"Collecting Traditional Dance in the British Isles" - Joan Flett (1993)

"Traditional Step-Dancing in Lakeland" by Flett, J. P., and Flett, T. M. 1979. Contemporary material and 29 different sets of steps. Lots of background history and anecdotes from interviews with local people. Email: [e-mail]
"Traditional Step-Dancing in Scotland" by Flett, J. P., and Flett, T. M. Includes Appendix: "Step-Dancing in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia" by Frank Rhodes. This book is a result of the authors' field work in the 1950s and 60s talking to elderly people about what they remembered of dancing from their childhood. The book shows that: Highland Games dances are only a small part of a rich heritage; how the once numerous dances were taught by popular dancing masters; the link to step-dancing in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia; and it contains instructions for the step-dances collected from mainland Scotland, the Hebrides and Cape Breton, including clog-dances (in wooden-soled shoes) and dirk dances. Scottish Cultural Press, 1996. £12.99. ISBN: 1898218455. Email: [e-mail]
^ "Traditional Dancing in Scotland" by Flett, J. P., and Flett, T. M. Includes - Appendix: "Dancing in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia" by Frank Rhodes. This book is interesting because both this book and the next book (by the same authors) are the results of field-work to discover what traditional dancing really used to be like. Tom and Joan spent years touring Scotland to find out how dancing was done "within living memory" - which, given they started in the 50s, stretches back to the 1890s. They interviewed numerous elderly people in the 1950's and 1960's to see what they remembered of dancing in their childhood. It covers how dancing worked, with the "dancies" or dancing masters touring their areas, teaching for a term, holding an end-of-term ball and then moving on. It also describes some dances, and has specific chapters on dancing in Shetland and Orkney. A very good history of Scottish Dance around the turn of the century. The dances and the dance steps are different than what is currently taught in the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, Boston, Melbourne and Henley, 1964. ISBN: 0-7100-1369-8 / ISBN: 0-7102-0731-X. Further information can be found at chrisbrady.itgo...