A team of Scottish Country Dancers represented the city of Vancouver and the state of Washington as they performed and taught dancing in the Japanese cities of Ishioka, Chigasaki, Joyo, Ijira, and Kawasaki for two and a half weeks in October 2002.

The group, led by Scottish Country Dance teacher Marge van Nus, performed at schools, a shopping mall, and intercultural parties, also visiting the mayor of each city to exchange gifts and greetings on behalf of the mayor of Vancouver. A spirited dance competition between Washington and Japanese teams at the Tokyo Highland Games completed the trip.

Scottish Country Dance Team

The 15-member team included nine dancers from Clark County: Marge van Nus, Van Meter Hord, and Raminta Soden of Vancouver, Robert and Geri Stuart of Camas, John and Susan Shaw of Battle Ground, and Tom and Liza Halpenny of Ridgefield. Out-of-town members were Irene Paterson of Mukilteo WA, Bill Paterson of Friday Harbor WA, Melanie Plaut of Portland OR, Linda Danielson of Eugene OR, Dixie Campbell of Estacada OR, and Dave Wilson of Reno NV.

Aside from being a group of Americans sharing Scottish dancing with the Japanese, the team found the most unique and enriching part of the experience to be home-stays with Japanese host families in each city. "It was delightful to find the Japanese people so willing to try our dancing, help us relax, and share their homes and traditional meals with us," notes dancer, Susan Shaw.

It is rare for a foreigner to be invited to the home of a Japanese family. So the dancers were fortunate to be able to stay in five homes for three days at a time, which gave them a chance to glimpse each family's daily life. They established some strong bonds of friendship and expect that some of the hosts will visit dancer homes sometime in the future. Some of the dancers prepared a small photo album to show the host families about life back home in the U.S., and they enjoyed teaching host family members how to Scottish Country Dance at the intercultural party in each city.

Fort Vancouver Park outside Joyo

Park is not just for kids!

Other special activities enjoyed by the group included visits to temples and shrines, wearing kimonos, a tea ceremony, an origami lesson, and a martial arts demonstration. The city of Joyo, near Kyoto, is Vancouver's sister city. An elaborate children's playground, built as a replica of Fort Vancouver, perches on a hillside outside of town.

Goro Uehara, a host in Kawasaki, remarked in a farewell speech that he was expecting to meet a somber group of American people, given the previous year's September Eleven, a bad economy, and other troubles in our country. Instead, he was happy to see that the dancing and music were joyful and playful, both mentally and physically.

The camaraderie among the dance group could be felt as they traveled between cities and helped one another navigate through the complex train stations, carrying baggage laden with personal clothing and gifts for the host families. The daily routine was to meet in the morning and travel to the day's performances, then go home with the host families in the evening to visit and learn about Japanese culture.

It was fun to explore the similarities and differences between the two cultures. For instance, in Japan you always take off your shoes and put on slippers when you enter a house or a school. In Japanese-style homes, team members sat on the tatami mat floor and ate at low tables. Other homes had regular tables and chairs. Guests slept on futons on the floor. The Japanese bathtub is where each of the family members uses the same hot water to soak and relax, after scrubbing and rinsing with a shower outside of the tub. The side streets are significantly narrower than streets in the U.S. Cars drive on the left side of the road and drivers are skillful at pulling over just in time to barely pass oncoming cars.

Teaching Dance...

...to eager students

While performing in schools, the dance team became proficient with getting the children very excited about Scottish Country Dancing. Each dancer selected a child from the audience to learn an easy dance. At first the children were very shy and self-conscious about how they would look to their peers, so dancers would practically have to pull them out to the dance floor. Once they walked through the dance, the children realized that it was fun and they could easily do it. They performed the entire dance together, and when the dancers returned to the audience to select new partners to repeat the dance, many children raised their hands, begging to be chosen. They performed the dance three or four times, in order to give most everyone a chance to experience Scottish Country Dancing. They also spent time answering student questions, mostly about the kilt.

After the dance team arrived home, several members attended a meeting of the Vancouver City Council to give a presentation about the trip. Mayor Royce Pollard requested the dancers to perform and called the lively jig "the highlight of the evening."