Our Featured Performers will be lined up 1st quarter Their performances include high-energy acting and choreographed stage combat using real steel weapons including broadswords, axes, and staves. Observe the fine workmanship of Scottish artisans and spend your hard-earned tuppence on lovely imported goods from the British Isles as you wend your way through the Hall of the Vendors and the Celtic Marketplace. Are you a student of History?
Enter the Scottish Heritage Speakers series and learn about the languages, myths, legends, and Celtic Warriors of ancient Scotland. Complete your tour with the Celtic Kennel as we feature the Celtic dog breeds at work and play. Plan to attend the Ceilidh Kay-lee Saturday evening — a traditional Scottish party with music, sing-along, and Scottish country dancing. It is a weekend not to be missed — full of fun, education, and traditional Scottish activities, so please join us and enjoy a wee bit of Scotland right here in the Pacific Northwest!
Contact Committee. You'll Be Glad You Did! Become A Member Today! Davidson, now a professional piper, started playing when he was 7 or 8 years old. He has judged for the Highland Games about 10 times. As a judge, Davidson is looking for flawless technique and perfect tunes in the more professional players. Players are judged on their tone, tuning and embellishments. July Skagit Publishing goskagit. Highland Games dancers R ebecca Moore has been Highland dancing longer than she can remember.
She was just a timid 3-year-old when her mother perused the phone book and found an advertisement for Highland dancing classes with Bellinghambased Clan Heather Dancers. Years later, the energy of the traditional Scottish beat and its dance moves — the Highland fling, the sword dance, the seann triubhas — have been ingrained in her soul. Moore plans to join about other Highland dancers from Washington state, California, Canada and Scotland to compete in the Northern U.
The Skagit Valley Highland Games has been hosting the championships since , when the festival first became sanctioned by the Scottish Official Board of Highland Dancing. Highland dancing is a staple of the Skagit Valley Highland Games and a favorite performance event, said Heather Richendrfer, organizer of the competitions and Highland dance teacher for the past Dancers from ages 4 to adult square off to give their best presentations of the traditional Highland dances.
Sanctioned judges award points to dancers who keep time to the music and perform the dance steps with accuracy and flair. Highland dancing has a rich tradition that stems from its roots in the Scottish Highlands around the 11th century. Many of the traditional Highland dances that will be performed during the Highland Games weekend reflect those roots, Richendrfer said.
For instance, the sword dance was performed by a warrior on the eve of battle. His sword and scabbard were crossed on the ground to define the dancing spot. According to legend, warriors who performed the dance without touching the sword would be successful in battle. The Highland fling was originally performed by a warrior on his shield after he won a battle. So the fling is danced in one spot. Highland dancing has become more of an elite and competitive sport since the s, when the Scottish Official Board was formed and dance steps and costuming were formalized, Richendrfer said.
Highland dancing is a great sport to meet new people and travel for competitions. Athletic events Athletes tossing stones, hammers and logs into the air are the bread and butter of the 17th annual Skagit Valley Highland Games. The games are ultra-competitive for the 35 to 40 athletes who are expected to compete, Ham said, and the players are there to win. In spite of that, the biggest rivals also can also be the best of friends.
Ham said the games tend to attract people with backgrounds in track and field, where athletes focus only on their personal game.
Throwing a pound stone uses similar skills as throwing a spear. Ham became fascinated with the atheltic games when he stumbled on a Highland games event in Portland, Ore. His grandmother was Scottish and he always liked the bagpipes. He competed in Scottish athletic events from to , claiming three Northwest Master Champion titles, which means he was the overall winner for three different games.
Spectators are kept at a safe distance, as well. Women compete in the games, too. Women participate on Sunday in the novice categories, while amateurs compete on Saturday. See next page for athletic event descriptions and photos. Athletic events The events include several divisions: Amateur class A and B; Masters class A and B for people ages 40 and older ; and novice. Each class uses different weights. Remember, if too few people sign up to compete, the event may be dropped.
And this is the Highland games, so of course, kilts are required. The sheaf typically weighs 12, 16 or 20 pounds, depending on the athletic class.
Hammers weigh 12, 16 and 22 pounds. Light stone — A small rock weighing 17 or 26 pounds, depending on class. The goal is to throw the rock for a long distance. Competitors throw a large rock weighing more than 50 pounds for distance. Rules require the Braemar stone to be thrown from a standing position. This form of social dancing has become popular since its beginnings in s Scotland and England.
The basic steps and formations may have taken their cue from upper-class Renaissance court dancing, but the dance form has evolved into a social activity for just about anybody, said Diane. Danielson, vice-president of the Skagit Scottish Country Dancers. So to get people involved, Danielson said the Skagit Scottish Country Dancers plan to coordinate with country dancing clubs from Seattle and Bellingham to give demonstrations and lead the audience in some country dancing during the 17th annual Skagit Valley Highland Games.
Dancers can learn various reels, jigs and strathspeys and either dance with a partner or alone. Country dancing will be presented and open to participation on the hour, except noon, starting at 10 a. Saturday, July 9 and at 1 p. Sunday, July Open year round, RoozenGaarde offers unique gifts for the home and garden. We also ship our flowers anywhere in the USA - overnight! Open Daily Year Round! Without it, those woolly, four-legged grass-grazers will run right over the top of them.
The eye, dog handler Bob Hickman said, is an unflinching stare that has the power to completely intimidate and control a flock of sheep. With the proper stare and predatory posture — head and shoulders low to the ground — the dog never has to bark, snarl or bite, Hickman said. A talented sheepdog can move the sheep one way or another by simply leaning. He placed second and third previously. The crowds will watch 33 dogs and 24 handlers try to route three-to-five sheep through a pathway formed by gaps in boards and finally into a pen, using mostly vocal commands, said Dawn Pucci, trial organizer.
The course mimics the day-to-day life of sheep herders, who moved their sheep from one pasture to another in the vast Scottish Highlands. Pucci, who began organizing the trials for the Highland Games nine years ago, said the dogs will be judged by points and time. The first round of trials, after kicking off 2 p. Saturday, will narrow down the competition to 10 teams to compete in the final trials Sunday.
Hickman, who also is the president of the Washington Association of Stockdog Handlers, first became fascinated with sheepdog herding while watching two people in a field West of Olympia near Oyster Bay, standing yards apart, herd sheep with a Border Collie.
And the fiddle can be traced back in Celtic culture to the invention of the violin in northern Italy. Jaunty and foot-tapping tunes easily get the body moving like nothing else, and the fiddlers of the annual Skagit Valley Highland Games will strike their bows across their strings in the Northwest Regional Scottish Fiddling Championship beginning 10 a.
In fact, the fiddle has always been used in Celtic culture as an accompaniment for dancing, Beebe explained. After all, it is the Highland Games.
Free, but organizers are encouraging audiences to bring a canned or sealed package of food to donate to the Skagit Food Bank. Morrison, Deirdre and their friends also will perform twice Saturday, July 9, at 1 p. Traditional Highland bagpipes are loud and designed to be played in a regiment, while smallpipes and reelpipes are about two-thirds the volume of Highland pipes.
Morrison decided at a young age that he wanted to learn to play the bagpipes. Some of his earliest memories were of his father playing the bagpipes while he was falling asleep. He competed for the first time at the age of 8 and started playing professionally at age He met several Irish musicians, including an Irish banjo player, Billy Kelly, who enjoyed bluegrass and encouraged Morrison to explore the banjo.
Now he keeps busy composing and performing at various festivals, venues and concerts around the world. In fact, he and wife Deirdre will be offering critiques of a limited number of performers on Sunday, July 10, during the games.
0コメント