Dancing in ST ANDREWS 2025
The Olympic Games of Scottish Country Dance take place every year in St Andrews, on the East coast of Scotland. Olympic Games? The RSCDS Summer School is not competitive and there are no medals, but it is the place where top Scottish dancers from all over the world meet to dance at an elite level. At home we dance for an evening or a day, but in St Andrews we dance for a whole week. At home we dance with intermediate dancers, we teach beginners, we choose the most complex dances our group can manage. At Summer School, every dance is manageable and nothing seems too complicated.
This year I attended Week 4, the final week of Summer School.. Some people go to the same week every year, to meet their friends. I dance when I can get away to Scotland. There are Children’s, Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced classes. I went to Very Advanced. We all danced six or seven hours per day for seven days, with world-class musicians playing all the time. It was WONDERFUL !
There are several Very Advanced classes. The Very Advanced High Impact Class is physically demanding, more so than the Very Advanced Low Impact Class. There is even a Very Advanced Low Impact Relaxed Class ….for people who know all the figures, can dance all the steps, but have varying degrees of ankle, knee, back, age or other ailments that limit their intensity for a whole week. Your capacity determines your choice. I opted for Low Impact: we were a group of twenty-four dance teachers who know everything …. but we can no longer do everything! And I saved most of my energies for the evening dances and Balls.
St Andrews castle, built on the cliffs in the 1190s, fell into disrepair after 1592.
St Andrews is a beautiful medieval town in Fife, surrounded by golf courses and perched on cliffs above the North Sea. The beaches are incredible; the golf is world-famous; there is a ruined castle and Scotland’s largest cathedral built in 1158 (burned down during the wars of religion); and Scotland’s oldest university, founded in 1413 with grey stone walls and quadrangles of great solemnity. St Andrews is my “alma mater” (‘spiritual mother’ in Latin) from where I graduated in History and Economics. The title ”alma mater “ should not be confused with Alma Ata, the former capital of Kazakhstan, which means “Father of Apples”. Apples grown in the foothills of the Tien Shen mountains of Central Asia are so delicious that, in the 14th century, they were carried 3500 km by pony express from Alma Ata to the court of the Kublai Khan in Beijing. Fascinating! It is useless details like this that really amuse history graduates from St Andrews University.
When you look at the North Sea coast of Scotland, Fife is the bulge between Edinburgh and Dundee, between two major river estuaries called the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Tay. St Andrews was in Macbeth’s Kingdom of Fife, the centre of Alba - as that part of Scotland was known. Macbeth (born in the year 1007) reigned from 1040-1057. Originally Macbeth was the Earl of Moray. King Duncan I made the mistake of invading Moray: he was killed in battle with Macbeth’s army, and the “winner takes all”. Predictably, Macbeth also died in battle and the winner became King Malcom III. Politics is always a messy business: look at Biden. Harris and Trump: the winner takes all. Trump behaves like a medieval warlord.
St Andrews is where the game of golf became the national sport of Scotland. The Royal & Ancient Golf Club is the home of golf. Apparently the most expensive street in Scotland is Golf Place in St Andrews, close to the R&A and the famous championship Old Course. Golf Place is also home to the 19th Hole, a famous pub where you go for a pint after your 18 holes of golf. A house in Golf Place with a nice view of the 18th hole will cost you millions of whatever currency you have in the bank, or hidden in your offshore tax haven.
Old Course 18th Hole in St Andrews and the R&A at dusk
Golf has a long Scottish history. Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (and widowed Queen of France) played golf on these links during the 1560s. The house at No 4, South St (now owned by St Leonard’s School) is where she stayed in St Andrews. Most towns own a municipal golf course where locals play for a modest green fee. In 1457, King James II banned golf because the game was distracting Scotsmen from practising archery (needed for battles). The Butts, close to the R&A, is where St Andrews citizens went every Sunday after Mass for their compulsory weekly archery practice.
Mary Stuart was also a great dancer. Dancing was an important art and sport in the French Court where she grew up (and later married the Dauphin). Widowed at 18, Mary returned to Scotland. She loved the music and dancing of the Scottish countryside, so her dance master Paul de Ruège adapted Scotland’s country dances and music for the ballrooms at Holyrood House in Edinburgh and at Falkland Palace near St Andrews, which was Mary’s favourite royal residence. You must include Falkland Palace on your itinerary, Dear Reader, when you come to Fife. And you must DANCE !!!!