Shot of Scotch blazes new path with Culloden tale
One of the defining moments in Canadian colonial history was the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, when British troops under General James Wolfe defeated the French in 1759. It led to the surrender of Quebec and historical grievances that continue in that province to this very day.
The Scottish equivalent was the Battle of Culloden in 1746, when the British government force put down the Jacobite army, led by Charles Edward Stuart. This war had far-reaching ramifications in the U.K. and Canada, according to Susan Nase, one of the founders of the Shot of Scotch highland dance troupe.
“The Battle of Culloden ended, and the English really made an effort to stop any future uprisings from happening,” Nase tells the Straight by phone. “They banned the wearing of the kilt. They banned the Gaelic language. There were a lot of atrocities that happened over the next decade as they then cleared the land and forcibly removed many of the Highlanders and put them on ships to the colonies. That’s how some of our ancestors may have arrived here in Canada.”
Once they arrived, they were part of another side of British imperialism: seizing land and resources from Indigenous people.
“So it made us complicit in the colonial system to this day,” Nase continues. “So it brings up a lot of questions and reflections.”
Moreover, the Battle of Culloden continues having an impact in Britain, fuelling the Scottish independence movement. In 2014, 44.7 percent of Scots voted yes in an independence referendum. That, too, was an echo of the Canadian experience. More recently, Scotland voted 62 percent to remain in the European Union, which stood in sharp contrast to the 53.4 percent in England who voted to leave.
Shot of Scotch, which was launched in
Vancouver in 2013, is turning this legacy of the Battle of Culloden into the first fulllength traditional Highland dance production in the world. Nase has spent two years as the choreographer and director of this work in progress, Wilt Thou Go, which will be presented at the Scotiabank Dance Centre on April 29. It’s one of many live and online free events that the Dance Centre is offering on International Dance Day.
She describes Wilt Thou Go as an investigation of the humanity and the depth of Highland dancing and how that relates to Brexit and living on unceded lands in Canada.
“It’s been challenging on the dance side because my dancers are such beautifully trained, competitive, powerful Highland dancers,” Nase says. “Working on finding ways that we can express human emotion outside of the limits of Highland dancing has been a real journey for us.”
They’re seeking authenticity without feeling that they have to become actors or contemporary dancers. To Nase, that means finding ways in their vocabulary to shift the quality of movement. In addition, she’s incorporating other aspects of music or lighting or projection to help carry the story forward in a way that retains the integrity of the Highland dance training that they all have.
The dancers are Shannon Cressey, Katelyn Currie, Lindsay Ellis, Crystal Greentree, Megan Hall, Meghan Pike, Erin Robertson, and Danielle Senyk, with music by Tim Fanning, Robyn Carrigan, Stephanie Cadman, and Sandy Marshall. Itai Erdal is doing the lighting design with Cande Andrade and Jennifer Stewart in charge of projection design.
“Highland dancing is not well known to the public,” Nase notes. “One of the reasons is because it’s a highly competitive dance form. So, generally, Highland dance is seen at competitions or very specific Scottish events, like the Highland Games or Celtic Fest, for example.
“It’s a very virtuosic and powerful dance form,” she continues. “It’s very heavily structured with a very rigid technique. And dancers train from a very young age on a set number of traditional dances. The aim is for perfection.”
Nase’s family history adds another intriguing dynamic: she’s not purely of Scottish heritage. She’s actually a mix of Scottish, Irish, English, and a little bit of German heritage. It raises questions of what role her family history played in the Battle of Culloden.
“I know that I have MacDonalds in my family, which is a Highland clan, so it’s very likely there were MacDonalds involved in this,” Nase says. “I also know I had family in England and in the Lowlands of Scotland.
“In the Battle of Culloden, there were many people involved,” she adds. “It was not just Scots versus English. Sometimes it was Scots versus Scots and English on both sides. There were French involved as well as Irish. There is a lot of uncertainty in the truth of these historical events.”
As part of International Dance Day, the Dance Centre will present Shot of Scotch’s work in progress,
in the Faris Family Studio of the Scotiabank Dance Centre on April 29. Admission is free but advance registration is recommended.