Trad Dance Cast is a podcast about traditional dance artists, ideas and trends from across Scotland and beyond. Produced by Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland and curated by Iliyana Nedkova and Wendy Timmons. Hosted by Eleanor Sinclair, a trad dance artist, instructor and climate activist.The music theme is Mason’s Apron Reel by Mairi Campbell, fiddle player, dance caller and theatre maker. The visual identity features a portrait by the established photographer Barrie Spence of Vincent Hantam, dance artist, educator and choreographer.

The latest Trad Dance Cast Episode March 2025 was recorded and edited at The Music Box, Edinburgh College by Christian Torre Zorita, Andrew Lonie, Ziemowit Paszke, Harry Ritchie and Johan Englund – staff and students at Edinburgh College School of Music and Sound Production. The earlier Trad Dance Cast episodes were recorded and edited at Recast Studio, Edinburgh by Jonathon Duncan, sound engineer and podcaster.

Released to mark International Women’s Day 8 March 2025, this Trad Dance Cast episode celebrates the role of women in traditional dance. It uncovers the dance herstory of Scotland, from the Renaissance to the Georgian era, with a focus on Mary, Queen of Scots and lead dancer Sophia Parker.

Trad Dance Cast host Eleanor Sinclair talks to Alena Shmakova, dance researcher and new Scot.

EPISODE NOTES

• In the first part of the podcast, Alena shares her fascinating insights into the French and Italian influences on court dance entertainment in 16th Century Scotland, as well as the use of masks, daggers, costumes and cross-dressing. In particular, how Mary, Queen of Scots’ passion for dance had provoked John Knox’s protestant fury and backlash.
• The second part of this Trad Dance Cast episode is a tribute to Sophia Parker, a late 18th Century professional dancer, known for her ‘Scotch dancing’. Her career debuted in Edinburgh as part of a circus troupe and went on to draw huge crowds to the fashionable Theatre Royales in Edinburgh, Dublin, London, Birmingham and Manchester. 

NOT TO BE MISSED

During this year’s Pomegranates Festival, Alena Shmakova will lead a walking tour focusing on the role of Mary, Queen of Scots (25 April 2025, 10:30). Please find the tour details and tickets at⁠ https://www.tdfs.org/pomegranates/⁠

FURTHER READING

For those interested to learn more, Alena recommends:

• Sarah Carpenter Performing Diplomacies: The 1560s Court Entertainments of Mary Queen of Scots
• Lesley Mickel Our Hielandmen’: Scots in Court Entertainments at Home and Abroad 1507-1616
• Olive Baldwin and Thelma Wilson Mistresses of Dancing Schools in Edinburgh, 1755 to 1814

Released on Earth Day 22 April 2023, the first episode was inspired by Mother Earth stories from Egypt and Scotland as discussed by all five guests whilst shedding light on their involvement in the creative process of our first major screen dance production To Begin the Dance Once More. The conversation also explores how screen dance – an exciting and powerful genre of filmmaking predominantly employed in contemporary dance – could bring traditional dance to wider audiences and practitioners. The studio guests for the Trad Dance Cast inaugural episode are our screen dance curators and producers Wendy Timmons and Iliyana Nedkova, choreographer Vincent Hantam, storyteller extraordinaire Donald Smith and film director Marlene Millar.

EPISODE NOTES

• THE STORY In the screen dance we see how the climate refugees Isis, Beira and Bride, whose lineage stretches back to their namesakes, the Egyptian and Celtic goddesses of Earth, navigate a world of migration, displacement and uncertainty created by the global injustice of climate change. Read more on our website.
• THE TEASER We launched To Begin the Dance Once More teaser on the Global Day of Climate Action 12 November 2022 reaching out thousands of viewers on all our platforms. Watch it on our Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland YouTube Channel.
• THE POEM We commissioned Beira and Bride – a new poem by Donald Smith, which we released on National Poetry Day 7 October 2022 as part of Scotland’s Year of Stories celebrating the bonds between traditional dance and poetry. Donald’s epic poem became the starting point for our screen dance reimagining the mythological worlds inhabited by the Celtic and Egyptian mothers of Earth, including Beira and Bride. Listen to Donald’s reading of the poem on the podcast at about 19.50 minutes in or read the poem on our website.
• THE FUNDING Our screen dance To Begin the Dance Once More was one of the Creative Commissions for Climate Action Egypt funded by the British Council’s Climate Connection Cultural programme accompanying COP27 – the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties held at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
• THE PREMIERE Our screen dance production made its big screen debut, alongside a live dance performance version entitled Dances with Ouds and Fiddles and a post-show Q&A with the creative team as part of our Pomegranates 2023 festival weekend celebrating international traditional dance at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh. Watch Dances with Ouds and Fiddles on our YouTube Channel (featuring Tianru Xu as pictured here).
• THE SCORE The new music which we commissioned to underscore the choreography and cinematography of To Begin the Dance Once More is by the Scottish fiddle player and composer Jon Bews. Find out more about the creative process by reading Jon’s blog published by Traditional Music Forum.