Musings on Casual vs. "Dress up"

[crfriend]

I really fancy a charcoal or black kilt suit from 21st Century Kilts (or something similar) [...]

Now those are good looking rigs!!!! But, at 750+ Sterling (with exchange rate) they'd put a serious crater in my bank account. But, for a bespoke garment, the price looks quite reasonable.

I think I'd probably do without the waistcoat and compensate with a brightly coloured formal shirt open necked or with a cravat or a tie depending on how formal I wanted to be.

Nah, I'd want the waistcoat. I'm just that sort of bloke.

[Milfmog]

I'd want the waistcoat. I'm just that sort of bloke.

Now why does that not surprise me?

Have fun,


Ian.

PS Yes, they are expensive, but for the right occasion...

[AMM]

I just got back from the "Dance Flurry."

While doing some Contra dancing, I had sort of a mini-epiphany:

I was doing what we call "grid squares": where couples are in squares that are lined up, so the figures take you from one square to the next. I realized that each of us was really dancing, not primarily with our partners, but with everyone in the room. We were all turning, passing, swinging with one another, but also depending upon one another's help to get where we needed to go each 4 or 8 bars. And this is really the joy of all these types of dances (contra, Scottish, Irish set or ceilidh, etc.): that they demand that we act as a community.

The other sorts of "folk dancing" that I can think of -- Eastern European, etc. -- are generally done in lines or circles, so, again, there's a reinforcement of a sense of community. Even when done by 100-200 random strangers in a hotel ballroom at a festival, there's this "rush" from the sense of connection. At the very least, you are conscious of everyone in your line because wherever the line goes, that's where you're going, too.

I can't help thinking: a century or so ago, that's the way everybody danced -- as a community.

Then things got pared down to couple dances: in my parents' day, you danced with a partner, not interacting with the other couples, and it was even considered impolite to spend too much time looking at people other than your partner. The dances were far less scripted and the burden was on the "lead" (usually the man) to come up with things to make it interesting for his partner.

Then, by the time I came a long (the '70's), it was all individuals, doing whatever they felt like doing, and the focus was on each individual's relationship with The Music, not with each other. And on getting "high" on the music, which meant becoming oblivious to everything -- not just those around you, but yourself as well.

I don't know about anybody else, but I don't think this was an improvement.

[crfriend]

I just got back from the "Dance Flurry." [...]

I [or is that, "we"?] was doing what we call "grid squares": where couples are in squares that are lined up, so the figures take you from one square to the next. I realized that each of us was really dancing, not primarily with our partners, but with everyone in the room. We were all turning, passing, swinging with one another, but also depending upon one another's help to get where we needed to go each 4 or 8 bars. And this is really the joy of all these types of dances (contra, Scottish, Irish set or ceilidh, etc.): that they demand that we act as a community.

I seem to recall something vaguely familiar from my deep childhood past when I (under the care of my father and grandfather) ventured out to rural Iowa for summer holiday. I recall being taken to a town festival where there was square dancing, and since I knew most of the moves (thanks to "physical education" in my New England home-town), I participated in many of them. The sense of "connectedness", in retrospect, was profound; one felt as if one was actually part of a community, even though I, as an "outsider" could not have been. This is a feeling I viscerally miss.

Then, by the time I came a long (the '70's), it was all individuals, doing whatever they felt like doing, and the focus was on each individual's relationship with The Music, not with each other. And on getting "high" on the music, which meant becoming oblivious to everything -- not just those around you, but yourself as well.

I don't know about anybody else, but I don't think this was an improvement.

Nope. It's most certainly not an "improvement".

[SkirtDude]

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