What an awesome weekend. I haven’t been able to dance much being on a secluded island and all. But this was perfect. We missed the Friday night social shopping for Saturday’s breakfast and brunch. But Saturday came and it was time to dance.
The guest instructor, Alan Twhigg, was great. He really had a way about him that made learning dances and technique quite easy. We had live music provided by the Humuhumunukunukuapua’a & Strathspey Society Band. They are a great band and have played for our Weekends for quite a few years now.
We danced until early Saturday afternoon. That gave us 3 or so hours to get ready for the Saturday evening ball, an evening filled with fancy dresses, kilts, beautiful foods, and lots of great Scottish dancing. I don’t think we got home until almost midnight, by which time every muscle and joint in my body was crying out for the soft cushy futon mattress. Oh what bliss.
This only lasted a few hours though. We were awake again bright and early to start the second day of activities. We had to be at the palladium at 7:30am, which meant showering, dressing, loading the car with coolers of food and bags of dancing gear, and leaving the house by 6:30am.
Sunday’s dance class was not as intense as Saturday’s, but it consisted of some great dances with beautiful and fun formations. For example, the first dance was a relatively short dance with pretty simple formations, but after each round, the entire set was rotated 1/4 way around clockwise ready to start again from your new position. It really made you think about your position in the set as well as the other dancers positions. It was a fun little dance to start with.
With the end of the classes came the end-of-the-weekend ceilidh. We arrived a little late due to the necessity to repair Mary’s brakes. Unfortunately, this meant missing out on some of the foods, but there was a giant pan of delicious meaty Fettucini Alfredo, which I am a sucker for. I wasn’t really prepared with any sort of act for the ceilidh, but I did bring Mary’s guitar as a backup plan. I ended up taking part in a silly hula skit with a few other dancers. This was not really sufficient though since it wasn’t really my skit. The band brought a nice little acoustic guitar that was nicer than what I had, so I borrowed theres and performed a very unpracticed song. Worked out well though. Just threw in some humor and all is forgiven.
Sadly the weekend came to an end. It was so wonderful meeting all the new visitors as well as the ones who have faithfully returned year after year from afar. It was a really good turnout with really good food, dancing, fun, entertainment and friends. I look forward to the workshop again next year.