|
HOME
CANADA
**************
************** |
 Glencoe  Welcome to where I will enlighten you on my ancestry and what I am doing to keep it alive. Well, as some of you will know, my parents chose to give me one of the most common of Scottish, female, first names. I actually quite like it. Anyway, from as far back as I can remember, I was exposed to all things Scottish: music, dance, food, etc. (I could practically live on haggis). I'm a first-generation Canadian, so I don't have to go very far back to find my roots. Since I was brought up listening to Scottish music, my tastes have gone in that direction. If you're curious for more information on my musical tastes, take a visit to my music page. Hold on, let me back up a little and give you some general Scotland links: Scotland.org Brigadoonery! MusicScotland Photos to Go® Scotland Online Bluestone Design Scotlands Internet Scotland's Sources Walking in Scotland Robert Burns Tribute Rampant Scotland Index Scottish Culture and Heritage: Scotland and New Scotland I also love dancing. I have done Scottish Country Dancing for about 20 years now, and Ladies' Step Dancing for 4. Scottish Country Dancing can best be compared with square dancing (much to my chagrin, no offense to any square dancers out there), but it is much-more formal. Demonstration teams are assembled all over the world to showcase it. Balls are held in great splendour in large ballrooms. I've been part of a demonstration team for about 16 years now and I've been to several balls: the Tartan Ball and the St. Andrew's Ball, both held in Toronto. I absolutely adore doing this dancing and showing it to other people. If you would like more information on Scottish Country Dancing, and I know you would, here is a bunch of links for you peruse at your own leisure: The Strathspey Server Toronto Scottish Country Dancing Scottish Country Dancing in Ottawa The Royal Scottish Country Dance Society Grand Chain Scottish Dancing Resource Pages Scottish Country Dancing in Vancouver, Canada Now, how to describe Ladies' Step Dancing to you. hmmm.... that's a toughy. You're probably all familiar with the Irish Step Dancing shown in Riverdance and Lord Of The Dance, am I right? Well, it's almost entirely not like that. Sure, some of the steps may be similar, but Ladies' Step Dancing is lyrical for the most part and is very choreographed. It's mostly solo dancing, though there are a few dances with 2 or 3 dancers. Okay, that's the best I can do to describe it, you're just going to have to see it for yourself to understand what I am trying to say. Take some of the steps from Scottish Country Dancing and some of the steps from Highland Dancing (the form of Scottish dancing most people know) and smoosh them together and you've got yourself some Ladies' Step Dancing, sort of. Well, is there anything else besides dancing and music? Any of you out there like jewellery? Well, I'm always in search for the perfect celtic pendant, celtic earrings, and celtic rings. I have a passion for celtic knotwork and a few years ago, I taught myself how to create some knotwork (it's not as easy as it looks), but I have since forgotten. I also have an extreme desire to learn how to speak, or at least read, Gaelic. Scottish gaelic, that is. There are a few things I can say: Ciamar a tha thu? = How are you?, Tha gu math, tapadh leat. = Fine, thanks., Cò às a tha thu? = Where are you from?, Cait' a bheil sibh a' dol? = Where are you going?, Eilean Sgitheanach. = Isle of Skye. I know what you're thinking. 'Well, that's just fine and dandy, but has she ever been to Scotland?' YES! Many times. I would guess somewhere in the vicinity of 7 times. Basically, whenever we went to visit my Grandmother in England, we would drive up and see the relatives. The last time I was there was in August of 1996. We took a vacation and toured around the whole country. I've made as complete a description of our trip as I can remember. If you would like to read about it take a look see. Well, that's all the information I can think of to put here. If something else comes up, I'll be sure to add it. |