Dance

In the past ten years there has been considerable interest in step dancing, a form of dance which, it is believed, was taken to Canada by Highland emigrants. The art form was lost in its native country but in recent years considerable efforts have been made to reintroduce it. Sabhal Mòr Ostaig in Skye has been in the vanguard of this process, running regular step dance courses during the summer which have featured such eminent Cape Breton tutors as Harvey Beaton.

Historically there are references to various dances which were peculiar to Skye. There was ‘An Dannsa Mòr’ (the Great Dance) which was a ring dance performed by twelve or more men, two of whom moved with a formalised walk inside the ring, singing alternate lines of song, and then taking their place in the ring as all dancers joined in the chorus. During the chorus the dancers hopped around on the left foot, with their legs straight and their feet about 18 inches off the ground.

James Boswell, during his Highlands and Islands peregrinations with Dr Johnson, came across a dance called ‘America’ in the south end of Skye.

"In the evening the company danced as usual. We performed, with much activity, a dance, which, I suppose, the emigration from Sky has occasioned. They call it America. Each of the couple, after the common involutions and evolutions, successively whirls round in a circle, till all are in motion; and the dance seems intended to show how emigration catches, till a whole neighbourhood is set afloat."