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ScubaDance at
Buddy Dive
Story and pictures
provided by Mel & Ellie Briscoe |
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(that's Mel
Front & Center
and Ellie seated in plaid) |
Splash Dive Center of Alexandria, Virginia, visits
Buddy Dive once or twice a year with a group of about 16, led by Mel
(PADI Instructor) and Ellie Briscoe. But the group was special this
April 13-20; it was called
"ScubaDance" and was mostly Scottish
Country Dancers from Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and
California. Scottish Country Dancing (SCD)
is a traditional
social dancing of Scotland, but is enjoyed by folks of all
nationalities in locations all over the world. See
http://www.scottishdancing.org or http://www.strathspey.org for more
information. |
Mel and Ellie are also teachers of SCD, so
together with teacher-diver-friend Denise Peet, they decided what
could be more fun than combining their two favorite hobbies into one
super vacation, at
Buddy Dive, of course. ScubaDance was born.
The logo on their T-shirts is the dive flag and the flag of
Scotland. |
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13 of the 15 folks in the dive group were Scottish
dancers. The group also included two Open Water students and two
Advanced Open Water students, whom Mel certified during the week.
Because the week was "Dive Into Earth Week" to commemorate the
up-coming Earth Day on April 22, Splash Dive Center and Mel combined
to also provide certification in Project AWARE Fish ID and Coral
Reef Conservation during the week. |
In addition to dancing in the Buddy Dive Pool Bar
several times, including once with some of the Buddy Dive and Dock
of the Bay staff (Heleen, Ryan, Jasmine, Govert, TC, Martin, and
Dyan, the
ScubaDancers also performed what they believe was the
world's first underwater Scottish Country Dance, at Karpata. |
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The dance was composed specifically for the event,
and was designed to only be possible in a
3-dimensional,
weightless environment. Called "Once at the Bottom", the name is a
take-off on a common phrase in SCD, "Once and to the Bottom,"
meaning a dance that is only done once and then the lead couple (at
the top) goes to the end (bottom) of the line of dancers. Hendrik
Wuyts, videographer, recorded the special event at
Karpata. |
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The ScubaDancers had a super time diving and dancing, and
hope to return
to Buddy Dive in a year to do it all
again!
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The Staff of
Buddy Dive and Dock of the Bay thank Mel and Ellie
and all the
Scuba Dancers for sharing their experience with us.
We look
forward to welcoming the ScubaDancers back anytime - our dance floor
awaits! | |
