About Us
Circle Dancing For All encompasses Circle Dance classes held in various venues across the central belt of Scotland.
The mission of the group is to further the development of Circle Dance in the community for people of all ages abilities and backgrounds through regular classes and dancing within the community.
The group creates inclusive public events to raise the profile of circle dancing
Circle Dancing For All was initially formed to organise a Circle Dancing Event in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow as part of the cultural programme which ran alongside the Commonwealth Games in 2014.
Scroll down to read the History Of Circle Dancing for All
A visit to a South Lanarkshire primary school was very popular with the pupils these are some of their comments
“It was really fun. I enjoyed the different European dances.” Niamh Campbell, P6
“We learned dance moves that we can do at home, it was great fun, especially the ‘Despacito’ part.” Alistair Brownlie, P6
“It was extremely interesting and lots of fun. Everyone in Room 4 and Room 5 had a great time circle dancing.” Emma Bookless, P7
Lottery Funded Teacher Training Project
Through our outreach work we discovered that we had a shortage of Circle Dance teachers. CDFA secured a grant from the Lottery through ‘Awards For All Scotland’ this has enabled us to train six new circle dance teachers. CDFA trainees each committed to starting a new circle dance group. The groups have been established and are growing in support, fulfilling our remit to promote well-being and connect people.
“Participating in our project has given me the skills and confidence to form a new Circle Dance group.”
This positive statement came from one of the trainee teachers and has been confirmed by the others.
Throughout the training project volunteer dancers supported the project and they too found participating rewarding, commenting
“I feel empowered to support our trainees, and encourage others who have never experienced the wonderful world of circle dancing to join a group.”
World Dance Day
Circle Dancing for All are pleased to be involved in the Circle Dancers around the world initiative started in 2016 whereby Circle Dancers around the world were invited to dance the same dance on the same day in July, it was edited into this montage.
You can see us 2mins 10secs into the video wearing anoraks in July typical Scottish Summer weather!
HISTORY OF Circle Dancing For All
How Did CDFA Come into Being?
In 2014 the Commonwealth Games came to Glasgow. Early in January 2013, Creative Scotlandinvited individuals and groups of “creatives” to bid for various pots of money to fund events that would form part of the proposed Scottish Cultural Festival, a cultural programme to take place alongside the Commonwealth Games. A group of circle dancers realised this was our opportunity to show the public what Circle Dancing had to offer, the enjoyment of dancing together to music from around the world, and making connections between local people and the visitors to the Games.
This was not a new idea. In 2008/9 John Wealthy, a circle dancer and organiser from Bridgwater in Somerset had floated the idea of a big Circle Dance Event to be a part of the London Olympic Games n 2012. He approached the umbrella group which at that time oversaw Circle Dancing in the UK with a view to them working with him on this idea. Unfortunately this group decided they did not want to “run with it” on the grounds that “It was just TOO big!”
In 2013 Willie Oswald, a former representative on this UK wide group, had learned of this missed opportunity and realised that John Wealthy’s original concept would fit in very neatly with Creative
Scotland’s proposed cultural programme. Willie and his partner Jenny Oswald and fellow circle dancer Lorna Farmer attended a workshop to find out if their idea of a big Circle Dance Event would it in with the Creative Scotland remit. There were scores of people there, including some with very high profiles. In a ‘face-to-face’ interview with an adviser, we were told that while this was a good proposal, but it did not quite meet the criteria they were looking for. However the adviser was very helpful and informed us that a special “Celebrate Lottery Fund” was about to open. This was specifically for community based events themed around the Commonwealth Games and had an element of “legacy” for future generations.
Applications for any Lottery Funding are only accepted by formal bodies which have a constitution and a bank account. After a re-appraisal of the potential benefits for promoting Circle Dancing and the impact on individual energies and an outline budget, we decided to call a meeting of interested circle dancers. At this meeting in 2013 we agreed to form “Circle Dancing For All”, write a constitution, and seek a group bank account. With all this completed we submitted an applicationor funding for our proposed event from the “Celebrate Lottery”.
Following n from the successful application
Circle Dancing For All was born!
An outline of our project was as follows:-
The event would be in a public space; permission sought and agreed from Glasgow Life for
upwards of 200 people to dance in Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
The music would be provided by a live band.
A sound engineer would facilitate and manage sound.
A graphic designer would produce publicity material.
A documentary film maker would provide an archive of the event.
Circle Dance teachers were invited to involve their groups. A contribution towards travel
costs was offered to those groups wishing to attend.
Participating Circle Dance teachers were invited to a training session to ensure there was a
common “version” of the selected dances.
