1. Traditional dance in the UK
We wanted to tell our partners all about traditional Scottish danc-
es. We hold a ceilidh in school and dance to accordion and pipe
music. Most tunes are called reels or jigs and dances have spe-
cial names like “The Dashing White Sergeant “ and “The Gay
Gordons”. Dancers may wear the traditional tartan and men wear
kilts sometimes.

2. Here are the instructions for a Scottish Dance
Flowers of Edinburgh
(8 couples in a group in 2 lines facing each other
“men” on left “ladies” on right)
Bars 1-8 man dances behind his line for 4 and back
Bars 9-16 lady dances behind her line for 4 and back
Bars 17-24 First couple join hands and dance down the middle of
the lines for 4 and back
Bars 25-28 all take one step left then one step right
Bars 29-32 first couple skip to the bottom and everyone move up
the set.
Repeat with a new couple at the beginning of the set.
We learnt the “Flowers of Edinburgh” dance and demonstrated it to
our parents. It was very energetic and we quickly got tired

3. We thought about the costumes of the dance. We
watched the swirl of the skirts and kilts in the dances. We
could see that the swirling cloth went well with the rhythm
of the music and dance. We experimented with different
materials to see if it would matter if we changed the mate-
rial of the clothes. The material had to be light but not too
floaty to hang properly for the dance.

4. We looked at the elements of the Scottish dances we had
seen. We chose to do a group dance as we thought it was
easier to see what everyone was doing. We looked at the
small elements that we needed; stepping in and out, moving
round the circle and hand actions First we tried out our own
steps and dances. Then, Lynn ,a dance teacher ,helped us to
put it together in a group dance