Did They Really Dance Like That?
Tell me this, how do we know how people danced in centuries past? Did someone take the time and trouble to record all the steps? Perhaps they used one of those big roll-out sheets with footsteps and arrows? Or are there vivid eye-witness accounts, documented by scribbling wallflowers at palace banquets?
Or maybe, just maybe, it's all guesswork.
I only ask these questions because The Zed family spent the afternoon at Nairn seafront, watching a series of battle re-enactments by the . Children, some of them pre-school, were recruited to play the part of Wallace's army and were given a free hand to assault the English forces with plastic swords and cardboard axes.
Then the Battle of Culloden was played out with the Society's own members playing both Jacobites and Redcoats. A somewhat under-rehearsed performance was saved by a wonderfully witty running commentary. The facts all seemed believable too. Apparently the Government forces had spent the eve of battle, resting in Nairn and celebrating the Duke of Cumberland's birthday with cheese and brandy.
No mention of dancing, though.
