Author: Dorothy McLean
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Social graces
I have a bad cold and so was unable to dance this week. And the cold got me because of a pipe that blew up in the bathroom floor, necessitating […]
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Dancing in the Old Town
Gavin Hamilton, Susanna Kennedy (1689-1780), Daughter of Sir Archibald Kennedy, 1st Bt of Culzean, 3rd Wife of Alexander Montgomery, 9th Earl of Eglinton, oil on canvas, The National Trust for Scotland, Culzean Castle, Garden & Country Park. She went to Edinburgh’s first Assemblies.
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Dancing is for everyone
This may be obvious to you, but for too long it wasn’t obvious to me: you don’t have to belong to your local “dance scene” to dance partner dances. I […]
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Learning to teach Lindy
My usual advice to would-be hosts and hostesses is not to teach your guests how to dance yourself. “Delegate” is my watchword. “Delegate, delegate, delegate.” Ideally you do nothing on […]
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Practise practice
“I wish I had a sister at home to dance with,” sighed a young man I know. We had been at Lindy Hop class, a story in itself. For complicated […]
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A Period Piece
Having decided to read more fiction about dancing, I purchased Rosamond Lehmann’s Invitation to the Waltz (1932, republished by Virago, 1981). It is an interesting rather than enjoyable book; there […]
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Strip the Willow for Soldiers
There are dances traditionally for women, dances traditionally for men, and dances traditionally danced by both sexes together. Then there is Scottish Highland dancing. “Friday night was always dancing night,” […]
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A Music Lesson
The more you know, the more you know you don’t know. This great truth was brought home to me while discussing the tempo of waltz music for the Second Annual […]
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Lost & Found
Various items were behind in the Dean Hall after the Michaelmas Dance. If you have lost something there, please send me a message!