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16 October 2014

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Country Dancing

There are 4 messages in this section.

Andrew Thomson from Washington DC. Posted 5 Apr 2004.
I went to School in Bishopbriggs. I remember the normal PE schedule getting dropped around the end of November in favour of learning Scottish Country Dancing. This was done for the big School dances coming up at Xmas.

We would be lined up at seperate sides of the gym hall, lads and lassies would then be told to "Pick a partner" I remember the odd, awkward way each "side" picked its way across the hall to get a dance partner!!

Something like the Germans and the Allies coming out of the trenches on Xmas day in 1914 to meet one another in no mans land perhaps?

Clare from Scotland. Posted 23 Apr 2004.
We also had Christmas Dancing instead of PE in the run up to the dances. Everyone hated it! Girls and guys absolutely did not want to dance together in the brightly lit gym with all the teachers watching. It was a different matter at the actual dance of course. So we moaned about it every year...until 6th year...when we were allowed to go down and 'help' the younger school learn the dances!

Michelle from Scotland. Posted 27 Jul 2005.
This still happens, or at least it does in my school. There is still the uneasy, embarrassing shuffling towards the other side of the hall with your dance partner.

Strangely, I am one of the people who love doing country dancing, just because it gets us off the normal PE timetable!

Neil Pendreich from Strathaven, Lanarkshire. Posted 10 Nov 2005.
Same thing happened at Broughton secondary, Edinburgh in the late 50's - we boys would recognise the signs if the big concertina type wall separating the girls and boys gyms was pulled back - we would stand on opposite sides glaring across at each other until the teachers threatened to pair us off which resulted in a scramble for the girl of your dreams!

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