Day 2 - continued

With mornings and evenings so crammed with dancing you would think the free afternoons would see us all heading for the hills to clear our heads of jigs and reels, however, although the joy of the  week is due to the chance to dance so much, so many of the evening dances are unfamiliar that the afternoon 'walk throughs' are a necessity for many of us and it's not surprising they are well attended. Along with the 'walk through's' other afternoon activities are available, usually of a Scottish, but not necessarily dancing, variety. We were recommended to attend the talk on Music in the RSCDS but we attended more out of loyalty than expectation of entertainment. We were surprised how many people chose to attend too, but we were all glad we did - the talk given by a former Musical Director of the society was absolutely fascinating, I wasn't just glad we'd gone I felt we'd been privileged to attend, and left with a new appreciation, bordering on awe, for these brilliant people, so necessary to dancing and so generally underappreciated. 
Once another huge 3 course meal was under our belts it was time to head down for the second evening dance of the week. Several unfamiliar dances had been hastily acquired in the walk through but despite our shaky knowledge we were encouraged to get up and dance by various other partners who could guide us through more confidently. The ballroom floor isn't really ideal for Scottish Dancing but even so the room is packed with set. Every dance is 'recapped' before you start which helps enormously with the inevitable blank moments that we all suffer from. After eating such a big meal you feel you can't dance a step, after the first dance you want to dance all night. The energy in the room is palpable and when, after a couple of energetic hours, the evening draws to an end it's hard for everyone to wind down... queue the Soiree; as wired as the rest of us the musicians migrate to the foyer where free coffee, tea etc is available and everyone settles down on the settees and easy chairs to the clink of tea spoons on china, to wind down and discuss the day... until the band plays a familiar ceilidh tune and the Military Two Step spontaneously erupts followed by a more sedated Pride of Erin walz and we finally drifted back to our room to give our feet some TLC before collapsing. 3 more days to go: wonderful!

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