Edinburgh: Dancing with David

Written by Sophia Green

I met David at our night of Ceilidh dancing in Edinburgh. He was in the typical Scottish dress of Kilt, dress sporran, and knee high socks. He joined our group, sat, and engaged in conversation with us. I asked about his involvement with the Ceilidh dancing and also asked him questions about where he was from. As for Ceilidh dancing, he expressed great joy about all the different dances within the style, and broke down some of the movements for us. He had great knowledge of Ceilidh which was understandable after he shared that since moving to Edinburgh over forty years ago, he’d been coming three or more times a week to Ceilidh dance.

As for his background, David shared that he was born in Boston, England, in a small reclusive town of 20,000 people. He is from a family of 5, who grew up, as all their neighbors did, getting around via bike instead of car. Every member in his family somehow ended up with 2 bikes per person, and they knew that they could close the garage when they counted 10 bikes. David studied at Knotting Ham for 3 years, and then Plymouth for his last year of study. Following university, he worked for 3 years before moving to Glasgow for some time before finally settling in Edinburgh 48 or so years ago. During our evening of dance, he paired with many members of our group, and he helped make sure we knew what we were doing enough to have fun Ceilidh dancing!