Ghillie
Callum
- also known as Ghillie Callum,
Ghillie Challum, Gille Calium, Gille
Callum, Gille Callum Da Pheighinn, Gille
Calum, Gillie Callam, Gillie Callam Da
Pheithein, Keelum Kallum, Keelum Kallum
Taa Fein, The Lad Malcolm, Lasses Gar
Your Tails Todle, Sword Dance, The Sword
Dance, Tail Toddle, Tail Todle - is
one of the oldest and most famous
traditional Scottish dances. This
ancient dance of war of the Scottish
Gael is said to date back to King
Malcolm Canmore.
The
name “Ghillie Callum” means “Servant of
Malcolm.” Originally, ghillie was the
name given to the young man [the literal
and original meaning of "gille" is
"youth" or "lad." It is cognate with
(and derived from) the Irish "giolla."]
who would guide the Highland chiefs on
hunting and fishing expeditions. It was
later generalized and used in a
derogatory way by lowlanders to describe
the men servants who always accompanied
Highland chiefs.
After
defeating one of MacBeth’s generals at
the Battle of Dunsinane in 1054, Malcolm
placed his sword over that of his enemy
and performed a dance over and atop them
symbolizing both his victory and his
martial dexterity, a quality admired in
leaders at this period.
Since,
in addition to being a test of skill and
agility, this dance of exultation in
triumph became a dance of prophesy among
the highland warriors. The legend says
that warriors would perform the dance
over them in order to predict the
outcome of the next day’s battle. If the
dancer finished without touching the
swords, he was assured of victory, but
touching the swords could forecast
defeat and death.
The
tune Ghillie Callum can be traced back
to 1768 and is probably connected to an
old kissing dance - "Babbity Bowster".
This courting ritual dance, almost
always performed as the last dance of
the evening, shows the substitution of a
magic wand or a stick for a sword. In
the Central and West Highlands and the
Western Isles, the leader would twist a
handkerchief into a rope, lay it on the
floor like a sword, and do a few steps
of the Gille Calum sword dance in a
clockwise direction. The words of the
dance-song Gille Calum, about getting a
sweetheart and a wife, apply more aptly
to a kissing dance than to a combat
dance. The tune is replaced by “The
White Cockade” when a white handkerchief
replaced an actual sword or by “The Blue
Bonnet” when a blue bonnet was
substituted for the handkerchief.
Records
of this dance are obscure until the late
Sixteenth Century where male dancing
proficiency was as much esteemed as male
athletic prowess, in Scottish Highland
community. Ghillie Callum is first
recorded as a competition dance in 1832.
The
dance performed at the Highland Games
today typically comprises one dancer
performing over two crossed swords and
includes two or three slow steps
followed by one or two quick steps (the
dancer claps to give her a boost and to
tell the bagpiper to speed up the tempo)
and focuses on technical accuracy and
the precise placing of the feet.
Because
the dancer is representing a warrior,
the head must be proud and poised and
the steps executed to give an appearance
of strength, control and conviction.
In the
first step the dancer performs the steps
outside the sword or "addresses" the
sword (It infers that the swords have
'personality'. So the dancer is
requesting permission to dance within
the swords by executing the first step
correctly without disturbing the
swords). Subsequent steps are danced
over the crossed blades, but notice that
once inside the blades, the dancer never
dances with his back turned to the
swords - only a fool would turn his back
on a weapon.
It
requires tremendous dexterity not to
displace the swords. But nowadays,
nevertheless following the tradition, if
the dancer touched the sword he would
not be wounded the next day but
disqualified or 5 points penalized
(depending of the dancer level) if the
sword is touched but not displaced.
The
dancer progresses in an anticlockwise
direction ("widdershins" or the way of
the witches) around the swords but the
direction of travel as late as 1880 was
clockwise. A description of the
clockwise dance is given in "Book of the
Club of the True Highlander", 1881. One
example of a "clockwise" step can be
found in the form of the Third Step of
"The Jacobite Sword Dance" collected by
Mrs. M. I. MacNab.
The
origins of the convention of progressing
anticlockwise lie in the fact the men
were wearing a sword on their left hip
(the normal scabbard position for
right-handed person). To move in this
way was easier as they were less
encumbered. The same occurs in couples
where the male dancer holds his partner
with the right hand to prevent her dress
caught in the scabbard, and stands in
the center of the circle when dancing
round the ballroom dance floor to avoid
his scabbard clashing with spectators.
So the only possible move for such
position (as Ladies can’t promenade
backwards as the length of their dress
would become caught beneath their feet)
is an anticlockwise one.
The
earliest record of the tune is in David
Young’s 1734 Drummond Castle Manuscript
“Gillie Callum” which retained its
popularity into the next century, and
J.S. Skinner, who was a dancing master
as well as a celebrated violinist,
taught the dance at such places as Elgin
and Balmoral. He included the tune later
in his collection The Scottish
Violinist, under the title "Sword
Dance." The first definite reference in
print appears in 1804. This version of
the tune comes from a collection dated
1848.
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