Interest in Highland dancing increased during the 20th century. Dancing contests have become increasingly competitive. Instruction became authoritative, and the dancing technique became more defined. Since there were differing ideas on technique and judging, the Scottish Official Board or Highland Dancing and its traditional and accepted technique of competition came into being.

Appearance in North America

Scottish dancing came to North America towards the end of the 18th century and during the first half of the 19th century large numbers of Scots went abroad either willingly to seek a better life or unwillingly as part of the infamous Highland Clearances. Many Scots settled in Canada and the United States. I believe it is this phenomenon which has resulted in the survival of much of the old culture.

Nature of Dances

But what were the dances that these early emigrants took from the old country to Cape Breton nearly 200 years ago? Understandably they were the dance which were popular in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland at the time of their departure. Only Reels are truly indigenous to Scotland. Reels of one sort or another were known in every district of Scotland, in all classes of society, and were particularly popular in the crofting regions; in these latter regions most dancing took place in the kitchens of the croft houses, and Reels, with their compact traveling figures and well-contrasted periods of vigorous stepping, were ideally suited to the restricted dancing-spaces available. Even as late as the end of the 19th century, the Scotch Reel was so popular in the West Highlands and Western Isles, that on many occasions it was almost the only dance performed. Examples are given of dances in Glen Roy in Lochaber in 1885 and in Glen Urquhart at the turn of the century where it would be Scotch Reel upon Scotch Reel... with the Highland Schottische, and perhaps Flowers of Edinburgh... but chiefly these Reels all the time. At this point you may be wondering why I am concentrating on a social dance for four people, which is not often danced now, and not the more widely recognized solo step-dancing, but it is simply because today's solo step-dancing developed out of the stepping within the old reels. It is this fact which defines step-dancing in Cape Breton today and also goes some way to explain why it had almost died out in Scotland until very recently.

Solo Step Dancing

You see, at the same time as the old Reels were taken over from Scotland, there was a body of more formal solo step-dances, which also went over with the early settlers. These include the 'Fling,' 'Sean Truibhas,' 'Flowers of Edinburgh,' 'Tullochgorum,' 'Jackie Tar,''Irish Washerwoman,' and 'Princess Royal.' These dances were taught by the early dancing-masters, but their complexity and the requirement to dance the steps in a prescribed order, meant that they had to be learnt, and eventually fewer and fewer people danced them. Margaret Gillis from South West Margaret is perhaps one of the few people in Cape Breton who can still dance some of these old step-dances. She learnt them from her father, John Alex (1880-1975), who learnt them from his father, Allan, who learnt them from his father, Alexander, who had emigrated from Morar in Scotland in 1826 and whose profession both in Scotland and in Cape Breton was that of dancing-master. Margaret Gillis said:

Figure 3.--Both Highland and Irish dancers perform the Horn Pipe. The costume is always a Royal Navy uniform, worn with long bell-bottom trousers.

Modern Highland Dancing

I think the Flowers of Edinburgh was one of the dances in Scotland, and you'd have the Jacky Tar and all the hornpipes that were danced individually. There was form to it, a format. Even the Seann Truibhas was a different dance then than the one that they do in Highland dancing today.

Evolving styles--figures

Dance evolved in Scotland during the 19th Century. The introduction of country dances from England produced a smoothing out of traveling steps and a greater emphasis being placed on the figures of the dance rather than on the stepping, which was the fundamental component of the old Reels. An Englishman by the name of Colonel Thornton, who was touring in the Highlands about the year 1804, remarked: During the 19th century, the old solo step-dances were being danced regularly in competition at Highland Games and in performance at concerts, and the style became ever more open and balletic perhaps to suit the larger arena.

Soft-soled shoes

The introduction about the turn of the 20th century century of soft-soled dancing-shoes hastened this change in style, so that what we see now in modern Highland dancing is the direct descendant of the old step-dances. When the 80-year-old James Neill, the respected Angus dance-master, was asked in 1908 about the new fashion, he replied: "It is more scientific, but it is not so Highland, so to speak. The steps they dance are not the real Highland steps." There are still a few people, like Sheila MacKay and Mary McHarg (of Airth) in Scotland, and Margaret Gillis in Cape Breton, who have older versions of today's Highland dances. Scottish dancers are today wrestling with the question of whether the older versions, now known as Scottish country dance, will disappear completely.

Figure 4.--Notice the difference in the costumes worn by the boys and girls. The girls wear blouses and the boys wear jackets, shirts, and bowties with Balmoral caps. Some girls wear dresses rather than kilts.

Scottish Country Dance

The 1700's saw the full formation (and instructions) for Scottish country dancing. Scottish country dancing flourished throughout the drawing rooms and ballrooms of the 1700's and the first part of the 1800's. By the middle of the 19th century, country dancing was losing popularity. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Scottish Country Dance Society (SCDS) was formed. This group "standardized" the dances, probably at some loss to regional variations and historical accuracy. The society received the Royal designation sometime later. At first, the society was dedicated to publishing older dances, but since the 1950's they have published new dances as well. In the 1950's, some field work was done to record dances, dance forms, and dance steps from before dancing was "standardized" by the SCDS. What existed at the beginning of the 19th century was a dance heritage common to both the Gaels who stayed in Scotland and those who emigrated - i.e. the old Reels and the solo step-dances. In Scotland, social changes, especially the contact within which dance was being performed, and the proximity to our English and European neighbours, has produced the rich and varied dance tradition which we now enjoy. In Cape Breton, geographic isolation and social stability has led to a much narrower seam of dancing, which was exposed to very few external influences until very recently. By the 20th century, the old dancing-schools teaching the formal step-dances had ceased, and most people learnt stepping in their youth just from being exposed to it, hearing the music and not being able to resist dancing to it. Some were taught by a parent or older relative but many learnt simply by imitation, through watching a step and keeping the "music," i.e. the rhythm of it in their heads, until they could practice and perfect it. This ability to learn intricate step-work through imitation, I believe, is similar to learning music by ear rather than from a written score.

Created: January 1, 1999
Last updated: February 1, 2004