John Drewry Collection and Archive Sharon Barker Past

John Drewry Collection and Archive

Sharon Barker • • • Past Chairman of TAC and Lead on John Drewry Project Teacher of SCD for over 20 years Lives in Langdon, Alberta, Canada

Who was John Drewry? • Born July 14, 1923 in Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire • Died June 18, 2014 in Aberdeen at 90 years of age • Took up SCD in Cumbria through his membership in a ramblers group

Who was John Drewry? • Appointed to the biochemistry department of the University of Aberdeen in 1965 • Hobbies included gardening, photography, hillwalking, cooking and baking (especially carrot cake)

Who was John Drewry? • Fully certificated RSCDS teacher • Received the RSCDS Scroll of Honour in 1999 • John speculated that his affinity for devising dances was due to a facility for geometry • Devised more than 800 dances

Who was John Drewry? • His first dance to survive – A Trip to Tobermory – was delivered to Miss Milligan by his teacher “Liz” (possibly Elizabeth Johnston) and appeared on the Younger Hall programmes the following year.

Who was John Drewry? • His first book of dances – Bon Accord Book – was duplicated by stencil with a painted cover • The Carlisle & Border Branch helped with testing this first set of dances

Who was John Drewry? • Quote from John – “The dances have spread all over the world and have resulted in my visiting many interesting places and forming many good and lasting friendships. ”

How this project came to be • In 2014, when John passed away, TAC was contacted by his lawyer informing us that he had bequeathed the copyright to all of his dances to our association

How this project came to be • What did “the copyright of my own Scottish Country Dances” mean? • How many dances did that entail? • We decided to create an index of John’s dances

Index of John Drewry’s Dances • Originally, we were only going to index the leaflets, but after some investigation, we found out there was no clear line – a number of leaflets were subsequently published in books. • Now, the index includes all of John’s dances

Index of John Drewry’s Dances • As we compiled the index, we found that John’s dances were not only published by himself and TAC, but also by many other branches around the world

Index of John Drewry’s Dances • The index includes: – – – Name of the dance Tempo Number of bars Number of couples Size and shape of the set John Drewry or TAC published sources – Year the dance was devised – Suggested lead tune – Any comments or other published sources

Index of John Drewry’s Dances • A searchable PDF of the index can be found on our website at tac-rscds. org Help Menu Index of John Drewry’s Dances

Index of John Drewry’s Dances • This index is a work in progress and will be updated as new information is received and verified • Currently, we believe we have over 99% of the dance names and their corresponding JD/TAC sources

John Drewry Dance Collection • We are in the process of digitizing all of John’s dances • Each dance will be transcribed into a consistent format, however, no changes to John’s descriptions will be made

John Drewry Dance Collection • Due to the generosity of the RSCDS, through their Special Project Fund, we will be making all of the dances available to the general public

John Drewry Dance Collection • Each dance will go through a rigorous proofreading by at least four people and be cross referenced against the latest version in our archive

John Drewry Dance Collection

John Drewry Dance Archive • Each dance will have an archive record which will include information regarding the various versions collected

John Drewry Dance Archive • Each archive record will include: – Publication dates for each version (if known) – Any changes between versions – Steps and formations included in the dance – Anecdotes about the dance – Pictures if they are available

John Drewry Dance Archive • A physical copy of the complete collection will be maintained in the TAC Archives held at York University, Toronto, Canada

John Drewry Dance Archive

John Drewry Dance Archive

John Drewry Dance Collection • Once a dance has been digitized and the archive record created, a PDF will be posted on the same webpage as the index

How can you help? • Do you have any dances that are not on our index? Let us know at drewry@tacrscds. org • Do you have any anecdotes or pictures from or about John that are specific to a dance that we can include in the archive record

Website and Email Address • Website address – https: //tacrscds. org/index. php/help/indexof-john-drewry-s-dances • Email address – drewry@tac-rscds. org