Highland Dancing

These dances, such as the Highland Fling, and the Sword Dance, are generally solo performance dances, and are mostly danced competitively (although there are a minority, such as myself, who just learn and dance them for interest and during performances). With the constant pressure of competition, standards are extremely high, and they also enjoy a standardisation through the SOBHD, the SOHDA and the NZAHD (among others) which has allowed their spread throughout the world. As well as the Highland dances, the National dances, such as the Lilt, the Flora and the Blue Bonnets are similar and danced by the same dancers. I'm not enough of an expert to say what the difference is - they all seem to be in a similar vein to me. There are a few dances done by more than one dancer, the Foursome Reel, the Twasome and the Broadswords being three examples.

There are plenty of web sites around (see my collection of links), including