and references to dance have had to be sought in Gaelic songs, many of which were transcribed on paper by those who knew their culture might be lost with the decline of their language. The improved Scottish culture depended proudly on the teaching of dancing and the literate learning and transmission of music in accompaniment. Relying on fieldwork in Nova Scotia, and on mentions of dance in Gaelic song and verse in Scotland and Nova Scotia, John Gibson traces the historical roots of step-dancing, particularly the older forms of dancing originating in the Gaelic–speaking Scottish Highlands. He also places the current tradition as a development and part of the much larger British and European percussive dance tradition. With insight collected through written sources, tales, songs, manuscripts, book references, interviews, and conversations, Gaelic Cape Breton Step-Dancing brings an important aspect of Gaelic history to the forefront of cultural debate.

Gaelic Cape Breton Step-dancing

Gaelic Cape Breton Step-dancing
Author: John Graham Gibson
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Studies in Ethn
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9780773550599

Placing the phenomenon of Gaelic Cape Breton step-dancing into an historical perspective.

Scottish Dance Beyond 1805

Scottish Dance Beyond 1805
Author: Patricia Ballantyne
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2019-12-06
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0429784139

Scottish Dance Beyond 1805 presents a history of Scottish music and dance over the last 200 years, with a focus on sources originating in Aberdeenshire, when steps could be adapted in any way the dancer pleased. The book explains the major changes in the way that dance was taught and performed by chronicling the shift from individual dancing masters to professional, licensed members of regulatory societies. This ethnographical study assesses how dances such as the Highland Fling have been altered and how standardisation has affected contemporary Highland dance and music, by examining the experience of dancers and pipers. It considers reactions to regulation and standardisation through the introduction to Scotland of percussive step dance and caller-facilitated ceilidh dancing. Today’s Highland dancing is a standardised and international form of dance. This book tells the story of what changed over the last 200 years and why. It unfolds through a series of colourful characters, through the dances they taught and the music they danced to and through the story of one dance in particular, the Highland Fling. It considers how Scottish dance reflected changes in Scottish society and culture. The book will be of interest to scholars and postgraduates in the fields of Dance History, Ethnomusicology, Ethnochoreology, Ethnology and Folklore, Cultural History, Scottish Studies and Scottish Traditional Music as well as to teachers, judges and practitioners of Highland dancing and to those interested in the history of Scottish dance, music and culture.

Dance Legacies of Scotland

Dance Legacies of Scotland
Author: Mats Melin
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2020-12-30
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1000334333

Dance Legacies of Scotland compiles a collage of references portraying percussive Scottish dancing and explains what influenced a wide disappearance of hard-shoe steps from contemporary Scottish practices. Mats Melin and Jennifer Schoonover explore the historical references describing percussive dancing to illustrate how widespread the practice was, giving some glimpses of what it looked and sounded like. The authors also explain what influenced a wide disappearance of hard-shoe steps from Scottish dancing practices. Their research draws together fieldwork, references from historical sources in English, Scots, and Scottish Gaelic, and insights drawn from the authors’ practical knowledge of dances. They portray the complex network of dance dialects that existed in parallel across Scotland, and share how remnants of this vibrant tradition have endured in Scotland and the Scottish diaspora to the present day. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of Dance and Music and its relationship to the history and culture of Scotland.

Modern Scottish Diaspora

Modern Scottish Diaspora
Author: Murray Stewart Leith
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2014-07-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0748681426

Explores the connectedness of the diaspora to the homeland from a variety of different perspectivesThis book explores a range of different perspectives on the Scottish diaspora, reflecting a growing interest in the subject from academics, politicians and policy makers and coinciding with Scotland's second year of homecoming in 2014. The Scottish Government has actively developed a diaspora strategy, not least in order to encourage 'roots tourism', as those individuals of Scots descent come back to visit their 'homeland' diaspora. Key FeaturesExamines the importance of links within the Scottish diaspora for Scots both at home and abroad.Multi-disciplinary perspectives from literature to sportOf interest to policy makers, genealogists, tourism bodies, politicians and general publicThe Scots form one of the world's largest diasporas, with around 30 million people worldwide claiming a Scottish ancestry. There are few countries around the globe without a Caledonian Society, a Burns Club, a Scottish country dance society, or similar organisation. The diaspora is therefore of interest to politicians, to public policy makers and to Scottish business; as well as to those working in the media, in sport, in literature and in music.

Island Songs

Island Songs
Author: Godfrey Baldacchino
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2011
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0810881772

"Through the close analysis of musical performance and tradition, the scholarly contributiors to Island Songs provide a global review of how island songs, their lyrics, and their singers engage with the challenges of modernity, migration, and social change uncovering common patterns despite the diversity and local character of their subjects"--Page 4 of cover.

Contemporary Musical Expressions in Canada

Contemporary Musical Expressions in Canada
Author: Anna Hoefnagels
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 536
Release: 2020-01-09
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0228000149

Music and dance in Canada today are diverse and expansive, reflecting histories of travel, exchange, and interpretation and challenging conceptions of expressive culture that are bounded and static. Reflecting current trends in ethnomusicology, Contemporary Musical Expressions in Canada examines cultural continuity, disjuncture, intersection, and interplay in music and dance across the country. Essays reconsider conceptual frameworks through which cultural forms are viewed, critique policies meant to encourage crosscultural sharing, and address ways in which traditional forms of expression have changed to reflect new contexts and audiences. From North Indian kathak dance, Chinese lion dance, early Toronto hip hop, and contemporary cantor practices within the Byzantine Ukrainian Church in Canada to folk music performances in twentieth-century Quebec, Gaelic milling songs in Cape Breton, and Mennonite songs in rural Manitoba, this collection offers detailed portraits of contemporary music practices and how they engage with diverse cultural expressions and identities. At a historical moment when identity politics, multiculturalism, diversity, immigration, and border crossings are debated around the world, Contemporary Musical Expressions in Canada demonstrates the many ways that music and dance practices in Canada engage with these broader global processes. Contributors include Rebecca Draisey-Collishaw (Queen's University), Meghan Forsyth (Memorial University of Newfoundland), Monique Giroux (University of Lethbridge), Ian Hayes (Memorial University of Newfoundland), Anna Hoefnagels (Carleton University), Judith Klassen (Canadian Museum of History), Chris McDonald (Cape Breton University), Colin McGuire (University College Cork), Marcia Ostashewski (Cape Breton University), Laura Risk (McGill University), Neil Scobie (University Western Ontario), Gordon Smith (Queen's University), Heather Sparling (Cape Breton University), Jesse Stewart (Carleton University), Janice Esther Tulk (Cape Breton University), Margaret Walker (Queen's University), and Louise Wrazen (York University).

Traditional Gaelic Bagpiping, 1745-1945

Traditional Gaelic Bagpiping, 1745-1945
Author: John Graham Gibson
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 436
Release: 1998
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780773521346

The definitive history of traditional Scottish Gaelic bagpiping.

Dancing Through History-XLED

Dancing Through History-XLED
Author: Lori Henry
Publisher: Dancing Traveller Publishing
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2012-01-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0987689770

Some people travel to discover a country’s architecture; others to sample its cuisine, or experience its nature. For author Lori Henry, travel is a way to discover a country’s dances. In Dancing Through History, Henry crosses Canada’s vast physical and ethnic terrain to uncover how its various cultures have evolved through their dances. Her coast-to-coast journey takes her to Haida Gwaii in British Columbia, where she witnesses the seldom seen animist dances of the islands’ First Nation people. In the Arctic, Henry partakes in Inuit drum dancing, kept alive by a new generation of Nunavut youth. And in Cape Breton, she uncovers the ancient “step dance” of the once culturally oppressed Gaels of Nova Scotia. During her travels, Henry discovers that dance helps to break down barriers and encourage cooperation between people with a history of injustice. Dance, she finds, can provide key insight into what people value most as a culture, which is often more similar than it seems. It is this kind of understanding that goes beyond our divisive histories and gives us compassion for one another.

The Cape Breton Fiddle

The Cape Breton Fiddle
Author: Glenn Graham
Publisher: Sydney, N.S. : Cape Breton University Press
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2006
Genre: History
ISBN:

In the Cape Breton Fiddle, Glenn Graham, an accomplished Cape Breton fiddler, explores the rootes of the Cape BReton fiddling tradition, an art firmly rooted in Scottish Gaelic cultural forms, through an evolution that has made Cape BReton an icon of creativity recognized throughout the world.