Dance Called America

Dance Called America

ID: PC_GLENGARRY_EMIGRATION4_01 DESCRIPTION: A print by the Scottish painter and illustrator David Allan (1744 – 1796). It was published in a number of versions, as a painting and also as an engraving. Allan produced many varied scenes of Scottish life throughout his career. A Highland dance and its circumstances are described by James Boswell in the course of his Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides from 1785: ‘We performed a dance which I suppose the emigration from Skye has occasioned. They call it ‘America’. The dance seems intended to show how emigration catches, till a whole neighbourhood is set afloat. Mrs M’Kinnon told me that last year when a ship sailed from Portree for America, the people on shore were most distracted when they saw their relations go off; they lay down on the ground, tumbled and tore the grass with their teeth. This year there was not a tear shed The people on shore seemd to think they would soon follow. This indifference is a mortal sign for the country.’ The 1985 Runrig album Heartland includes a song, ‘Dance Called America’, which is about this Scottish exodus. SOURCE: Glengarry Heritage Centre COLLECTION: Glengarry Heritage Centre Asset ID: 49150 KEYWORDS: