The phone call came when I was punching holes in dance cards.
“There is heavy traffic, and we’re going to be late,” said Krzysztof.
I relaxed for the first time all day. Everything for the dance was washed or baked or bought, bagged and packed. I was coiffured, dressed and painted. All that was left to me to do was finish punching holes, and I had half an hour to do it in. Serenity!
That said, on the London Road I did make the boys stop the car so I could check that I had indeed packed the musicians’ stipend. But it was the least stressful MMWP dance ever. There at the church was Daniel, in perfect Highland Dress, about to play his pipes for half an hour. And there was Mr McLean, who had gone straight from work, chatting ebulliently away to Sophia and Joseph, who then volunteered to set out the refreshments tables. The Wisps o’ the Tay had already set up their sound system.
Dancers began to arrive in larger numbers as Daniel piped them in and to greet each other: almost everyone recognised almost everyone else. After consulting his dance card, Gerald went hither and thither taking photographs.
The band did a practice run.
The Waltz Duo, featuring my brother George on piano, then worked out a piece:
I was delighted to see people I didn’t expect: Max had been miraculously cured of sinusitis, Ben dropped by to say hello on his way elsewhere, and Grace bought a ticket at the very last moment. I was sorry not to see our Second Violin, but her infant son had fallen ill, so she couldn’t come.
When the time seemed right, I welcomed the crowd and asked Mr McLean to lead the Prayer to Saint Michael.
Then the gentlemen went about with their dance cards to ask ladies for their names. Interestingly, one of them had earlier that week asked one of the ladies to take his name, as this intriguing photo reveals:
Congratulations to Joseph, best wishes to Sophia, and Ad multos annos to both from Mrs McLean’s Waltzing Party!
At about 8 o’clock, the dance began in traditional fashion with The Gay Gordons, followed by our first waltz, Chopin’s “Waltz in A-Minor”. Gerald sat that one out to take photos:
There followed The Dashing White Sergeant, “Danger in the Waltz” (Kennedy and Carr, 1939), The Pride of Erin Waltz (challenging), The Muppet Movie’s “Rainbow Connection” (replacing “The Road & Miles to Dundee”) and then the Canadian Barn Dance—the progressive version, which meant changing partners throughout, which is great fun when you remember the steps.
Then it was intermission and time for cake and wine (and beer). The cake was very popular, but only four bottles of the wine (and eight cans of the beer) were drunk. What an abstemious set! As usual, there was jazz and swing-dancing.
Only a few felt up to the swing-dancing challenge, but I was amazed to see some of our very youngest dancers among them. In true homeschooling fashion, oldest brothers and oldest sister had transmitted what they had learned from classes to their younger siblings. I have a policy of not posting photos of children, but you can imagine their glee.
The second half began with the OXO Reel, which we found difficult.
It may have been that dance–or perhaps the Boston Two-Step– for which we needed not one but two callers. Note their pensive expressions:
Our first waltz of the second half was Sibelius’ “Waltz Triste”, which I danced very rapidly with a Classics professor. (The piano & violin Waltz Duo was just fantastic, by the way. I reflected gratefully that we had all come a long way from “Moon River” which, not incidentally, one of the dancers had begged us not to include.)
After the Boston Two-Step, we had “Vito’s Waltz”. Then we danced the Circassian Circle, waltzed to Joe Hisaichi’s “Merry-Go-Round of Life”, and made two diagonal lines across the hall for Strip-the-Willow. This last was as hilarious as ever. My former-rifle-instructor brother danced it quite vigorously, inspiring me to wail “Not military! Not military!” as he flung me about.
Then of course we sang and danced Auld Lang Syne—Mr McLean rolling back and forth in his wheelchair—and sang Regina Caeli, which was printed on the dance card. Then I made a thankful and, I hope, short speech, Krzysztof handed me flowers, there were three cheers, and the long twilight of the dance began.
That is to say, the dance ended at 11 PM, but we didn’t have to be out until midnight, so there was a lot of cleaning-up, piano-playing and general lingering about. Agatha (see below, middle) had volunteered to be Kitchen Manager and was so efficient that by 11:20 PM, the clean-up was almost done.
The remnant left at 11:55 PM, and we none of us did any catastrophic damage, so I got back the deposit. This was bigger than I remembered (the VAT?), so it turns out that, after calculating expenses vs ticket sales, the McLean coffers have lost only £14. That seems like a very fair price for a wonderful evening of music, dancing and friendship.
Some thoughts about the waltzes. When I went into my usual “Box Step” lecture, Max correctly informed me that nobody was listening. They weren’t listening because they ALL knew the box step–and the natural turn, too, by the look of it. When I sat out “The Merry-Go-Round of Life,” I was delighted to see all the couples–especially one brother-and-sister team–skilfully turning round and round.
Grateful thanks to Gerald Bonner for most of the photographs and to my brother George for the rest.
