Internet resources

Internet Resources

There is a wealth of information on Scottish Country Dancing on the internet, useful for everyone from beginners to experienced dancers and teachers. Listed below are some of the most comprehensive.

The Strathspey Server

and

The Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary

These two sites have much in common in that they give instructions in both 'crib' format and in diagrams, and links to YouTube videos for a large number of dances. The Strathspey Server has more comprehensive information on the sources and devisers of dances, the music and recordings of it. It also has much the larger dance database with over 19,000 dances currently. The Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary has over 6000 dances and also has a lot of information about steps and formations. Its dance index is alphabetic and slightly easier to use than the Strathspey Server, which has a search facility that is rather particular about spelling! In most but not all cases the videos included on both websites are the same - the Strathspey Server ranks the standard of dancing in the videos and notes where there are anomalies, whilst the Scottish Country Dance Dictionary gives sources of the videos.

Visit the Strathspey Server ('My Strathspey' page), and the Scottish Country Dance Dictionary.

Minicrib

Minicrib also has a large library of dance instructions (in its own particular format) which are also reproduced in the two websites described above, but it works somewhat differently. It has to be downloaded from the internet using the link below, and once installed on your computer can be used to generate cribsheets for dances in a format suitable for printing. It is updated several times each year, and new dances are added, so if you wish to have the latest version you must download it when the updates appear (you can request to be notified of each up date by email). Minicrib currently has instructions for over 5,400 dances and 80 formations.

Visit Minicrib.