|
Filters House, Dodburn, By Hawick,
Roxburghshire, Scotland TD9 0PG
Tel/Fax: 01450-85026
| |
Rob Corcoran
|
| Rob Corcoran moved
to the Isle of Skye from Southport in Lancashire. He first became
interested in traditional dance in the 1980s – learning Cotswold Morris
dance with the Sheffield University side (and he can still be found every
First of May at an unearthly hour greeting the dawn of summer above
Portree!).
Moving to Southport he discovered Longsword
Dance with the Southport Swords team. Their
traditional Boxing Day tour celebrates the return of the sun with an
intricate star shape formed with the simple, quite blunt swords.
He and Elizabeth took up Scottish Country Dance while still in
Southport in 1990 and they regularly practised with the Skye RSCDS when on
holiday. Now full members of the Portree Branch they also regularly enjoy
ceilidh and old time dancing too.
Rob brought the Papa Stour Sword Dance with
him to previous Island Flings and it’s a dance the Southport Swords
collected in the 1970s. At
that time it was danced only by schoolboys on mainland Shetland, though a
men’s team was revived soon after. It’s
a spectacular seven-person circle dance and the swords are really
straightened herring-barrel hoops with a handle at each end!
Despite its intricacies, over a hundred people – from age 7 to 70
– have now discovered the thrill of the “Papa Stour Experience”. Try
it yourself! |
   
|
