The Royal Scottish County Dance SocietyNew Zealand Branch IncJunior Associate Newsletter

JAM Committee: youth@dancescottish.org.nz OR PO Box 9743, Wellington 6141

Issue 1/2015

Jigs And M oreSummer School ScholarshipRecipient : Claire Wyeth

I would like to thank the NZ Branch for givingme one of the JAM scholarships to go to theSummer School in Dunedin. Without it, Iwouldn't have been able to go to Summer Schoolthis year.

It was my fourth Summer School but the first inthe South Island and the first without myfamily, which was a whole new experience.However there were many other Aucklanddancers who kept an eye out for me. I wouldespecially like to thank Miriam and DuncanLaidlaw for looking after me and putting up withme throughout the whole school.

There were not enough Senior JAMs this yearto hold their own class at the school, so all theSenior JAMs were moved to the Advanced Classwith Damon Collin. I thoroughly enjoyed being inthis larger class with my friends from the JAMsand Auckland and being able to make new friendsfrom NZ and the rest of the world.

Dunedin Summer School was a wonderfulexperience. Hogmanay, the President’s Ball andthe Final Night are always special and memorableevenings. I am already looking forward to thenext Summer School in Auckland.

Claire Wyeth

The photo is of Claire dancing in a recent display(Photo: Miriam Laidlaw)________________________________________

Summer School

The next Summer School will be held in MtWellington, Auckland from 28 December 2015 to5 January 2016.You can find more information athttp://www.rscdsnzb.org.nz/summerschools.php

Super Spectacular Stooges

Dance exams for us dancers is a highly nerve-racking thing to do. We have to be so focused onthe dances we are displaying, we have to focuson all our techniques and getting thembeautifully correct. Just to get an idea of someof the techniques, these include pointing ourtoes, always being turned out, constantly being intime with the music, getting lower to the groundin strathspey, standing up straight, keeping goodeye contact with all dancers in our set and ofcourse keeping a nice big smile planted on ourfaces, even if the dance just isn't going our way.

Dance exams require a lot of practise, hardwork, sweat and yes in some cases even tearsbut in the end, when we receive our pass resultsand get presented with our certificate, bronze,silver or gold medal or bar the work that was putin then becomes all worth it and we get an addedsense of achievement and accomplishment.

Committing yourself to a dance exam is one thingbut committing yourself to a dance exam as astooge is a whole other thing. Many dancers relyon stooges to complete their set of 8 and fill inthe missing gaps. Stooges could be compared tosuper, spectacular, superheroes. They give uptheir own time to come to practices and studyeach and every dance they are being placed in sothey don't muck up on the day and throw us off.

They really do save the day as without them wewouldn't be able to sit an exam with only 5people when we need 8 for example (and theydon't even get awarded with a medalafterwards!). This year we had a girl from myclub (Milford) that was sitting her silver baralone. This meant she needed 7 other stooges tobe in her set for the exam. Now this is muchharder work than what our dance teacher makesit appear (my grandma). She had to round up 7stooges just for the one exam that can practiseand study them and be there on the day.

Some dancers may think their job as a volunteerstooge is no harder than my role as a dancer inthis exam, what's all the fuss about? But inactual fact their job can sometimes be muchharder as some stooges (majority) are in morethan one exam so that can be extremely hardwork learning several dances and a lot ofpressure to not muck up for us. 

The photo is of stooges and helpers being thanked atMilford Juniors' Special Medal Presentation Evening.

On behalf of especially my gold medal Milfordset (which required 3 stooges that did anoutstanding and unquestionable job), but everyScottish Country dancer in NZ we would like tothank each and every stooge out there; yourwork and efforts for us do not go unnoticed.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Chelsea Herbert (16)

Gold Medal recipients: Chelsea Herbert, MichelleMcEwan, Jessica MacGee, Cailin Carmichael, IsaacClancy.  

Edinburgh in the south.Dunedin Summer school 2014/2015.

9 days of immense fun, what more could asenior JAM want….

Summer School in Dunedin this year was oneof the most memorable experiences I havehad during my 7 years of dancing. It allstarted on the 28th of December 2014, whena very small group of Scottish Countrydancers from Rotorua and Tokoroa boardedthe Air New Zealand plane at about 12.15pm.We were all very excited of course, becausewe knew we were going to Summer School!On our vigorous journey, we stopped inWellington, where we met up with moreScottish Country dancers! It was a smallgroup from Auckland, and some of them Iknew from previous occasions.

When we finally arrived in Dunedin, our smallgroup from Auckland had no luggage! Notthat us people from the Waikato/Bay ofPlenty region had anything to do with it. Theyjust weren’t so fortunate with time. Don’tworry JAMs, it arrived at about 9.15pm,when we were all out dancing.

The next morning was fabulous! A group ofabout 6 senior JAMs were taken under thewing of Damon Collin, who fortunately wastaking the advanced class. At first some ofus JAMs were a bit terrified of Damon, butafter the first session when we got to knowhim better, he wasn’t so scary after all, wejust didn’t know how much fun he was! Hereally taught us well, in fact I have some newideas to bring back to our club. So he must’vedone a good job.

At Summer School, you can never leave outthe musicians! Musicians add flavour to theschool, so it’s not really a Summer Schoolwithout them. This year we were fortunateto have a whole bunch of them! The most

popular among the senior JAMs would be theamazing Peter Shand all the way fromScotland! (I can’t really say that I have afavourite musician, a band, maybe, and thatwould probably be Bourach Mor. But that’sjust me coming from the Waikato/Bay ofPlenty).

Hogmanay was another great success of theweek; on this particular night we stayed uptill pretty much 3.00am! First we had ourdance, with an interesting set put togetherfor the Eightsome Reel. We weren’t the bestset in the hall, in the range of footwork anduse of hands and covering, but we didn’t muckup either, so we did pretty well. Then afterthe dance, we had yet another after party.

On the 1st of January, around 7pm, we had amusical soirée, where most of the school’smusicians played some amazing pieces ofmusic. One of my favourite pieces was aChristmas classical, this was where SharlenePenman got together some of the school’smusicians to play some classical music, butsome bits didn’t sound quite right, some bitssounded a lot like jingle bells!

The ceilidh was a terrific experience to bepart of; we had talented people from all overthe world. We had the Plank family singing,which was really amazing. We also had DougMills and Debbie Roxburgh go over oursafety instructions, which was reallyhilarious. The senior JAMs however didn’ttake things quite so seriously, which is prettymuch a normal thing. They did a quiz dance:the amazing Hannah Roxburgh told them thefirst eight bars of dance, they danced it, andwe had to guess what it was.

Mock Court is always a highlight of SummerSchool; this is where we have all our trumpedup charges. Our two amazing policemenHannah and Philip did an exceptionally goodjob at that. I was shocked when I found outabout some of the charges, surely we’re not

that bad. I’m ashamed of some of thosesenior JAMs, especially Kerridwen, caughtdoing graffiti on the college grounds! AndDoug Mills asking people to do his ironing,especially the children, I thought childslavery was abolished. Most of the schoolwas called up, and few of us were leftinnocent. I was lucky to be one of theinnocent few.

The final night was one night I shall neverforget! How many times have you heard ofThe De’il amang the Tailors done twice? Notme that’s for sure! But it was definitelyworth it. That night’s after party wasn’t anordinary one… It was me who started all thedancing, and I’m glad I did. At first Isuggested that we do J.B Milne, and we did,then later on we did The De’il amang theTailors, with a slight alteration with goingdown the middle, instead we went straightthrough the hall and around the corner, andback to the top just in time for theAllemande. Not so long after, we did thePetronella, and if I can remember correctly,we started with the top and bottom couples,not just the top! And we did doubles, it’s notthe Petronella without doubles! Much lateron, we decided it was time for the AustralianLadies! But there were no more musiciansalive! Except for one, it was our awesomepianist Peter! Could we have possibly askedhim to play for us at that time in the night?Yep, we did, and thankfully he did! For thefirst few bars, it was rather…slow, and goodold Kerridwen got it running a fractionfaster! After that, I was rather tired, whichis probably a bit unusual at about 3.30, 3.45in the morning! So I dragged myself up the68 steps to the last floor at Knox, got to myroom, fell asleep, and woke up again at about6.30 in the morning.

Straight after breakfast, a small group of usrushed up the 68 steps, got our suitcases,brought them down the 68 steps, and

boarded the shuttle to the airport. When wegot there, we had to wait for a whole hourtill our flight departed! It was at Dunedinairport that summer school ended.

Happily we returned home, with lots moreknowledge and new ideas!

It won’t be long now till Hoppiton JAM camp2015! So everyone get ready for yet anotheradventure!

Anna Verhaegh.

New JAM Committee

As this is a bumper-sized edition of Jigs andMore, let me just tell you who is now workinghard for you behind the scenes, and we canintroduce new members in future editions.

Youth Co-ordinator: Diane BradshawMedal Test Organiser: Hazel FishMembership: Amy Luxton-EslerCommittee Support: Catherine EdwardsYouth Representative: Philip OliverJigs and More Editor: Hazel Fish

The new Committee would like JeanetteWatson for all the time and energy she hasput in whilst on the JAM Committee and asYouth Co-ordinator, and for the support sheis giving the new Committee as they findtheir feet.

See your name in print!

Jigs And More is for you - emailjigsandmore@dancescottish.org.nzby 31 May 2015 with your story or photo.

jam@dancescottish.org.nz - for medal tests andmembership, youth@dancescottish.org.nz for general queries,requests for JAM Committee support,suggestions, jigsandmore@dancescottish.org.nz for newsletterand Facebook things, and youthrep@dancescottish.org.nz for Phillip Oliver

Hoppiton JAM Camp 2015Waikato 10-12 July 2015

JAM camp this year over a weekend in theschool holidays 10-12 July.The camp buildingsare called Totara Springs at Matamata inWaikato not far from Hamilton or Rotorua.Matamata is where some of Hobbiton andLord of the Rings movies were filmed. TotaraSprings has a warm swimming pool, and a bighall for dancing

Our camp is called Hoppiton because thetheme is Hobbits and dancing.

There will be Scottish country dancing inclasses with cool teachers, And a big danceon Saturday night.  At the dance we areinviting people who used to be JAMs tocome.We hope lots of JAMS will come, fromall over New Zealand.This fabulous camp isfor dancers aged 6-19 years old, and you canfind out more information and print off aregistration form from the ‘Youth’ part oftheir website at waibopscd.org.nz or emailLady Gandalf, the camp wizard, atjamcamp@dancescottish.org.nz

Medal Test Results Waimate 8 November 2014(all Waimate SCD Club pupils)

BronzeSeraphina CadoganRebekah ClarkAlex Kuti

Amanda KutiAmellia LindsayPaige Russell

Bronze BarEdward FishJonathan FishPeter FishThomas Jefferis

Sarah McLennanCatherine NicholAnna Peterson

Dunedin Summer School 30 December 2014Bronze

Alex PlankIan PlankEmma Russ

Canterbury Region JAMCanterbury Region JAMRangiora & Christchurch Juniors

Bronze BarCaitlin TippingJennifer Russ

Rangiora & Christchurch JuniorsRangiora & Christchurch Juniors

Congratulations to all, and a huge thank youto stooges, organisers, examiners & parents!

Upcoming Medal Tests

JAM Camp 2015, 10th July, MatamataandChristchurch 10th October 2015Applications to: Hazel Fish86 Whitneys Road, RD 8, Waimate 7978

$$$ available

The first grants from the Branch YouthFund were made in June and December 2014.At the December meeting, the Youth FundCommittee were pleased to give a grant toEdward Fish from Waimate Juniors, to assisthis travel to JAM Camp in July.

Grants are available twice a year. The nextfunding ‘round’ is in June – applications mustbe received by 1 June. See website Youthpage for application form.

More $$$ available !!

A reminder, too, to get your application infor the draw for one of the two JAM’sSummer School Scholarships. There’s noneed to wait until the week before theclosing date of 15th July!!

Summer School ScholarshipRecipient : Alex Plank

Hi my name is Alex Plank and I received theJunior JAM Scholarship for the DunedinSummer School. My teacher was Rachel Eastand she was awesome. There were 9 otherkids in my class. They made the class somuch fun, sometimes the other kids werefunny and tried to tickle me. Every day atmorning tea time they gave us a treat, likechoc-chip bikkies, Raro, Pineapple bites andginger biscuits. The musicians were friendlyand made me feel relaxed. On the last daywe had to move into a new hall and I felt sofree with all the space.

This was my first ever Summer School andgoing away was so much fun. My family and Istayed in the new building, unit three, whichwas amazing. I got a room to myself with adesk, a wardrobe, a table and a mirror and abed of course. We got 2 bathrooms and 3toilets to ourselves.

I loved the kitchen staff, who made all ouryummy food, they were kind and gave meextra special food. I especially loved 2lunches because they made fried rice withcooked prawns (I was sneaky taking extraprawns). The breakfasts were yummy too, Ilove cornflakes but I didn’t try the porridge.

I hung around with the other JAM kids too.Most of the time after meals we went to theTV room to play lots of fun games, like paint-ball with ping pong balls and we also watchedDVD’s. We used pillows and beans bags forhuge pillow fights. For 2 days we got to slidedown the steep hills out the front, sitting oncardboard from McDonalds boxes. We alsowent to the Cadbury’s Chocolate factory andthe butterfly house at the museum and wentto the beach too.

I liked the President’s Ball, I wore my kiltand my fancy VIP shirt with a tie. We likedto sit on the balcony when we were tired orwhen Strathspeys were on, and play “spotthe friends” below us. Helen helped me do apoussette, and told me how to do it, so it wastotally easy. It was my first time doing one.

The Mock-Court was embarrassing becausemy mum made me join in with the other kidsgoing on trial. But the parents got chargedinstead and they had to do our dishes thatnight, and we got chocolate fish. I joined inthe Ceilidh too. I sang with my brother Ianand Mum, and danced with the Junior Jamsdemo.

Summer School was amazing, far away fromhome, in Dunedin. Thank-you to the JAMCommittee for organising the Scholarship, Iam glad my name was pulled out.

Photo shows Alex dancing at Summer School