As well as the wide selection of helpful resources that RSCDS provides for the dance community in general, we offer a number that are of particular interest to those of you who teach Scottish Country Dancing.
The dancers’ bible
The Manual is the SCD teacher’s essential companion as a reference tool, whether to check up on the phrasing of a formation, find advice on choosing music, research material to give a talk on the history of Scottish dancing ….or a myriad of other uses. Keep it by you!
The Core Teaching Qualification
Resources currently in the planning stage to accompany and support the Core Teaching Qualification that is now under development should also be helpful to the wider dance teaching community, whether to aspiring teachers seeking guidance or to practising teachers interested in looking at how others approach particular aspects of SCD teaching. These resources will include teaching videos and a teachers’ guide, provisionally entitled Enjoy Scottish Country Dancing!
Advice on teaching
You don’t need to wait to obtain helpful advice, however: we have already produced a a handy summary of things to consider when teaching a class, Guidance Notes on Running an SCD Class - solid counsel for those new to teaching and a helpful reminder and checklist for old hands at it.
Organising classes may be a daunting prospect. Here we offer some advice on things to consider in our helpful guide Arranging SCD Classes.
In addition, we offer an introductory framework designed to help you progressively introduce beginners to the steps and formations of Scottish Country Dancing: this is in two parts – a guidance document setting out the progessive framework and a searchable Excel table containing dances that include the formations listed in it.
Pooling expertise
Sharing knowledge, experience and ideas between practising teachers has great potential benefits. An RSCDS Teachers' Forum where teachers can exchange views, questions and responses and generally provide mutual support is being planned for the future. Teachers can also get together at the annual or biennial Teaching Conference, to swap ideas or anecdotes and participate in sessions on a wide variety of topics – this takes place during the RSCDS AGM weekend (usually held in Perth in November each year). Valuable shared communication, interaction, support and activities are also made possible by a number of very active teachers’ organisations.
