London
Scottish country dancing across the capital
Day School and Musicians' Workshop, Saturday 18 October 2025
​​​Meet the day school staff
We are delighted to confirm our 2025 day school staff members.
​
Graham Donald, Raphaelle Orgeret and Faye McNeil (Mather) will join us as teachers, supported by class musicians Barbara Manning, Adam Brady and Heather Jeffery.
​​
Intermediate, Advanced and Very Advanced classes in the morning and afternoon will be followed by optional classes covering Personal Critique (Graham), MacNab Dances (Raphaelle) and Dances from the Evening Programme (Faye).
Ian Muir of Prestwick will lead our Musicians' Workshop and, with the day school musicians provide the rousing music for our evening dance.
​​​​​
Adam Brady​​
Musician: Intermediate (am), Advanced (pm), Dances from the evening programme (optional)
​
Growing up on the east coast of Scotland, traditional music and dance have formed an integral part of Adam’s life. Adam began playing the accordion and piano at five years old and first started playing for country dancing at ten years old. Since first playing for local classes for RSCDS Dundee Branch, Adam has had the pleasure to travel throughout the UK, Europe, US, Canada, Japan and Australia playing for classes, dances and music workshops. We are very fortunate to have Adam as a regular London Branch class musician and as Branch Committee member. Adam has been an invited musician for the RSCDS Summer School for the past ten years and has also played for the RSCDS Winter School, Spring Fling and AGM Weekend. Alongside his older brother, he has recorded and released five albums of country dance music as well as two recordings for the RSCDS. As a keen dancer, Adam enjoys getting to dance – when he can!
Barbara Manning
Musician: Advanced (am), Very Advanced (pm), Personal Critique (optional)
​
After many years as a keen Scottish country and highland dancer, Barbara Manning turned her classical music training to band use over 35 years ago, and since then has accompanied dancing in many parts of the UK and Europe, the USA, Ukraine and Russia, besides visiting Summer School both as a dancer and musician. She has played for numerous day schools and London Branch technique classes and has featured on recordings and with McBain’s Band on Radio Scotland’s Take the Floor from St Columba’s, Pont Street and on the Earls Court Radio Show, besides playing on stage at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden for the Royal Ballet School’s Annual Performance in 1985.
She currently plays mainly with the Silver Cross Band and in a duo with Ken Martlew (see below), besides featuring solo on either piano or fiddle. In November 2016, Barbara was delighted to receive from the National Operatic and Dramatic Association the personal award of Vicki Avery for Service to Amateur Theatre.
Faye McNeil (Mather)
Teacher: Intermediate (am), Advanced (pm), Dances from the evening programme (optional)
​
Faye started dancing at the age of six and has never looked back! After attending classes on the Wirral, she was hooked and moved to Edinburgh for university (and, of course, the dancing!). She now shares her love and enthusiasm for Scottish Country Dancing through teaching, whether in Edinburgh, at various workshops, at the RSCDS Summer School, or, most recently, at Spring Fling. Faye very much looks forward to teaching in London, combining technique, teamwork, and dances with something different that she hopes everyone will enjoy.
Graham Donald
Teacher: Advanced (am), Very Advanced (pm), Personal Critique (optional)
​​
Graham joined the RSCDS when living in his home city of Edinburgh, and he danced with the Demonstration team there for several years. He has also been invited to teach at a number of day and weekend schools around the world and is an examiner for the RSCDS.
He is very keen on promoting the teaching of Scottish Country Dancing and is am currently Convenor-Elect of the Education and Training Committee of the RSCDS. Graham thinks it is very important for qualified teachers and instructors to continue to develop their teaching skills after they have qualified and believes that we can always improve our teaching.
Dancing is a huge source of fun and friendship, and it is always great to meet new friends and renew old acquaintances.
Heather Jeffery
Musician: Very Advanced (am), Intermediate (pm), MacNab dances (optional)
​
Heather is a geneticist by day and Scottish dance enthusiast by night! During her PhD studies, she joined the Oxford University Scottish Dance Society in 2017 as a necessary escape from her time in the lab, and she has only grown more enthusiastic since, and can now be found at Reading’s St Andrew’s Scottish Dancing Society. Whilst we were all locked up during the pandemic, Heather took her existing classical training (DipABRSM) and began to play Scottish tunes and send them out to a growing list of family, friends and supporters. When we were all allowed to meet again, and after she’d got her fix of dance, Heather decided she’d like to play some of these tunes with an audience and so began playing for dances. She now plays regularly for RSCDS London classes and is a member of Ian Robertson’s Scottish dance band who play for many ceilidh and country dance events around the region. She also plays the occasional featured spot in Burns’ Night events.
Ian Muir (of Prestwick)
Musicians' Workshop lead
​
Ian started playing accordion at the age of 8 and progressed through the British College of Accordionists exam system under the tutelage of Jim Hutcheon.
He began playing professionally in 1978 and appeared with many Scottish Variety artistes including Peter Morrison, Alistair McDonald, Calum Kennedy and Andy Stewart to mention just a few.
Ian played lead accordion with Kenny Thomson and the Wardlaw Scottish Dance Band before forming his own band in 1984. He has regularly recorded for BBC Radio Scotland’s ‘TAKE THE FLOOR’ and even presented the programme when Robbie Shepherd was on holiday.
He has travelled extensively, playing for Scottish dance events all over the world, including Winter School in Australia, Summer School in New Zealand, Asilomar weekend in California and many times in Canada for TAC, Edmonton weekends and Vancouver 50th Anniversary.
Ian has recorded several Scottish Country albums, Old Time dance and solo accordion albums. His two most recent recordings were done in Canada with his friends in the Tartan Ties Band (Judi Nicolson, Kathy Fraser Collins and Fred Collins). For 28 years Ian tutored at the prestigious Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (Formerly Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama) until retiring in 2022.
Ian is the current RSCDS Music Director Designate and is very much looking forward to new challenges ahead.
Raphaelle Orgeret
Teacher: Very Advanced (am), Intermediate (pm), MacNab dances (optional)
​
Raphaelle was introduced to Scottish dancing by her mother and attended Summer School for the first time in 1998. She was hooked and hasn't stopped dancing since. She passed her teacher’s certificate in St Andrews in 2008, teaches her branch class in Lyon and a children’s class there too. For several years she coached a team for the Newcastle Festival comprising friends from across Europe and called it the International Team. She then coached her own Lyon branch team for the competition. She has been the branch chairman since 2016 and organises weekend schools and other events for the branch. Her branch has a very important proportion of teenagers, who keep her on her toes!
Raphaelle has taught at various RSCDS events such as Summer School, Winter School or Spring Fling as well as workshops across Europe. She was lucky enough to teach as far as Australia, TAC or California and say "These experiences have been wonderful, I've met so many lovely people and danced to incredible musicians. I'm very much looking forward to meeting you all!"
Outside dancing, she is a primary school teacher.
