Napier’s Index – the Database

Keith and Morag Napier were introduced to Scottish Country Dancing when they were living in England as a young married couple in the early 1960s. It became a major part of their non-working lives through committee membership, teaching and general organising for the RSCDS Sydney Branch.

In 1976, Keith was setting up a computer at his workplace and decided to create an index of Scottish Country Dances to become familiar with some of the software available.  The impetus came from his wife, Morag, who was teaching Scottish Country Dancing at the Sydney Branch and was often seeking dances for her classs, of a certain type (reel, jig or strathspey) and containing selected figures.  The Index included up to three figures contained in each dance and a difficulty rating (1 easy, 5 very hard).   The difficulty rating is not rigorous as most dances were rated by scanning the instructions rather than by dancing (which often reveals some not-so-obvious difficulties).  The Index as published, contained an alphabetical listing of dances, and a list of dances sorted by figures, dance type and difficulty.  The first edition of the Index contained less than 2000 dances.  The first edition was printed from the computer and then printed as a booklet by a commercial printer.  Prior to the mid 1960s, few dancers were creating new dances, and most of the dances published by the RSCDS were those from previous times found in published collections but also on scraps of paper found in attics etc.  By the 1970s, new dances were being written,  Hugh Foss, James Cosh and John Drewry being among the growing number of devisors.  Many of the non-RSCDS dances currently in the 100 most popular dances date from this period.

Over the years, new dances have been added to the Index when books have been purchased or authors have sent copies of their newly published books.  Details have been extracted from other books obtained at Scottish Country dance schools as well as from lists of dances that others have sent to Keith.  Dances added to the Index from lists do not have complete figure details.    By 2002, the Index was in its fifth edition and the total number of dances contained now exceeds 10,500.  The Index was used as a starting point for the Dance Data Database created by Alan Paterson for the internet, which now has over 12,000 dances with links to recorded music and some other features that are not included in the Index.  Computing power has increased exponentially over the past 30 years.  The original computer used occupied a small air conditioned room, and had a minute fraction of the power of today’s basic home computer.  The Index was migrated from computer to computer and now resides on a PC.   Printed versions of the Index are now made as required, by photocopying and binding.  Copies are also available electronically on compact disk and the Index can be sent as an attachment to an email.  A printed copy of the Index (2002 edition plus an update) costs $(AUD)35.00 including postage, the Index on CD is $(AUD)20.00 including postage, and the Index by email is $(AUD)10.00.  For further details, contact Keith Napier at keithnap@primusonline.com.au.

Napier’s Index – the Dance

In 2002, Sydney Branch celebrated its 50^th Anniversary.  The Annual Ball for 2002 was the main focal point of the celebration.  For the Ball, Brian Charlton, another dancer and teacher who had been on the Sydney Committee for many years, had written a dance in honour of Keith and Morag’s work in Scottish Country Dancing.  Copies of this dance were distributed to the various Scottish Dance Groups in Sydney and had been taught and practised for the Ball, unknown to Keith and Morag.  They were both surprised and honoured when the dancers took to the floor to dance “Napier’s Index”.  The dance was published in a book of dances to mark the 50^th Anniversary of Sydney Branch.  As the dance had shown local popularity it was submitted to Headquarters and eventually was published in RSCDS Book 45 in 2005.