Scotland, a small country on the edge of Europe, with rugged highlands and picturesque coasts, a land with a thousand faces, shaped by myths and traditions, by wild battles, rebellion and harsh customs. It is a people with an incredible amount of courage, open cordiality, humor and wild passion. But it also produced great thinkers, philosophers, scientists and romantics. The men wore kilts with swords at their side and the women were proud and strong. And when there was a party, there was not only the famous whisky, but there was also plenty of dancing. And in the Scottish way - with the Scottish Country Dance, which we also dance.
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A Scottish dance group was founded in 2009 to popularise Scotland and Scottish culture in Salzburg. In 2020 we regrouped into the "Cuillin Scottish Country Dancers". Central to the club's activities is the weekly dancing class.
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Our dance group meets every Tuesday at 8:00-9:30 p.m. in the Sportzentrum Mitte, TGUSS Sportunion, Salzburg. Everyone is free to come along and try it out and get a taste. It is ideal for anyone who enjoys exercise, socializing, teamwork and wishes to keep their mind alert. Beginners are very welcome as well as those who just want to get their dancing feet going again. You don't need to bring a dance partner but if you have someone in mind – then all the better - everyone is welcome. You can join us at any time. We look forward to seeing you. Enjoying dancing is important for all of us here, no matter what age, and Scottish Country Dance unites us all.
Our dance group is named after a mountain range on the Isle of Skye "The Cuillins". Katrin has created a tartan, which is now our dance group tartan (see logo). The tartan is based on the colours of Scotland's national flower - the thistle. We hope to register the tartan in the official tartan register (www.tartanregister.gov.uk).
View from Sligachan Bridge to the north end of the Cuillin Mountains
View from the summit "Bruach na Firthe"
Honorary member James S. Stott (Jim)
We are proud to have Jim as an honorary member of your group. Jim was Katrin's dance teacher and Tutor for the RSCDS exams parts 2, 3 & 5 in Vicenza/Italy.
Jim started dancing in 1965, eventually dancing for the RSCDS Aberdeen Demonstration Team. In 1974, when he became a Primary-School Teacher, he started to teach Scottish dancing in schools and entered many childrens teams into the Aberdeen Festival. In 1992 he obtained the RSCDS Preliminary Teachers Certificate and then the Full Certificate in 1994. He has taught at many Day and Weekend Schools world-wide: not only in Britain, but in Europe, Japan, North America, & Australia.
In 2005, he became one of the first Medal Assessors for the RSCDS medal for children, and then later became an adjudicator (2007) and an examiner (2019).
He has been heavily involved with RSCDS; as a committee member (Education & Training, Youth Services, the Management Board), as Depute Director of Summer School, and then Schools Director in 2015. He has run St Andrews Summer School for the 3 years.
Jim enjoys teaching dancing and has taught at St Andrews Summer School for the past 14 years: he says, „this has been a fantastic opportunity to engage with hundreds of dancers from about 40 different countries. It give me great pleasure to see Scottish country dancing continue to thrive all over the world.“ James S. Stott (2019)
James S. Stott (Novosibirsk 2019)
