Robert Burns

Just some things you might want to remember:

• January 28th: The Burns Supper -- mark your calendars! -- Get your reservations in!
• January 4th: Vancouver USA SCD Winter classes started -- both basic and intermediate!
• 696-8236: the phone number at Marshall Center to register for classes!
• January 14th: Portland RSCDS Dance -- check the calendar entry for program and details!
• February 18th: Our Annual Dinner Dance
• Keep checking the Calendar and Demos links on our website at www.VancouverUSA-SCD.org for info and updates about coming events!

The Vancouver USA Scottish Country Dancers will be hosting an evening of Scottish entertainment to mark the 247th birthday of one of Scotland's greatest poets, Robert Burns.

The event will be held the evening of January 28th (the details are in the Calendar, below), but the fun begins even earlier! "Many hands make light work", as many of us remember our grandmothers telling us, and there's lots of work to be made lighter. After all, why do you think they call it a "work party"? From table setup, to making decorations, to posting flyers, there's something for everyone!

If you would like to join the fun and help prepare for one of our major fund-raising events of the year, sign up in class [form a line, no shoving please], or call 892-4366.

(And for the detail-oriented, Robert Burns was born January 25, 1759. And yes, he really would be 247 years old this month, had he not met an untimely death.)

I would like to thank our teachers for all of their planning to provide us with a richer dance experience.

Geri and Liza have been leading the Wednesday basic and intermediate class at the Marshall Community Center. We begin the New Year with the new session on January 4th, leading up to the Dinner Dance.

Linda Mae has been providing an entertaining Scottish Step Dance class on the first Tuesday of the month at the Columbia Dance Studio. This class is an opportunity for you to learn some new dance steps in a supportive environment with individual attention.

Marge has been offering a level-3 SCD class on the second Tuesday of the month at the Columbia Dance Studio. This class is an opportunity for you to refine your dance technique and practice some advanced formations.

Geri will begin teaching a Monday class at the brand new Firstenburg Community Center, starting February 6, 7:00-8:30p. The class is advertised as a basic class, however the instructor will adapt the lesson plan to the skills of the attendees.

We have two big events coming up.

The 3rd annual Burns Supper on Saturday January 28th at the Moose Family Center will feature pipes and drums of the Fort Vancouver Pipe Band. Plus ... entertainment by Bart Moore -- Tenor; Ellen Hanson -- Fiddle; Lora Nelson & Jenne Sharpe -- Highland Dancers; and the Scottish Country Dancers. Ross Robertson will present the Address to the Haggis, Clyde Carpenter the Toast the Lassies, Geri Stuart the Reply to the Laddies, and a Burns Scholar will present the Immortal Memory. There will also be a raffle drawing.

Then, our 21st annual Dinner Dance on Saturday February 18th at the Luepke Center will feature the music of pianist Lisa Scott and Fiddler Linda Danielson. Harpist Jennifer Pratt-Walter will entertain us during dinner. The theme is "Something Old, Something New". Family Dancing, Grand March, and a great dance program. Check the calendar entry for the dance program and other details.

SCD is a major part of my exercise and weight management program. I am grateful for the opportunities to exercise and socialize with you. With all of these dance classes and events, I look forward to a new year of Scottish Country Dancing!

Ae fond kiss, and then we sever;
Ae fareweel, alas, for ever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.
Who shall say that Fortune grieves him,
While the star of hope she leaves him?
Me, nae cheerfu' twinkle lights me;
Dark despair around benights me.

I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy:
Naething could resist my Nancy!
But to see her is to love her,
Love but her, and love for ever.
Had we never lov'd sae kindly,
Had we never lov'd sae blindly,
Never met -- or never parted --
We had ne'er been broken-hearted.

Fare-thou-weel, thou first and fairest!
Fare-thou-weel, thou best and dearest!
Thine be ilka joy and treasure,
Peace, enjoyment, love, and pleasure!
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever!
Ae fareweel, alas, for ever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.

Source: The Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns, Geddes & Grosset, 2000

The following information was sent in by Martin MacKenzie.

Here is some information from Wikipedia in terms of dates and the nature of the curse layed on the Seaforth MacKenzies by him [the Brahan Seer]:

Background

In 1660, it chanced that the Earl of Seaforth travelled from the family castle in Scotland to Paris, leaving his wife the Countess behind. The Earl remained in Paris far longer than he had originally planned, and eventually his wife came to suspect that he was being unfaithful to her. Consumed with jealousy, in 1663 she summoned the Seer and demanded to know what had become of her husband. The Seer told her that the Earl was well and happy; but his wife forced the Seer to reveal the truth - that he had envisaged the Earl in the intimate company of another woman. At this, the Countess fell into a terrible rage, and ordered the Seer executed immediately; by some accounts he was burned to death in a barrel of tar.

The curse

Before he died, the Seer put a curse on the Seaforths, speaking thus:

I see into the future and I read the doom of the race of my oppressor. The long-descended line of Seaforth will, ere many generations have passed, end in extinction and sorrow. I see a chief, the last of his house, both deaf and dumb. He will be the father of four fair sons, all of whom he will follow to the tomb. He will live careworn and die mourning, knowing that the honours of his line are to be extinguished for ever, and that no future chief of the MacKenzies shall bear rule at Brahan or in Kintail. After lamenting over the last and most promising of his sons, he himself shall sink into the grave, and the remnant of his possessions shall be inherited by a white-coifed lassie from the East, and she is to kill her sister. And as a sign by which it may be known that these things are coming to pass, there shall be four great lairds in the days of the last deaf and dumb Seaforth - Gairloch, Chisholm, Grant, and Raasay - of whom one shall be buck-toothed, another hare-lipped, another half-witted, and the fourth a stammerer. Chiefs distinguished by these personal marks shall be allies and neighbours of the last Seaforth; and when he looks around him and sees them, he may know that his sons are doomed to death, that his broad lands shall pass away to the stranger, and that his race shall come to an end.

Fulfillment

For more than a hundred years, the prophecy of the Seer went unfulfilled. Then Francis Humberston Mackenzie inherited the Seaforth title and estate in 1783, having been left deaf and mute by scarlet fever in his childhood. By chance or fate, Mackenzie's allies were Mackenzie of Gairloch (who had bucked teeth), Chisholm of Chisholm (with a harelip), Grant of Grant (who was mentally retarded), and Macleod of Raasay (who stuttered). Although Mackenzie had four sons, as the Seer had predicted all four preceded him in death, and the Seaforth title lapsed in 1815 when Mackenzie died. His daughter, who arrived from India wearing a white cap in mourning for her husband, inherited the estate. She was forced to sell much of the estate to pay off a variety of lingering debts. Coincidentally, a few years later she and her sister were riding in a buggy when the horses bolted. Her sister was thrown and killed in the accident, although it seems somewhat dubious to place the blame for the death on Mackenzie's daughter. Nevertheless, the Seer had, by some unknown means, foretold the end of the Seaforth line with uncanny accuracy.