WELCOME TO AN ENTERTAINMENT SITE FOR SCOTTISH COUNTRY DANCERS!
Enjoy this curated selection of theme-related dances for celebrations and holidays, or find a dance associated with a special calendar day, or EVEN your own birthday!
Jul 24
July's Birthstone
Ruby Hornpipe
Other Scottish Country Dances for this Day
Today's Musings, History & Folklore
"Ruby ghillies, ruby shoes,
May every dance bring happy news.
Click your heels and off you go—
Home is where the dancers go!"
Happy Dancing July Birthdays (or wedding anniversaries) with a dance named for July's brilliant birthstone, the ruby!
Devised to celebrate a couple's 40th "ruby" wedding anniversary, this 3 couple hornpipe devised by Muriel Johnstone features an unusual inverted allemande (beginning by facing down) to keep dancers on their toes!
Typically a rich crimson red, rubies are a variety of the mineral corundum, their brilliant colour created by trace amounts of chromium. Among the world's most prized gemstones, rubies have for centuries symbolized wealth, power, love, passion, vitality, and enduring devotion—making them a fitting emblem for forty years of marriage.
Revered as one of the ancient "stones of kings," rubies were believed to be talismans of protection, worn by rulers and warriors to bring courage, prosperity, and safeguard their wearer from danger. Their legendary qualities were echoed in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy's famous ruby slippers—changed from the silver shoes of L. Frank Baum's original novel—protected her from the Wicked Witch of the West and ultimately carried her safely home. So, if you're looking for a little magic at your next dance, perhaps a pair of ruby-red ghillies is the next best thing! 🕺 💃 ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ 💎 💎 💎 💒 💍 👠 👠 👠
Ruby Hornpipe
For July's birthstone, the ruby, we have one of the many Ruby dances!
A ruby is a pink to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum (aluminium oxide). The red color is caused mainly by the presence of the element chromium. Its name comes from ruber, Latin for red.
Rubies come in many shades of red. Sometimes people refer to the finest pure red color as “Burma Ruby” or “pigeon’s blood.”
Some rubies show a rare twelve-point asterism, or “star,” on the surface when polished in a cabuchon shape rather than facets. The double-star ruby occurs when the asterism is seen from both sides of the jewel, which is even more rare and valuable.
Another of the ‘Stone of Kings’, the ruby has long been associated with wealth and royalty. Possessing a ruby was considered to be beneficial to the owner’s lands and estates, aiding in the accumulation of wealth, protection of holdings and acquisition of other precious stones. Other talismanic properties assigned this stone had to do with protection. If worn on the left, (the side of the heart,) a ruby was thought to allow the wearer to live in peace and concordance with all men, that neither his land nor rank would be taken from him, and that he would be preserved from all perils. The stone would then also guard the wearer's house, orchards and vineyards from storms.
Due to its association with blood, the ruby was also the stone of soldiers. The Burmese prized the ruby highly for this very usage. It was believed to give invulnerability, but it was not sufficient to wear the stone on the left. It had to be physically inserted into the flesh and become a part of the owner’s body. Those who wore the stone in this fashion were then believed to be safe from wounds by spear, sword, or gun.
The ruby is often associated with 40 year anniversaries, such as this dance.
Click the ruby slippers below to learn more about one of the historic rubies in the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom, the Black Prince's Ruby.
See below for the Ruby Hornpipe performed by the Waikanae SCD Club for their 40th Anniversary dance in 2015.
Click the dance cribs or description below to link to a printable version of the dance!
