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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!
Apr 7
Beaver Day
The Beavertail Slap
Other Scottish Country Dances for this Day
Today's Musings, History & Folklore
"It must be very easy for the busy Beaver mother
To feed the Beaver sister and her little Beaver brother,
For when they beg: "We're hungry, give us something to eat, please!"
She sends them off to nibble at the bark of the big trees."
~ Animal Children, Edith Brown Kirkwood, 1913
This 32 bar reel for 3 couples was written by Carolyn Engel-Wilson of Phoenix Branch, Arizona, inspired by an idea suggested by her husband.
The dance tells a story about beavers. When the story begins, the beavers are cutting down a very large tree (petronella setting and turning). When the tree finally falls, two beavers are so startled by the crash that they slap their flat tails on the water in alarm (the clap) and swim around in panic.
Hearing the tails slap and seeing the frantic activity alarms the other beavers in the pond. They all slap their tails on the water (all clap) and swim around seeking a safe place (reels of three).
Outside of the dance floor, beavers are found across North America and Eurasia, living in freshwater habitats like rivers, streams, ponds, and lakes. They prefer areas with abundant trees and vegetation, especially forested wetlands, where they build dams and lodges—homes made of sticks and mud with underwater entrances and a dry inner chamber—that create protective ponds.
Petronella and slap those tails! 🕺 💃 🤎 💙 🤎 🦫 🦫 🦫
The Beavertail Slap
April 7 is known as International Beaver Day commemorating the birthday of Dorothy Richards (1894-1985), a woman who studied beavers for almost 50 years at the Beaversprite Sanctuary in the Adirondack Mountains of New York and whose work inspired the the nonprofit group Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife.
The beaver is known in Gaelic as dobhran losleathan, meaning ‘broad-tailed otter’ and is seen in the crest for Clan Beveridge.
Almost hunted to extinction in the 18th century, it is now making a comeback in Scotland.
In times past, people prized the beaver for its meat, fur, and also for castoreum, an oily substance produced by glands beneath its tail.
Humans have used the beaver’s thick waterproof fur for thousands of years.
The presence of beavers in Britain is still echoed in a number of place-names. Examples include Beverley in Yorkshire, meaning beaver’s stream.
Canada’s national animal, the Canadian beaver is a different species to the European beaver. It is far more industrious in its damming activities, giving rise to the popular term ‘eager beaver’.
Beavers feature a lot in Native American folklore, fossils show that during the last Ice Age a giant species of beaver the size of a bear dwelled in North America.
In the dance, written by Carolyn Engel-Wilson of Phoenix Branch, Arizona (based on an idea from her non-dancer husband Ron), the dance tells a story about beavers. When the story begins, the beavers are cutting down a very large tree (petronella setting and turning). When the tree finally falls, two beavers are so startled by the crash that they slap their flat tails on the water in alarm (the clap) and swim around in panic. Hearing the tails slap and seeing the frantic activity alarms the other beavers in the pond. They all slap their tails on the water (all clap) and swim around seeking a safe place (reels of three).
For more about the Beaver, click the the furred member of Clan Beaver!
Click the dance cribs or description below to link to a printable version of the dance!
