Edinburgh rejoices in at least three swing-dancing societies and perhaps a dozen teachers. The different dances on offer include Lindy Hop, Balboa, Blues, and–less frequently–Collegiate Shag. As previously discussed, this last dance has an unfortunate name when it comes to British English, rather like the infamous placard pinned up by stern American priests, “Ladies must not wear pants in church.”
Usually I get around the culturally-conditioned indelicacy by referring to the lively dance as “Collegiate Cormorant”, but that is quite a mouthful and really doesn’t suit CS’s staccato nature. Collegiate Tobacco, on the other hand, has more of a pop, if not quite the slow-slow-quick-quick rhythm.
Anyway, there are so many interesting social dancing classes in Edinburgh that I would pour out rivers of time and money if I did not keep my eyes focused on my primary goal, which is to use dance as a way to create and develop social ties in the community of Catholics who love the TLM (and Catholics who like those who do). This often means arranging classes for members of the younger generation or accompanying them to classes arranged by others. However, recently I was so excited that I would, for once, be able to sign up for the elusive Collegiate Tobacco classes that I forgot to establish that others could come, too. Alas.
This is a pity. It’s not that I still have qualms about turning up alone to swing-dancing classes, for I do not. It’s that Collegiate Tobacco, which is danced to faster music than the Lindy Hop (185-250 bpm), is just the thing for youthful spirits and elastic knees.
It also comes in handy when very fast classic jazz songs like the iconic “Sing, Sing, Sing” by Benny Goodman are played and others around are dancing chest-to-chest in the Balboa. Collegiate Tobacco has the advantage of being a rapid dance that does not rely on torso-to-torso contact.
So far I have taken two classes in Collegiate Tobacco: an hour before Mass this past Sunday and an hour yesterday. As ever, as a Follow, I have the easy part. But as the Follow, the most important thing is really keeping track of the SLOW-SLOW-quick-quick beat. Honestly, the dancelooks more complicated than it really is.
However, it does take strong knees, and one of mine is injured, so I’m off to the gym now to work on rehab.