Author: Dorothy McLean
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Traditional Catholic Culture in Poland, or My Trip
My favourite hobby is not dancing but learning Polish. This comes in handy when I visit Poland or small Polish visitors turn up at my door brandishing storybooks. It is also the royal road to traditional Polish culture, which is almost unimaginably rich, as well as intertwined with the Christian—predominantly Catholic—faith. Time travelling My best…
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Lively Night Out
Dr Peter Kwasniewski directed his readers to this interesting article in The European Conservative about the decline in continental night life. “The Death of the Night Out” blames poverty and fear among the normally club-aged generation for this. “Rising crime and mass migration mean that young people no longer feel safe on Western Europe’s streets,”…
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Planning the Michaelmas Dance
I have survived a series of misadventures—including spraining my poor knee—and now it is time to plan this year’s Michaelmas Dance! It will be on Saturday, September 27, 2025 from 7:30 PM until 11:00 PM at Edinburgh’s Dean Hall. Dean Hall is the former church on the corner of Ravelston Terrace and Dean Path. We…
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A June Dance Party
Pope Francis died on Easter Monday, the day I had two hours booked in the parish hall for a waltzing and ceilidh rehearsal. After various emails and phone calls with advisors, I postponed the event until June. However, as usual, I am having trouble engaging a waltzing tutor, so I asked a great swing-dance teaching…
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And the dance goes on!
Dear dancers, please pardon my silence. Mr McLean and I have decided that we must move from our lovely little upper villa to a home friendlier to wheelchairs, and so I have had no time for writing, let alone dancing. We have been looking at ground-floor flats and bungalows and even conventional houses, and when…
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On (not) dancing in Glasgow
Once again, I was reminded of Michael Platt’s essay about music and dancing: In all dancing, the dancers move to the same music; mere individuals are formed into a community. But there are so many ways of arranging a community — or not. In all dancing in the West, at least since the Renaissance, the…
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Three Days of Dancing
I try not to get distracted from my dancing goal, which is to make or secure safe spaces for traditional Catholics to dance. Reminding myself of this goal has saved me from many an impulse purchase or unwieldy plan (e.g. “Let’s all go to Vienna, take a waltzing class there, and then go to the…
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Homeschooler Prom 1
A friend of mine from way back published an eye-catching photo of her homeschooled daughter Faustina at an old-fashioned American prom, and I was intrigued. Part of the project of this website is to meet other organizers of traditional Catholic social dances, so Adele put me in touch with a woman involved with the Holy…
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Hop on in!
I was in Tesco during Easter Week and saw that coir doormats were on sale for £1.50 because they were stamped with Easter references. Tesco clearly doesn’t know that Easter lasts 50 days, and I was glad to scoop up the seasonal bargain. We needed a doormat and “Hop on in!” is a lovely message…
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The Eastertide Dance 2025
The Stoics underscore grasping what you can and cannot control. Among the few things we directly control are our reactions to things beyond our control. Thus, on Friday when I got an unexpected text message that my ride to the Eastertide Dance would be delayed because of dance business of which I remembered nothing, I…