SCD at IVFDF

The blog post title least likely to get me pageviews through google searches. 

Is there still a strong enough demand for a Scottish dance at IVFDF's outside of Scotland?

I've just returned from an annual festival called the Inter-Varsity Folk Dance Festival. Goes by the abbreviated name of IVFDF. It was awesome, and I wouldn't have missed it.

Last year I organised one (with a good deal of help). It was a break from the norm, by virtue of the exceptionally northern location, and as such a break from the recent norm in terms of overall numbers and travelling numbers. It was also a good deal more Scottish than average.

I'll wax lyrical about how generally lovely it was this year and my new Morris-crush at some point but I've come over here to set down my thoughts about one particular question:

What place does Scottish Country Dancing have at an IVFDF? 

I'm writing this partly to answer the question, and also to offer a little advice to the upcoming Edinburgh 2014 IVFDF (yay woop!), should they wish it.

First off - where am I coming from?

I've been to the last 9 IVFDFs, taken groups to 5, and organised 1. That's not counting the appearance I made in Newcastle 1990, aged 11 months and on my Daddy's shoulders. I do a lot of Scottish Country dancing, based in Aberdeen, mostly within the Scottish University circuit or with a couple of independent groups. I am a member of the RSCDS (and a fully certified Idiot Teacher) but might admit to falling slightly out of love with them as an institution*.

SCD at IVFDF Aberdeen 2012

The SCD at IVFDF last year was, to a degree, my baby. It's the "thing" we do most up here, and I was damned if I wasn't going to prove to all comers that it can be and is bloody good fun. I've chilled out on that front recently it seems, having just returned from Sheffield with a burning desire for sticks and bells. We were all about making something of the Scottish Country.

I'd like to think we made a fairly good stab at it. We ran three different SCD workshops with a real musician and experienced leaders who knew which niche they were out to fill**:  SCD for Numpties, My Mum's Favourite Dances, and Extreme Scottish Country Dancing. We put them in the main central venue in a decent-sized (if ugly) room with a gym floor, and they were well attended.

Our dance was a hoot. The foot-stamping roof-raising please-thank-the-band at the end caused the Police to show up; our one noise complaint of the festival***. But we had things go our way. We were in Scotland. We were in a city with a healthy SCD scene and some genuine local excitement about little ol' Aberdeen pulling off a national festival. We booked a much-loved local musician who has a following of his own and did a good deal of free advertising for us. We asked someone with more experience than us of (1) the Scottish University SCD circuit, and (2) IVFDF to write the programme, and we asked people with much the same credentials to call the dances. It was in our main central venue. We scheduled it at the normal time for a stand alone SCD dance on a Saturday night, and charged slightly less than normal for a just-the-SCD ticket (mostly because we couldn't include the usual cake and a cuppa). In the end there were 96 people up for the last dance and the room, although not huge, was packed out.

When our grant money was taken in to account, the SCD dance was very, very good for us.

But we were in Scotland. 

SCD at more southerly IVFDFs

For various reasons, I've always at least dipped in to the SCD dance at IVFDF. I'm also as guilty as the next Scottish IVFDF attendee for shunning a potentially mediocre token SCD dance to get my annual Contra-fix. For someone whose diary is not quite as SCD saturated throughout the rest of the year, the SCD might seem more exotic.

I think there is a place for SCD - it's another style that folk south of the border might not get much of a shot at.

My own personal thoughts about what might make an IVFDF SCD more successful 

In handy bullet-point form.

• Being a mainstream event. Or the converse - Not feeling like a poor relation or a token sideline. Although it felt controversial at the time, the Durham Friday night slot gave the SCD a nice big room at a sensible time and length of time. A small venue or a short or random slot makes you feel a little like you're being squeezed in. 
• Accessibility. Now this one's more about venues and thus beyond the control of the organisers at times, so I'm really not out to criticise any particular festival. I've been there. When I can dip in and out of multiple events, for argument's sake, an English ceilidh, Contra and SCD, then I will, and I'll love it. If there's a bit of a walk between venues I'd feel like I was missing valuable dancing time, and probably stick with one. In that scenario, the SCD would probably lose out a little. This year, I switched at half time, and showed up for the end of the SCD. 
• Calling. SCDs at IVFDFs are called, but if you don't know that and see a printed programme, you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise. I'd venture so far as a to say that the words Beginner Friendly. All Dances Will Be Called printed in nice friendly type in the programme would help turnout. Someone who knows IVFDF and knows the RSCDS and knows Ceilidh calling and knows the Uni Circuit. There are plenty of those people out there. I'd happily do it, as would many others who'd be better than me. 
• Absolutely the same goes for SCD workshops at IVFDF. Has to be a good alternative to whatever else is happening concurrently. 
• Demonstrations. A half time spot - be it SCD like at Bristol 2011 or rapper or otherwise. Again, it makes the SCD event more of a "thing".
• Getting the locals in. Here I have little experience at latitudes south of Durham, and wouldn't like to comment on the ease of such a feat elsewhere. A known band would pull the locals in at a Scottish IVFDF, but elsewhere it might be more worthwhile pitching for a cheaper younger alternative and hoping the programme will pull 'em in.  

Is it good business sense?

For us, a resounding YES. But that's not the question being asked.
The SCD is one event that might pull in the local SCDers for one event only, and if successful would maybe worth it. With an RSCDS grant that covers most of your band, if you can manage most else fairly thinly, it may still be good business if you only attract 60. If it comes down to the money my opinion would be that a cheap IVFDF SCD with a less established band in a small venue is still a better bet than cutting the whole thing.

Would it be missed?

In Scotland, yes. Probably anywhere north of Sheffield, yes. On the South coast, it would still be missed, but maybe not by a huge majority, given the bigger numbers a more geographically-forgiving IVFDF can pull. Less missed, for sure.



That'll do for now, folks.


*One for another day, when there's absolutely nothing more interesting happening in the world.
**Even if one of them was my Mum.
***Something I'm really rather proud of.