HISTORY OF THE SOHDA

During the 1950's and 60's the dances that were performed in competitions were the Highland Fling, Sword Dance, Seann Truibhas, Reel, Sailor's Hornpipe and Irish Jig.  Then in the early 70's national dances like Flora MacDonald’s Fancy, Scottish Lilt, Highland Laddie and Barracks Johnnie started to appear on the dancing programmes and are now featured regularly in our syllabus.

Over the past couple of decades our experienced technical committee have delved into the archives of our beloved art and unearthed at least three dozen Hebridean Dances / Lesser Known Dances which our teachers are passing on to their pupils as a pleasant change from the standard dances and they are proving very popular with all. So popular, in fact, that we now hold an Annual National Dance Championship where the program consists of 10 of these so-called “lesser-known” dances.

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During the summer months the SOHDA help organise dancing events at many of the top Highland Games, where dancers from ALL dancing organisations are more than welcome to come along and compete. This underlines our motto:

"All Dancers Welcome!"

Over the past few decades the SOHDA has been spreading its wings throughout the globe and has affiliated in friendly harmony with similar free-thinking dancing organisations in the Northern and Southern hemispheres. In Australia, the Victorian Scottish Union (VSU) and the Highland and National Dancers of Australia (H&NDA) have linked up with us and we regularly exchange dances, ideas and videos on our mutual hobby, and similarly in Sweden, the Stockholm Caledonian Dance Circle (SCDC) has also affiliated with us, and all concerned are learning more and more about the histories and dances

“frae a’ the airts!”