I have survived a series of misadventures—including spraining my poor knee—and now it is time to plan this year’s Michaelmas Dance! It will be on Saturday, September 27, 2025 from 7:30 PM until 11:00 PM at Edinburgh’s Dean Hall.
Dean Hall is the former church on the corner of Ravelston Terrace and Dean Path. We had the Michaelmas Dance there last year, too.
Tickets are £25 for adults, £20 for adult university/college students, and £15 for teenagers accompanied by a parent or two.
There will be ceilidh dancing and waltzing—and swing-dancing in the interval, accompanied by the singing of Montreal chanteuse Alisha Ruiss.
As always, the Michaelmas Dance is for Catholics who love the Traditional Catholic Mass and those who like us!
There are loads of stereotypes around “TLM Catholics” which is why I prefer to trot out, again and again, the phrase “Catholics who love the Traditional Latin Mass.” However, I will add that many (or most) Catholics who love the Mass of Ages also love other traditions, including traditional dances and dancing.
Dancing has, of course, always been a part of Christian European social life. As we know from the Red Book of Monserrat, the art has even given expression to devotional Christian joy. Of course, dancing has had its detractors, and in post-Reformation Scotland, Calvinists were shocked and angry when the first ticketed dances were held near Edinburgh’s Grassmarket in 1710. However, by the end of the 18th century, there were dancing schools in many Scottish towns, and partner dancing became part and parcel of Scottish life–just as it was in England and Ireland. Going out dancing was what “everyone” did–especially after the First World War. Dancing schools for the young and ballrooms for the grown-up flourished until The Cultural Deluge.
Now, in the spirit of taking back our patrimony in matters cultural as well as liturgical, Mrs McLean’s Waltzing Party hosts old-fashioned dances for the Catholic tradition-loving community.
To prepare for the Michaelmas Dance, Mrs McLean’s Waltzing Party is offering 3 Sunday afternoon workshops in waltzing and ceilidh. These are Pay What You Can and will take place on September 7, 14 and 21 at the Dean Hall 2 (the smaller of the Dean’s two halls) from 2:30 PM until 5 PM.
For more information—and to buy tickets–please contact me at info@tradcathsocialdancing.co.uk.