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The history of Scottish highland dancing in Queensland, Australia

Scottish highland dancing has been part of the social fabric of the Colony and State of Queensland, for over two centuries. A research project is presently being undertaking (subject to many incursion such as university subjects, work, and other facets of life...!) to compile its history in this State. It will never be complete, and the attempt is to make it comprehensive. Originally set at 450 pages and one year span, it commenced in May 2002. To April 2003, it had consumed 352 hours (or 44 straight eight-hour days, all in spare time whatever that may be!), and over 240 pages, and it feels like you're not even a quarter of the way through the journey -- a labour of love, but a definite commitment for anyone seeking to undertake a similar endeavour.

Chapters include:

• Organisations
• Dances
• Classifications (e.g. rankings/grading of dancers for competition purposes)
• Attire
• Chronology (e.g. 1890s, 1900s, 1910s, etc.)
• Competitions (e.g. towns) [View PDF 20k excerpt]
• Studios
• People of note
• Reminiscences (stories, journeys, scuttlebutt)
• Who's who and where now
• Other items
  
  
• Appendix 1: Dates in Queensland history
• Appendix 2: Queensland Scottish associations [View PDF 52k]
• Appendix 3: Registered dancer numbers
• Appendix 4: Committee executives
• Appendix 5: Competitions
• Appendix 6: Trophy origins
• Appendix 7: Competition results (some)
• Appendix 8: Studio locations
• Appendix 9: Dress codes
• Appendix 10: Century calendar
• Annotated bibliography
• Annexure A: Research background
• Annexure B: Ancillary background

To have a look at the effort of others in this area, have a look at Shiobhan O'DONNELL's A history of highland dancing in Dunedin, New Zealand, between 1863 and 1900. Also have a look at The Highland fling and how to teach it from 1892 USA.

http://www.scottishdance.net/highland/NewZealandHistory.html ; Feb 2002
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/musdi:@field(DOCID+@lit(M0862)): ; Feb 2002