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!

Dancing in the UK

We heard about a free Scottish folk dancing class being held fortnightly [editor's note: that's every two weeks for you American readers] and we decided to check it out this week.

I had emailed the instructor about a month ago but she had gone on holiday and wasn't able to reply till last week (I found out her email got messed up while she was gone, adding to the delay in getting back to me). I asked if it was okay to bring the children and she said yes. The only requirement for the class is that we want to have fun. Even zombies just want to have fun (brains are fun, right?), so we fit in nicely.

The main problem we had was finding our way into the gym where the class was. We parked on the wrong side of the building and were a little bit late. When we walked in, the only people there were the instructor and her dance partner! She greeted us warmly and introduced her partner. We introduced ourselves. She explained that they've had a big drop off over the summer and had been expecting a few other couples to show tonight. The cold and rainy day probably discouraged them. They were glad we made it.

We had a good time. Jacob and Lucy sat on some chairs and watched for a while. After Mommy and Daddy learned the first dance, Jacob took his turn learning from the instructor. He was able to follow her instructions pretty well though his footwork needs more polishing. He was very happy to join in (and very lucky that we didn't have a camera with us). Lucy skipped her afternoon nap and was unenthusiastic about dancing with instructors, Mommy, Daddy, Jacob, or anybody. We eventually pulled out the portable DVD player and let them watch Dora the Explorer while we learned a second and third dance.

The first dance was slow and relatively simple. The name of the footwork escapes me (as did the names of the other dances, sorry!!), though the song was St. Bernard's Waltz. Maybe the footwork is named after the song, I'll have to ask next time. Check out how it goes:



The second dance was more complicated and faster. We stopped for some water between that and the finale. Jacob and Lucy gave us puzzled looks as we both were about to leave them in the gym room by themselves with the instructors. I stayed behind to keep them from freaking out (Lucy was on little sleep, did I mention?). When they found out where we were going, they also wanted to drink from the water fountain. For a further distraction, Angie borrowed a volley ball from the gym's front desk. They played with that while we learned dance number three.

The partner had to leave early to get to his favorite fish and chips shop before it closed, so we chatted with the instructor for the last ten minutes or so. Getting to know her was nice and we look forward to the next class. Jacob said thank you to her, which thrilled us even more than her. He really did have a good time.

The ultimate proof that he liked it came later. During our bedtime routine, we say the Our Father and then thank God for something, usually something that happened that day. I let Jacob go first and he said, "Thank you God for a good life and...for dancing." It made me very happy. Maybe we won't get a babysitter for the next lesson! As long as Lucy gets some sleep.