Author: Dorothy McLean
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A Legacy of Dance
It is the birthday of my Scots-Canadian grandmother Gladys, the first person who tried teach me to dance, and it is my St Agnes’ Day tradition to write about her, the friendly if undemonstrative soul that she was. When I was a little girl, my grandmother volunteered at a local old folks’ home, as we…
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Hosanna in excelsis!
Our first New Year’s Ceilidh for Parents who love the Traditional Latin Mass (and their Bairns) took place yesterday afternoon in Ravelston. It was for many an all-afternoon event: Noon Mass at St. Andrew’s, then lunch during After-Mass Coffee Hour, and finally the dancing around the corner and down the street. When I arrived at…
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May I introduce?
I had the most interesting conversation the other day after Mass with a younger-than-me man. He was sharing his experiences of dating younger-than-him women and how deeply shocked they are by opinions that run contrary to those they have been taught at secondary school and/or university. I mentioned my own self-defeating beliefs as a young…
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Save us a dance
Friday night is live jazz night for a select crowd of Edinburghers. Chronological Shorty George was running late, so I picked an empty table all on my own and stuck my old red puffa on the chair beside me. The room began to fill up, and the other chairs were taken. The woman beside me…
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A Year of Social Dancing 2025
In 2025, Mrs McLean’s Waltzing Party hosted seven dance parties and two ticketed dances, attended three outside dances and a ballroom dancing competition, and promoted umpteen dance lessons as well as nights out with the Edinburgh Jazz’n’Jive Club. We were guests at a tea party held in our honour, at which Mr McLean sang a…
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A Christmas Eve Dance
People of other languages must have their own memories of famous literary Christmas parties. This, I believe, is the most famous in the English-speaking world. It was envisioned by the English novelist Charles Dickens in 1843 and thus is probably set c. 1800, when Ebeneezer Scrooge, the hero of A Christmas Carol, was apprentice-aged: The…
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‘Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day’
Three days until Christmas! To drum up the late Advent excitement, I decided to write a blogpost about that wonderful English carol ‘Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day.’ However, as I did my research, I decided that without a library I could not do better than Michael De Sapio at The Imaginative Conservative, so please…
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A Gaudete Sunday Waltzing Party
“We never know how many people we have until we’re in the room,” I told our fledgling waltzing instructors at After-Mass Tea. I encouraged them to do their best with the materials they had at hand. That’s my best advice to all dance organisers in smallish communities. No matter how well you organise–and I do…
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Marian Anthem for Advent
Today we are having a Waltzing Party as part of our Gaudete Sunday celebrations. As we always end parties and dances with the seasonal anthem to Our Lady, this afternoon we will sing “Alma Redemptoris Mater”. I often forget the middle part, and some dancers might not know it at all, so here it is…
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Edinburgh Church of Jazz
On most Friday nights, jazz-lovers assemble at the Edinburgh Church of Jazz, which is what I call the Edinburgh Jazz and Jive Club. The club was founded in 2000 by musician Violet Milne and enthusiast Norrie Thomson. It moved to Heriot’s Rugby Football Club in the city’s Goldenacre district in 2007. There you can dance…