Here's what we got up to in 2004...
2004 saw Gaorsach have their first dance out at the Globe in Aberdeen. The Globe is considered by many to be the hallowed ground of rapper dancing in Scotland. Well, it's considered to be so by Gaorsach anyway. We danced at the Burn's Night celebrations for half an hour, and were rewarded with free beer - marvellous! The Globe has a truly excellent rapper friendly floor, not to mention rapper friendly staff, customers, and beer.
At the end of March, Gaorsach made the arduous journey from the north east of Scotland to the deep south (well, Bath anyway) for DERT 2004. Let's face it, we had to 'go down south' to go to DERT 2003 in Glasgow, so Bath (sorry, Baaaaarth) is definitely down south.
The DERT homepage (with results and such like) can be found at:
and our write up of the event can be found at:
The first weekend in July saw Gaorsach dancing at the Game Conservancy Scottish Fair at Scone Palace down near Perth. For those of us who didn't get to go to Glastonbury this year, the Game Fair ensured that we didn't feel as though we'd been let down at all - there was mud up to our ears! The weather was a touch damp to say the least. There was torrential rain in the afternoon on both the Saturday and the Sunday, and thunder and lightening even put in an appearance on the Sunday afternoon. The weather didn't manage to dampen our spirits though, or those of the crowds at the Fair. We still had a fantastic time, and managed to dance at all our slot times, even if we weren't at the right venue... All our spots were outside, which meant that when the boards were wet, and it was raining we couldn't really dance there. However, with the help of the lovely people in the Drambuie tent, and the equally as lovely people in the Scottish Natural Heritage tent (both tents had fantastic wooden boards down - hurrah!), we got some good dancing in. The down side to the weekend was breaking Sarah on the Saturday morning - not good. A knee injury raised its ugly head, and Sarah fell in true dramatic rapper fashion. Result was Sarah being on the subs bench for the rest of the weekend. Other than that though, the weekend was a great success for us, and also for the Fair people I think. They did a superb job of trying to keep the mud to a minimum, and the crowds seemed to be still happy with the whole thing. As, I suspect, were the stalls selling umberellas, Hunter Wellingtons, waterproof coats, and other such items....
The 8th of August saw us dancing at Footdee in Aberdeen. We were dancing at the 'Doon at the Docks' festival, which was an Aberdeen Celebration of the Sea. Lots of nautical based shenanigans, and a little bit of rapper thrown in for good measure... It was a cracking day out, and the team really enjoyed it. There were a lot of people out and about, and they were all very appreciative of the rapper and clog dancing - clearly people of good taste. It was a very warm day, and fortunately the tail end of Hurricane Alex didn't arrive as promised...We danced during the afternoon, and managed to fit in a few ice creams and burgers in between the dancing too!
On the 24th September 2004 we made the journey over to the west coast of Scotland. Undettered by the vast amounts of water that halted our journey, we boarded a ferry. We got off that ferry, found ourselves on Islay, and decided to go just a leeeetle bit further over again. The next ferry took us to the Isle of Jura, home of the Jura Music Festival.
Jura is a stunningly beautiful island, with superb views, and amazing scenery. The locals organise a fantastic festival, and had asked Gaorsach to go over and dance, and hold a workshop. We're not sure if anyone over there had seen rapper before, but there were some fairly stunned looks on the Friday night when we cleared a (very small) space in the pub and started flinging swords about! However, it seemed to go down well, and we got a fair few folk turn up to the workshop on the Saturday. The hall was packed with novice rapper dancers, who came along to learn Beadnel. All sorts of people turned up, and they all did SO well! Very impressive. We'll be out of a job if Jura starts its own team! The best sight of the day though had to be rapper in wellies. Absolutely superb. There was a samba band on Jura that weekend also - Samba Y Bamba. Obviously, as they were there, it would have been rude not to at least try for a collaboration... So, Saturday afternoon saw a Newbiggin sword dance, danced to a samba beat, on the music stage at Jura! This was followed by a French Canadian clog dance, also swinging to the Samba beat - so much fun! Saturday evening brought a great concert, and a very busy, but fun ceilidh. Sunday was the final day of the festival. Gaorsach did a spot in the cooperage of the Jura whisky distillery, and bowed out of the festival. However, Sunday night proved too much of a temptation, and the crowd in the pub were subject to another couple of dances!
In between the dancing, there was much in the way of eating venison burgers (which were AMAZING) or veggie burgers, beer drinking, and generally enjoying the festival. It really is a great festival, and we enjoyed it so much. Great Island. Great Festival. Great people. Well worth a visit...
Gaorsach donned their wooly jumpers and hats in order to brave the biting Aberdeen winter. We were out in force amongst the Christmas shoppers to bring a bit of Christmas cheer on the 11th / 12th December at the Aberdeen Christmas markets in town. We complimented the tinsel and roasted chestnuts nicely and brought a smile to the shoppers faces. The markets were really nice, and there was plenty of time between the dancing for a look around. Lovely and festive though it was, we were very glad to get home to soup and hot toddies in a heated environment!
