An Invitation to the Dance
Suas e!
April 9, 2021
Host: Margie Beaton
Guests: Margie MacInnis, Dale Gillis, Mary Janet MacDonald
Community square dancing was the topic of the fourth session of Air Chéilidh: The Gaelic Narrative Project, Host Margie Beaton welcomed step-dancer Mary Janet MacDonald, square dance organizer, Margie MacInnis and dance supporter and enthusiast, Dale Gillis.
What we heard
Square dancing in community halls goes back almost 100 years in Cape Breton. The dance has its origin in quadrilles, which were adapted in Cape Breton to include intricate footwork of step dancing. Tunes played include jigs and reels, with each area on the island having different variations on the set.
Mary Janet MacDonald remembered it cost 25 cents to get into dances when she started going as a teenager. Her first set was with none other than Buddy MacMaster, the well-known fiddler. "You learned from the other people in the set," she recalled. "All the men were on one side of the hall, and the women were on the other. The ladies wore dresses or skirts, there were no pants that I remember—this is from my teenage years. The men always had liquor out in the cars, there was no bar. Whoever asked you for a square set and then came back and asked you for the last set, they were asking you home. And there would be a fight! They would be fighting outside and everyone would rush outside and come back in."
Dancers at that time adhered to a more strict pattern of dance, only four couples in a set was the rule, which was broken decades later. Now sets can have many more couples and are less formal, so it is more inclusive. "Something was lost and something was gained," Mary Janet said.
It was decades later that Dale Gillis danced his first square set in West Mabou Hall in 1988 or '89. So faithful a supporter of fiddle music and dance is he that a port-a-beul (Gaelic dance tune) was composed for him on a recent birthday.
He said it is the joy of the dance and the people that keeps him coming back. "A square dance is happy music," he said. "It's got drive to it. I don't always see that in other places."
One of the happy places for a dance is West Mabou Hall, where the dances began in 1988. Margie MacInnis credits her late husband Jimmy for beginning and keeping the dances going long beyond his goal to raise money for a ball team. Margie read a poem she wrote for the dances, after Jimmy died suddenly in 2016.
Two lines in the poem speak to the intergenerational aspect of the dance that was important to Jimmy: "People of all ages dancing together, he observed; leading to our culture and traditions being preserved."
Host Margie Beaton recalled the joyful dancing and music that happened spontaneously in the hall following Jimmy's funeral.
"So all the musicians started to gather and the tunes went full speed as you would play at a dance, said Margie Beaton. "It wasn't in a mournful way, but a celebratory way. And then the dancing started and people got up to dance." And it was incredible to see people like Trevor, his nephew, and Peter, his son, getting up to dance and coming back on 'er on such a sorrowful day but in such a beautiful celebration."
"Yes it was nice," replied Margie MacInnis.
Margie Beaton also recalled the stories that were told after the dance in Glencoe the night Buddy MacMaster died. Buddy was a fiddling icon and Glencoe his regular venue for decades, so it was poignant that a group of people spent hours in the Glencoe parking lot after the dance, telling stories about him and other fiddlers who had passed away. "I ended up with bronchitis, but I'd do it again," joked Margie Beaton.
"The stories did seem to be endless," said Dale. "Much like the music, people were feeding off one another that night. A musician will feed off the dancers and dancers will feed off the musician, and the stories, people were feeding off one another on the stories that night."
What stood out for you in the conversation you just heard? What moved you?
Talking about Margie's journals of the dances reminded me that I used to keep a journal back in the late 1990's-early 2000's. I just looked at a couple, and I can see who was playing, who I danced with, and even the silliest details like the floor being sticky at Scotsville one night.
I learned there is no generation gap at Cape Breton dances! That is a precious and special thing that should be cherished.
Dale was so right about the happiness effect at the dances, the music, the community.
How connected the music, dance and Gaelic language are and how good that feels in my heart, to be part of a deep, beautiful, integrated culture.
He drove all the way from Boston for the West Mabou dance, stayed at his aunt's overnight and drove right back that same weekend. He told me he had a grind of a week and just needed a good dance.
I love how the floor in West Mabou has that give and how you can feel it. You learn where the best spots in the hall are to dance!
Something lost and something gained—great way to capture the difference between the "old sets" and those we dance today.
Even seeing a dancer elsewhere makes you smile in recognition and a nod across a grocery aisle or passing on the street.
Hearing about the stories for Buddy after the dance, sounded like a lovely tribute to the man.
For me it’s the sound of the fiddle as you are walking up to the dance when you first get out of the car. The anticipation of the dance.
Gratitude, Connection, Joy
Themes and quotes from our small group conversations. Read more.
Conversations left me feeling grateful! Can't wait to get back to the dances—such connection, joy, story, Gàidhlig, song ... and more.
This has been so wonderful tonight! Just thinking about the wonderful spirit in the halls and the great times with friends and family and the music with the floor bouncing. Drive 'er!
What a fantastic lift to the spirit!
I'm going to be grinning all night now!
Thanks for keeping the Gaelic and Highland traditions going!
This was amazing . . . thank you to all of you!!!! A lot more freedom of expression in step dancing. The music is like the glove and the dance the fingers.
Tha mi air bhioran airson an ath-sheachdain (I am looking forward to next week.)
Thank you for this wonderful conversation, it will help keep us going until we can be together again on the dance floor.