Author: Dorothy McLean
-
“The Fair Assembly”: Social Dancing in Edinburgh from 1705
The best general history of social dancing in Scotland I have found so far is called Oh, How We Danced: The History of Ballroom Dancing in Scotland by Elizabeth Casciani […]
-
The Tea Party, Etc.
The regular crowd at Mrs McLean’s Waltzing Party have been invited to a tea party on October 25, and I will be giving there a brief address on the subject […]
-
The Children’s Ceilidh
I’m excited to announce plans for a New Year’s Children’s Ceilidh for Parents who Love the Traditional Latin Mass (and Their Bairns). This will be in Edinburgh in mid-January 2026. […]
-
Welcoming
On Sunday I spied a new family coming into the parish hall for After-Mass Tea. Perhaps “new” is the wrong word to use, for members of this family have been […]
-
Theologians of Dance
Every once in a while, a blogger should pick up an actual book on his or her topic. A book (in case you’ve forgotten) is a pile of paper pages […]
-
A Village or the Parish
I have been musing over the role of dance in friendship and so turned again to Michael Platt’s astonishing and insightful 2009 essay “A Different Drummer.” Actually a thoughtful jeremiad […]
-
A Very Merry Michaelmas!
Happy Feast Day! It’s a beautiful day in Edinburgh, the sun having burned away the mist. There are crunchy yellow leaves huddled up in the corners of the streets, and […]
-
Carrot cake for Michaelmas
The Michaelmas Dance 2025 is tomorrow night, so I’m taking a short moment before writing out a final shopping list to reflect on traditions old and new. Deeply sunk in […]
-
May I have this dance?
We held our third and last pre-Michaelmas Dance workshop yesterday, and I was delighted with it. For one thing, we had 8 women (and girls) to 11 men (and boys), […]
-
La Maison de la Valse
This morning I am torn between admiration and despair, for I have seen some videos about the waltzing scene in Paris. A married couple called Charles and Hélène de Lauzun […]