Scottish Dancing in Tallinn from 2005 to 2009, arranged by forerunners of Scottish Culture Society
We have some video material and lots of pictures from our events.
We could arrange most of the dance events owing to the moral support from people who have taken into their hearts promoting healthy and quality pastime possibilities for the society and with the donation gratefully received from the Honorary Consul Iain Lawson.
Year 2005
May – Scottish Ceilidh in Old Town at Scottish Club. Opening event of the “Scottish Ceilidh Series in Tallinn”, together with Tallinn Ceilidh Band and the dancers from “Soveldaja”.
June – Scottish Ceilidh in Old Town at Kodulinna Maja. In the framework of Old Town Days. Caller: Hamish Dewar from Scotland, Edinburgh. Live music by Tallinn Ceilidh Band.
July – Scottish Ceilidh in Old Town at Kloostri Ait.
August – Scottish Ceilidh in Old Town at Matkamaja.
September – Scottish Ceilidh in the framework of Tallinn Student Days, Matkamaja.
October – Scottish Ceilidh at Matkamaja.
November – Scottish Ceilidh at Matkamaja.
December – Scottish Ceilidh at Matkamaja. Special Christmas Ceilidh with Tallinn Ceilidh Band.
December – Scottish Ceilidh at Matkamaja (we also danced the “Reel of the 51st Division“).
Year 2006
January – Scottish Ceilidh at Matkamaja. (We finished off with “Eightsome Reel“!)
February – Scottish Ceilidh at Matkamaja.
March – Scottish Ceilidh at Matkamaja. 60 people – three hours almost without a break!
April – English Ceilidh at Matkamaja. Caller: Roger Watson from England. Different, but lots of fun.
May (beginning) – Scottish Ceilidh at Matkamaja. Caller: Pia Walker from Scotland. The same weekend we also had our first “Scottish Country Dance seminar” – 14 participants – it was much enjoyed, so it was decided to be repeated in November.
May (middle) – Presentation of the book by Eike Urke of dance descriptions in Estonian: “Scottish Ceilidh Dances” at Matkamaja. Caller: Jim Stewart from Scotland. Youngest participant was a 4-year-old Sirli – who seemed to really enjoy dancing.
May (end) – In the framework of Scottish Week in Estonia a Scottish Ceilidh was organised at Matkamaja. Iain Lawson contributed with payment of the hall and Scottish Executives contributed with a band from Scotland: Iain Cathcart Band: Iain Cathcart, Gus Millar (Occasionals drummer) and Graham Berry; singers and piper also created authentic atmosphere. Pipe Major Iain Macdonald. A smashing Ceilidh it was!
June – Scottish Ceilidh at Tallinn Dome Club (Toomklubi). We tried Duke of Perth and progressive Dashing White Sergeant.
14 July – Scottish Ceilidh at Estonian Folk Culture Development and Training Centre.
18 July – A special event (prior to Viljandi folk festival) – English Ceilidh at Tallinn Music House. Caller: Chris Davis from England. We started with Ceilidh dances and then did also some ancient English ball dances. Felt like in the period of Robin Hood. We loved it so much that we kindly asked the caller to visit us again and call us a whole evening of Ball Dances ;-).
August – Scottish Ceilidh at Nõmme Culture Centre. Hall was tiny, but managed alright 😉 First time ever – we also did a demonstration of Scottish Country Dancing. We started with including also some old Estonian folk dances – first dance to be included in our Ceilidh series was “Padespaan”.
August – Tallinn SCD Group performance and a ceilidh in Haapsalu, private event.
September – Scottish Ceilidh at Nõmme Culture Centre. A bigger hall this time. Second Estonian folk dance was called and danced – “Reilender”.
October – Scottish Ceilidh. Back in Matkamaja! 🙂 During the summer when we travelled between several halls our tape recorder had become rusty and failed to read most of the CD-s 🙁 But even with this one CD that it recognised we did a lot of dancing. It was so great to see so many people from our previous Ceilidhs attending.
November – Scottish Ceilidh at Matkamaja, caller: Pia Walker from Scotland.
At the same week we also had (in cooperation with Tallinn University) a second “Scottish Country Dance seminar” – 30 people attending – this was a big success and we planned another similar event to take place in May 2007, with Susi Mayr from Vienna/London teaching.
December – English dance event at Matkamaja: “English Country Dance in Past and Present”, caller: Chris Davis. The ball and workshops prior to the ball were well attended: approximately 35 people and was considered a success, with another similar event planned on 18 July 2007.
This ceilidh also finished the first ever regular ceilidh series in Tallinn.
Year 2007
January – Tallinn SCD Group dance trip to Edinburgh. Hamish Dewar as a local contact person.
February – Scottish Ceilidh at Matkamaja, caller: Sheila McCutcheon, accordion: Neil Simpson, both from Edinburgh. Also workshops prior to the Ceilidh. Fun event.
March – Tallinn SCD Group dance trip to South Estonia, Vastseliina.
April – Tallinn SCD Group dance trip to Avinurme, performance SCD and a ceilidh.
May – the third “Scottish Country Dance seminar” in Tallinn, this time for advanced beginners only. Teacher: Susi Mayr from Vienna/London. Altogether 33 people attending – all who attended have achieved the level where they can comfortably join in an international SCD dancing and thus instead of the fourth local SCD seminar in autumn, were all encouraged to participate in international “Weekend of Scottish Country Dancing in Tallinn” on 28-30 September 2007, which had three teachers, all of whom well acknowledged in the world.
July – Tallinn SCD Group performance SCD in Haapsalu and a ceilidh.
July – “English Country Dance in Past and Present II”. Caller Chris Davis from England.
July – Tallinn SCD Group performance SCD in South Estonia, Otepää and a ceilidh.
September – First ever International Branch SCD weekend in Tallinn.
November – Scottish Ceilidh at Matkamaja. Caller David Vivanco. Music, pipes, singing and dancing. Evening of Scottish culture in true ceilidh spirit.
November (end) – SCD workshop with Katerina Finogenova from Moscow. We hope to have her over again to teach us a SCD seminar some day.
December – Scottish Ceilidh at Matkamaja.
Year 2008
January – Tallinn SCD Group dance trip to London, Scottish Ceilidh, Burns Supper and a SCD class.
January – Scottish Ceilidh at Matkamaja.
February – Scottish Ceilidt at Matkamaja.
March – Tallinn SCD Group dance trip to a SCD Weekend in France, Montpellier.
April – Scottish Ceilidh at Matkamaja.
April – the 5th local SCD seminar, teachers – Peter and Pat Clarks from Edinburgh. First time ever we had live music! And it did make all the difference.
July – Tallinn SCD Group Ceilidh at a summer get together event near Lake Peipsi.
July – “English Country Dance in Past and Present III” except that this time we actually called it a “Playford miniball”. Caller Chris Davis.
July – Tallinn SCD Group Playford performance and a Ceilidh in South Estonia, Vastseliina.
September – Scottish Ceilidh at Scotland Yard Pub.
October – Tallinn SCD Group SCD performance at a Youth Center in Ravila.
November – Tallinn SCD Group dance trip to a Playford Ball in Norwich. Organiser and contact person in England – Chris Davis.
December – Christmas Ceilidh, Scottish dances with a touch of English ones that Tallinn SCD group picked up from the Norwich trip in November when we attended a local Playford Ball and master class.
As of January 2009, Tallinn SCD Group included 29 people, in addition we had 7 dancers outside Tallinn, including South Estonia (Vastseliina), East Estonia (Avinurme) and Middle Estonia (Rapla). Our cooperation partner was Tallinn University (Angela Arraste, dance department).
Since we did not have a local licensed SCD teacher then we were making every effort to invite a visiting teacher to Tallinn in every six months for a weekend seminar, providing home accommodation and refunding flights payable from the seminar fees of the participants.