Scottish Country Line Dancing

New year, try new things

Last night I attended my first-ever Scottish Country Line Dancing class. (I was informed by one guy there that the country it designates as coming from the lowland, as opposed to highland dancing. Who knew?)

When I first saw the class listed on Meetup, I was intrigued. I like dancing, have Scottish heritage, and I’m a sucker for trying new things. In short, I was game.

I did forget that I don’t pick up on things all that quickly, but eh, minor detail.

I arrived at a church promptly at 7:30, and it’s already packed. I did not realize the following Scottish Country Line Dancing had in Philly. People were there of all ages. At least eight guys were wearing kilts. I had on a plaid shirt. This was going to be a fun evening.

The nice thing about Scottish Country Line Dancing, I quickly learned, is that you exchange partners all the time, so if you came in with someone (which I did not), it didn’t matter because you weren’t staying with them. We paired up quickly and learned some Scottish reels, which I wish I could remember the name of because they all were like “The White Cacade” or “Joie de Vivre.”

Scottish dancing is technically done in pairs, but you are in small groups. (We did a lot of eight couple songs.) The first song had us interweaving through people, which was entertaining. There was another one where we would be flung around the floor in a series of half-turns. So you would do these sets where the…