Author: Dorothy McLean
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The December Waltzing Party
To my delight, six women and girls and seven men and boys came to dance at the December Waltzing Party. A Numbers Game If you are reading this in Canada or the United States, you may think this a small turnout. However, our biggest turnout (for the parties, not the ticketed dances) here in Edinburgh…
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An Hour’s Christmas Dance
Mr McLean and I are hosting an hour of dancing after the parish Christmas party. Our idea is that it will give young parents who enjoy dancing–but for obvious reasons can rarely go out–the opportunity to cut a caper or two with the fancy-free parishioners. Everyone will have been fed, the children will have had…
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Dilexit Andream Dominus
An Andrewcentric Introduction We go to Mass in a 1900 wooden flatpack church shipped from another northern country and assembled on what was then newly bought land. According to legend, all the money was spent on the land and the archdiocese hoped to build a proper church after subsequent fundraising. This never happened. One big…
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Listening to the Beat
The big reveal for the November Waltzing Party is that no young women came to it. There were a mum, her little girl, the dance teacher, and me. The rest were men, and so the teacher led an expert and enjoyable Leads’ workshop. The party was, in its way, a success, but Catholic partner dance…
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A Friendly Face
I have written a draft about the November Dance Party, but like the traditional Christmas fruitcake, which is first baked in November, it needs time to mature before being served. There were some unforeseen challenges on Sunday, and as we know, poetry is “emotion recollected in tranquility.” (William Wordsworth.) So this morning I shall write…
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Dancing at Christendom
Yesterday I spoke to a young Scot who is bound for a Catholic college in the USA. He told me that he had danced a lot while visiting the States: East Coast swing, West Coast swing… He sounded very enthusiastic, and I suspect he will be dancing up a storm when he starts next year.…
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Should you go to dances alone?
The local swing-dance scene is somewhat problematic for traditional Catholics because the words “man” and “woman” have been erased and replaced by “lead” and “follower.” Women are encouraged to take the “lead” role, and men are warmly welcomed as “followers.” This means that teenage boys and men who want to take classes discover that they…
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Scottish invitations
Although my mother’s people (as we say) originated in Scotland and were proud of their Scottish roots and customs, the bond to the country itself was not strong for about 70 years–that is, from after the Second World War until I arrived, exhausted, on the bus from London and met my now-husband in person. Thus,…
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Traditional Dance Deportment
I have finished reading Elizabeth Casciani’s Oh, How We Danced: The History of Ballroom Dancing in Scotland and must take it back to the library today. First, however, I would like to copy from it some intriguing information about lessons in dance deportment some Scottish teachers imparted in the late 19th century and, it seems,…