OFF CAMPUS CORNER Scottish Country Dancing the Night Away in Cornwall, Vt.

Author: Rose Boyer

Walking past the community bulletin board in downtown Middlebury in late January, a sign caught my eye. "Scottish Country Dancing," it read, held at 7 p.m. at the Cornwall Town Hall that night. "Hmmm," I thought, and I tucked the idea in the back of my mind.

As nighttime approached, I decided to attend and began recruiting accompaniment. Only two brave girlfriends agreed to join me. "Scottish what?" was the most frequent reply to my invitation, followed by, "Probably not tonight."

Arriving at the Cornwall Town Hall slightly late, we chatted on our walk upstairs but immediately became silent as we stepped onto the dance floor. We were both the only students and the only ones not wearing some form of plaid. Every man in the room sported a traditional kilt and waist purse, many of the women wore plaid skirts or shirts and everybody sported special dancing slippers — everybody except for us, that is. We looked at each other in tennis shoes and raggedy sweaters and wondered silently whether we were in over our heads.

The crowd of friendly dancers, however, soon distracted us from our worries. They invited us into the dance formation, which reminded me somewhat of a contra dance. They went over the basic footwork again just for us. One man in plaid, John, told me about some Middlebury College students with whom he met hiking in the Adirondacks one day last winter. When he saw them again that evening, he brought them along to the town hall for some Scottish country dancing. It was interesting to learn that these dances had been happening for quite some time, and that we were not the first Middlebury kids to discover this dancing opportunity.

In fact, there is a society of Scottish country dancing. It is a branch of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society, which has its regional headquarters in the Montreal, Quebec, area and global headquarters in Edinburgh, Scotland. Groups meet in various areas of the Northeast from September through May to master Scottish country dance, Scotland's traditional ballroom dancing, which has been popular since the mid-1700s. Regular attendees concentrate on their techniques and prepare for upcoming dance programs, while others attend classes for the sheer fun of dancing.

The Cornwall group meets every first and third Friday of every month at the town hall. They are always very friendly and welcoming toward Middlebury students or any other new dancers. They only request that each dancer pitches in $2 to pay for the rented space. And, despite our initial misgivings, a kilt and slippers are not necessary.