Snow stopped the dancing tonight: a great evening of WALTZ and CONTRA spoiled (more by fear than by weather, actually: Michelle says it only takes three snowflakes to close all the schools in Virginia!). But I have happy memories of contra last time I was in the famous Glen Echo Spanish Ballroom where we had a great party with the band Hot Coffee ( they were really hot!) and with caller Kappy Laning (she was really Kappy!). My book I DANCE THEREFORE I AM contains great stories about contra dancing, and ways to make your dancing better and promote happiness. We hate NOODLES and BULLIES on the contra dance floor; and we like women who are light dancers and who do not kill our backs!  For how not to be a noodle or a bully, read my book!

Leaving Brooklyn for Richmond VA: different dance partners!

Manhattan taken from Brooklyn across the East River from where the ferry leaves.

Dancing recovery: pacing yourself

I had a wonderful New Year Hogmanay Party in Philadelphia (Germantown) with 100 other top Scottish dancers from all over the region. Music was led by my gifted composer friend and pianist Dave Wiesler, who played non-stop from 8.30 pm until 2.30 am and accepted all our requests for repeats. A musical marathon!  We enjoyed THE LAST DANCE OF THE OLD YEAR, had a break for snacks and Auld Lang Syne, and then started the FIRST DANCE OF THE NEW YEAR,  - the most wonderful Delaware Valley Hogmanay party. I am now back in Brooklyn with Michelle, Catherine Leila, Khaled and beautiful 3-week-old Emmy. Of course, after 5 hours of dancing every muscle in my body ached and so I have rested - back tomorrow Monday on the dance floor with the Scotia Dancers in New York.

 

Happy New Year to everyone for dancing and pleasure

Scottish fiddler Nicola Benedetti honoured

This New Year 2019 let us salute Ayrshire violinist Nicola Benedetti CBE, who is as good on the Scottish fiddle as she is on the classical violin. Nicola makes classical music modern and fun.

The New Year Honours List is a part of British tradition. It is probably harmless, possibly meaningless: if you know someone, they can recommend you. If not, nothing. Chance and favouritism are the two main motors for honours. Talent too, of course. While it rewards political hacks and wheeler-dealers, the New Year Honours List also allows lowly-but-worthy national servants of the police force, nursing, post office and many other professions to find recognition, as well as stars of music and dance, cricketers, footballers and television stars who regularly feature.

When someone as talented and as interesting as Nicola Benedetti becomes a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (which is higher than MBE or OBE, but not as high as a Dame DBE), it seems to make the honours system worthwhile.

Not only Celts have reverence for the Winter Solstice

 Dancers are naturally attracted to the Solstice. Celtic dancers are drawn to the Solstice even more strongly.

IN PRAISE OF THE WINTER SOLSTICE  by William Rivers Pitt

The kindergarten teachers I know each tell the same story: Roundabout the middle of December, all the kids who celebrate Christmas transform into voracious little three-foot monsters bereft of morality or self-control. All the behaviors parents worked so diligently to instill in them collapse under the long duress of waiting for Santa.

Alas, my own daughter fell victim to the phenomenon this year. It was a jarring revelation to watch my sweet, caring, sharing, loving little girl decompensate into this ruthless feral capitalist, a frothing cauldron of I want who sees herself as the only being in all of existence. Matters did not improve at school; as it turned out, putting 15 feral capitalists in a room where they could spend all day rubbing their I want woes together exacerbated the situation dramatically. My wife and I eventually got her past this crisis of materialism, but it was remarkable nonetheless. It was as if a virus got passed from kid to kid to kid until they were all infected with an insatiable lust for more stuff.

Neither of us blamed our daughter for her behavior. In retrospect, it was thoroughly unsurprising: Here is this wee child, possessed of a moral code still in formation, gripping the live wire of Maximum Capitalism that was engineered specifically for people in her age group.

The Roman Emperor Constantine co-opted a wide variety of ancient pagan holidays in the name of Christianity in order to cement his rule, and the winter solstice celebration was foremost among them.

Today is Christmas and the solstice has passed, but amid the consumerist Christmas that corporations are pushing upon us, we can still step back and reach for the spiritual renewal at the center of the ancient solstice holiday. The wonder of the turning Earth and the life-giving sun is still with us today. Christmas consumerism may have paved it over and smothered it in advertisements, but the solstice is still there, bright green and gold, waiting to be bathed in the coming dawn.

 *********************************

THIS BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN PIECE is extracted (with permission) from a longer article by Truthout senior editor William Rivers Pitt, called BEFORE CHRISTMAS THERE WAS THE SOLSTICE AND HOPE, published on Christmas Day 2018.  If you enjoyed his eloquent writing, please read more at https://truthout.org/articles/before-there-was-christmas-there-was-the-solstice-and-hope/

And please contribute to this source of independent, skeptical journalism.

Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas

NONSENCE JOKES for Christmas

1. What did Adam say the day before Christmas? It's Christmas, Eve!

This joke ignores the fact that the Garden of Eden story predates the Christmas story by around 3,700 years. Even if some pedantic Evangelical theologian wants to challenge this date estimate, surely no one doubts that the Old Testament predates the New Testament.

2. What falls at the North Pole without getting hurt? Snow.

This joke ignores global warming, which means that soon there will be no more snow and no more North Pole …. Just a ozoneless vacuous space around the planet formerly known as Earth.

3. What never eats at Christmas dinner? The turkey – it’s already stuffed.

This joke ignores the fact that our family is eating duck this Christmas, so there will be no turkey.

4. Where does Santa stay when he is on holiday? At a Ho-ho-ho-tel.

This joke ignores the fact that there has never, ever been any suggestion that Santa takes a holiday, nor is there any scientific research showing that Santa has a stammer or other speech impediment.

Music recommended for your Christmas music party

Let me tell you my top recommendation for the Christmas season would be to watch the wonderful Dutch musical impresario André Rieu making joyous music on YouTube. Rieu is such a great showman, such a great musician and so much fun!  You can start with his Christmas concert in London

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gO67YCECe4

Then go for some of his wonderful waltzes

 Then explore some videos of his “musical discoveries” like the three-year-old violist 

Akim Camara (a Malian boy) who plays solo with an orchestra and with delight, 

completely free of fear

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG5gS4Ry6RA

and Amira Willighagen the unbelievable opera singer from Netherlands aged 7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19zrp6r3S4o with orchestra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PJWRKkMpHM with pipes aged 12

Then finish off with André's Scottish suite in Australia playing Amazing Grace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHTdDf7DU6A

Can’t sleep? Listen to one of Rieu’s compilations of soft music for relaxation.

Waltzes are relaxing: a perfect end to your Christmas music party.

Watch Rieu's selection of YouTube music videos, and make your choice

Scotland is so beautiful: the perfect Skye sky!

Scotland is so beautiful.   Les beautés de l'Ecosse dépassent l'imagination.
Rainbow on Skye.           Arc-en-ciel sur l'Ile de Skye.
Thank you to my friend Pam Voss for this beautiful photo from Scotland.

My friend and dance teacher Moira Turner, who at this moment is running with her husband John, the champion Scottish fiddler, the Jink and Diddle fiddle school, found this piece of embroidered wisdom in a log cabin in North Carolina: "When you stumble, make it part of the dance."
That is true for dancing as it is true for life!
I often tell intermediate dancers that I make plenty of mistakes when I dance; but because I am very experienced, I am skillful in converting my stumbles into the dance. I remember one demonstration led by Moira in Richmond, where I made an error that even Moira did not notice. To err is human; covering up your stumbles elegantly demands real dancing skills!