Burns Night Dinner Dance: The Dance

After we finished dinner at the Robert Burns Dinner Dance & Ceilidh Event last Saturday, the dancing began. The band was the excellent Cobblers Wax, a six piece band with fiddle, flute, accordion, keyboard, percussion, and caller. If you've never been to a folk or square dance, a caller is someone who riles up the crowd to get out and dance. More importantly, he guides the dancers by announcing the moves that go to the song. Our caller did a great job of getting people ready to dance, going over the moves, and then announcing the moves during the song so we could get them (mostly) right.

Calling all dancers!

The first dance was done in a group of four couples, which I don't remember that well. You may think I mean I don't remember the other couples, and you would be right. On the other hand, you may think I mean that I don't remember the name of the song/dance, and you would be right. Or you might think I don't remember the specific moves that we did in the dance. Again, you would be right. Odds are, whatever you thought I was referring to is a correct guess. Who doesn't love a multiple choice question where all the answers are right?

The next dance was called the Witch's Reel with five couples in a line. The head couple would sachet down the line and back, then everyone would cast down. The head couple makes an arch at the bottom of the line and the rest of the couples go through. Everyone joins hand except the head couple, making a horseshoe or U-shape. The top two men make an arch and the ladies go through followed by the men since everyone is holding hands. The second man spins around as the last to go through the arch. Then the top two ladies make an arch and the men go through with the ladies in tow. The second lady spins around and the set repeats with the new head couple sacheting down the line. Sound confusing? It was a little difficult to pick up but this video will show you the dance (except it has the ladies form the arch first!):



Our final dance before we had to head home involved three couples dancing together. After a set of moves, partners switch by shaking hands with the person across from you. The new couples promenade around the room in a random pattern. After a few bars of music, everyone forms new sets of threes with other couples and dance again. This goes on for a while, causing confusion for those not sharp enough or too inebriated. Also, the caller said it was very important to have three couples only, otherwise when partners switch you'd wind up with two guys dancing together. In my final set of three, somehow the two other guys wound up dancing with each other. I wish I could say that I wound up dancing with three ladies at once, but in truth I only had my proper partner. Two ladies became a couple. I'm not sure what went wrong. Still, it was a lot of fun, though I don't remember the name of that dance either.

We had to head home after that because our babysitters were only on duty till 10:30. Next year we will definitely arrange for later coverage.

From reports, the evening ended with drinking scotch and singing of Auld Lang Syne, written by that great poet of the Scottish race.

Happy Burns Night celebration to all!