Bellingham Scottish Country Dancers

The Bellingham Scottish Country Dancers club celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2004. History is a large part of Scottish Country Dancing and this milestone is a perfect time to reflect on what brought us to this point.

Scottish Country Dancing is the social form of dancing that has been danced in homes, barns and halls all over Scotland for hundreds of years. When friends and family got together, and there was a fiddle - and there was always a fiddle! - the dancing would begin. Dances were generally created to celebrate an event, place or a person and often told a story with the formations.

With the popularity of jazz and more modern music and dance favored after World War I, traditional country dances began to disappear. In the early 1920's two women from Glasgow, Scotland decided to form a group for the preservation of these lively and elegant traditional country dances and the Scottish Country Dance Society was born. In 1952 Queen Elizabeth II granted royal patronage to the society giving it it's present name of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society (RSCDS).

There are branches and affiliates of the RSCDS all over the world. That's one of the exciting parts of SCD is being able to literally go anywhere in the world and find an SCD dance. We speak the same language through the dance no matter the culture no matter our differences.