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"McPherson, Anderson, Macintyre, McGregor." As Scottish dancers pass by, kilt maker Coletta Hill reads their pleated blue, green, white and red clan tartans as though translating characters in a wool-based Scottish language.

The Red Thistle Dancers, a Palo Alto Scottish dance performance group, is having its weekly rehearsal in preparation for a summer of Scottish Highland games. The group performs Scottish country dancing, which is like a ballroom dance typically done in groups of eight or 16; and Highland dancing, a more rigorous dance originally performed by Scottish warriors.

The Red Thistle Dancers' rehearsal in a dance studio at the Cubberley Community Center feels like a party, with the laughter matching the loudness of the music and the figures of "Glayva," a two-couple jig with a series of skips, turns and crosses, named after an alcoholic drink.

And this is not just a party for Scottish people. Though nearly every Red Thistle dancer owns at least one kilt and sports a family tartan while performing, 25-year Red Thistle dancer Alan Twhigg says that only about half of the group claims any Scottish heritage.

Zaza Wu, who has danced with the group for nine years, noted, "As you can tell from my last name, Scottish heritage is certainly not a prerequisite to learning Scottish Highland or country dancing."

Though she began Scottish country dancing when she moved to the United States, Wu was born and raised in Hong Kong. "I still remember hearing the pipe bands practicing in the barracks in Hong Kong when it was a British colony," Wu said.

"Those who participate (in Scottish dancing) either love the music or learning the patterns of the dances or both," she said.

Armin Busse, an eight-year Red Thistle dancer and German native, agreed. "We only smile if we have fun," said Busse, who is also a Scottish country dance instructor.

Fun and smiles have been the basis of the Red Thistle Dancers' philosophy for 30 years, more or less. "We celebrated our 30-year anniversary in October of last year because no one can remember when we officially evolved," said Jennifer Kelly, artistic director of the group.

Kelly first joined a Palo Alto Scottish dance group in 1966 after she emigrated from England with her husband. When that group's artistic director, C. Stuart Smith, left Palo Alto, "someone twisted my arm to start teaching an advanced (Scottish dance) class," Kelly said. The Red Thistle Dancers gradually evolved from that class.

Like many of her dancers, Kelly has a ballet background. She became interested in Scottish dancing because of its challenging footwork.

While Scottish country dancing is similar to other international folk dances, Twhigg says: "Scottish country dancing has the most precision. There is a lot taken from ballet that you won't see in English or Irish country dancing."

In her choreography for the Red Thistle Dancers, Kelly says she aims to keep the dances as close to the traditional form as possible.

In traditional country dances, for example, figures are "like the dances you read about in Jane Austen novels," Kelly said. In a party setting, the same dance would play eight to 16 times so everyone could dance in each spot. But this style doesn't work so well as a performance piece.

"A long line of men are facing a long line of women, which means they are not facing the audience," Kelly said. "This is dreadfully boring for the audience! Who wants to watch the same thing for a half an hour?"

So Kelly makes a dance more interesting by repeatedly changing the dancers' orientation to the audience, and adding original transitions between each set.

Most recently, she choreographed "performance suites" for the Red Thistle Dancers that include an 18th-century medley as well as a modern medley that adds twists to traditional Scottish dances.

"Once you've learned the basic figures, you can do any number of dances by putting them in different orders and adding transitions," Kelly said.

Kelly's work drew praise from 16-year Red Thistle dancer Fred DeMarse, who called her "wonderful, a creative genius and a strong leader."

The dancers have performed in many venues, including festivals, parties, weddings and retirement centers. They get paid for about half of their shows; they use the money to help them promote Scottish culture in the Bay Area through free school performances, instructional videos and other programs, Wu said.

Anyone interested in being a Red Thistle dancer can practice with the group for a six- to eight-week audition period to "judge your technical skills, whether you socially fit in and whether you like it and are willing to make the time commitment," Twhigg said.

Many members have committed between two and three hours per week to the Red Thistle Dancers. And that's only the time spent dancing. They also teach dancing and sew traditional costumes -- and spend time commuting to rehearsal. The current group includes dancers from as far away as Berkeley, Orinda and Lafayette.

Seven of the Red Thistle Dancers are accredited Scottish country dance instructors, and four are accredited Highland dance instructors. Another, Fred DeMarse, spends his "spare time" teaching and judging Highland dance, as one of the eight accredited Highland competition judges in California.

Achieving the traditional Scottish look involves an equally serious time commitment. Just ask Coletta Hill, who says it requires 100 to 200 hours to sew each wool kilt by hand.

Most of the dancers, though, buy their kilts from Scotland at $600 to $700 each. Luckily, Hill said, "kilts don't wear out."

This also seems true of the dancers who own them. Twhigg says people often keep Scottish dancing "well into their 80s and 90s."

Group members range in age from 20s to 70s. As the years go by, Keppeler jokes that the group keeps threatening to "choreograph a dance with walkers."

While the rehearsal is picking up speed and height, Keppeler is resting a strained ankle and watching her fellow dancers complete their formations. She smiles and says, "As your body betrays you, you find other things to enjoy about it (Scottish dance)."

Some of the Red Thistle Dancers are concerned about what they see as younger generations' lack of interest in Scottish dance.

Though Kelly estimates that there about 400 people engaged in the Bay Area's Scottish country dance community, she thinks that the number of younger people is low. "They can't afford to live here. After a horrendous commute, the last thing they want to do is drive back out here to do Scottish dance," she said.

Eight-year Red Thistle dancer Kamrin MacKnight also sees a shortage of qualified Highland dance instructors in the area.

As for the Red Thistle group, Kelly said it has been having difficulties recruiting new dancers. To help, she would like to develop a training class that would help experienced dancers in their teens and early 20s transition into the performance group.

Other Scottish dance enthusiasts, though, think the art's future in the Bay Area is bright.

That includes 23-year-old Nancy McKeown, a three-year Red Thistle dancer and graduate student at the University of California at Santa Cruz,

This Stanford alumna studied abroad in Edinburgh for a year and competed with a Scottish country dance team while she was there. She likes the dance style because "at the most basic level, you can get people who have never tried it before and everyone has a good time."

McKeown said that the age difference with her fellow Red Thistle Dancers "doesn't matter." In fact, she added, "I like spending lots of time with them."

And they do spend lots of time together, from practices and performances to ski trips and Hogmanay, a three-day Scottish New Year's Party. (The Red Thistle Dancers keep the celebration to a one-night sleepover.)

The dancers are so close that they are "like people you would meet at a barn raising," Keppeler said. "They're a network of people outside of your family, but there is no push to sell or convert someone. Just come out and dance. If you're good you will perform."

Overall, McKeown describes Scottish dancing as "a unifying experience."

"We have to work together. We're not fighting for a moment to shine," she said. "We all get to shine."

Info: For more about the Red Thistle Dancers, call 650-327-0762 or go to www.redthistledancers.org . Other information about Scottish dancing can be found at the Web site of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society's local branch, at rscds .