Jigs & Reels!

When she was five, my older girl fell in love with the music of Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser. She even taught herself how to use our home stereo so she could fill the house with some rollicking jigs and reels or cozy hearthside tunes. When she told me that Fraser's music made her feel like dancing, I said I was sure there were dances she could learn that were perfect for the music, and set to finding a way for us to learn.

As luck would have it, the nearest Scottish dancing class was nearly in our backyard! So for the past year and a half, our family's been going to the community church about a block away from our house every week for an evening full of Scottish music and dance, and the lively, friendly people who love it as much as we do.

The teacher, Mary, leads classes for children and adults and it's just beautiful watching her work with everyone, leading the dancers through knotlike steps and patterns with grace. My girl has taken to learning the dances with focus and seriousness, and has a great time mixing with the other children. It's wonderful to see her working hard at learning something tied to the music she already loves, and it's been great to get to know the variety of people of all ages in the class, so many of them role models for my growing girl.