I hope this website will both attract more tradition-minded Catholics to Mrs McLean’s Waltzing Party events in Edinburgh and encourage other Catholic married ladies to organize their own dances for their communities.
Mrs Dorothy McLean
Music and dance have a marked influence on not only the individual soul but the societies in which we live.
Married Catholics should organize social activities for the younger, unmarried faithful.
A few years ago one of our parish mothers and I agreed that it would be good to organize a ball for the Traditional Latin Mass-loving families scattered across Great Britain. This way the TLM young could meet each other in the company of their parents. My friend’s lively, pretty daughters, agreed. Unfortunately, I never worked out how it could be done without great expense, bother, and fuss.
Then an Austrian friend disclosed to me that he dreamed of taking a friends from our Edinburgh Catholic TLM community to dance lessons and then carry them off to Vienna’s waltzing season. I thought this was a splendid idea, but then COVID arrived, and any waltzes to speak of went underground.
By 2023 Vienna’s waltzes had come back upstairs, and I was set to attend one. After an impromptu dance lesson, I said aloud that it would be lovely to have an Edinburgh party in which our young people could learn to waltz. Our Austrian friend agreed, and some parents of teenagers agreed, too.
I was asked about it the next Sunday in front of a teenager, and when I explained to the young person what I had proposed, her face lit up like a spring dawn. So I rolled up my sleeves and wrote to various authorities, including the safeguarding officer, to book the parish hall. I did this as a private person, quite independent of our chaplains. To underscore the independence of the party, I wrote out invitations including 29 people, and I told the mothers of teenaged guests that they had to come, too.
Meanwhile, I wrote emails to those governing the parish hall, sent the application form to authority, paid the fee, bought drinks, made a cake, and noted that only a tiny remnant had yet sent RSVPs. I chalked this up to RSVPs being unusual for Generation Y, let alone Z.
However, on Sunday after the After-Mass Tea while the boys were stacking chairs to make room in the parish hall for a dance floor, my old friend Anxiety took me by the hand, gazed into my eyes with false compassion, and asked where all the girls were. We had 11 young men, but only five young ladies, and two mother-chaperones.
It was as I feared. Our TLM demographics–markedly more men than women–had defeated me. However, I managed to pull myself together and remember that God is in charge, so I went back into the hall, recruited the mother-chaperones’ as dancers, and we had our party. It began with Austrian Dancing Master bellowing “SILENCE!” at the top of his lungs, which made everybody giggle.
The box step…
There followed an hour outside our collective comfort zone as the long line of young men and the shorter line of women watched the Dancing Master’s steps and tried to replicate them. The first figure was the box step, which wasn’t so bad, and then we were asked to pair up and dance it together. And as I was dancing, I looked to the left at all my earnestly dancing guests, and Anxiety disappeared. I realized then that everything was fine, and I had nothing to worry about except putting my feet in the right place.
Half a dozen guests asked that there be another waltzing party, so I thought—despite the demographic problem, which I swore to solve if it killed me—the party was a success.
Since that first Sunday Waltz Party in February 2023, I have hosted 22 subsequent Waltz Parties and organized four ticketed dances. We have learned not only the waltz, but the Polonez, several Scottish ceilidh dances and swing-dances. The parties proved so popular—and energetic—that in January 2024 we moved out of the parish hall and into a larger hall down the street. Happily, the demographic problem has been sorting itself out, thanks to young ladies coming to the party from other parts of Scotland.
I hope this website will both attract more tradition-minded Catholics to Mrs McLean’s Waltzing Party events in Edinburgh and encourage other Catholic married ladies to organize their own social dances for their faith communities.
Meanwhile, I would like to stress that—as is quite obvious—music and dance have a marked influence on not only the individual soul but the societies in which we live. For that reason, I would invite potential hostesses (and their potential guests) to consider not resorting to the noisy “disco” party after introducing their guests to traditional social dancing.
Dorothy McLean
FAQs
How experienced do I need to be?
No experience needed! Just put on your best evening-wedding togs and come to Ravelston Terrace for the 2025 Michaelmas Dance! Of course, as this is a Traditional Catholic Dance where we want everyone to be comfortable, please combine glamour with modesty. Choose Audrey Style over Marilyn Style and all will be well.
Will the dance steps be called out?
There will be a short introduction to the waltz’s box step, and all the ceilidh dances will be called.
Can I meet any of my fellow guests beforehand?
Certainly! There will be dance workshops at The Dean on the first three Sundays in September from 2:30 PM – 5 PM, for everyone planning on coming to the Michaelmas Dance. We’ll have a short review of the English waltz and then instruction in an assortment of the ceilidh dances. Afterwards there will be time for refreshments, waltz and swing practice, and chat. We’ll be in the smaller room, but have a sneak peak at Dean Main Hall, where the Michaelmas Dance will be on September 27!
I have another question…
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