I started my participation in things Highland with dance, at my graduate school, the University of California, Riverside, in 1986. Barbara Sirotnik was teaching a class through the Recreation Program, and my then-wife Deborah and I signed up. These two photographs (extremely rare—I saw to that) show me doing the Fling on the lawn of the quad at that institution.
Actually, I was pretty good, especially at the Sword Dance. My wife and I did a few performances as a duo. But alas, I didn’t have the bone structure for all that jumping: a scan showed that I was getting permanent shin-splints—tendons actually tearing away from the shinbones—and I had to give it up. I moved on to something a whole lot easier: caber tossing.
If you visit Highland Games for the athletics I’m here to tell you: the best athletes to be found at the Games are in the dance competitions.
For more about Highland Dance, as well as Heavy Events and Piping, at the Games, see Donaldson, Emily Ann, The Scottish Highland Games in America (1986) still available new and used at BookFinder and elsewhere.
Back to Scott Leslie’s Highlands Page
I started my participation in things Highland with dance, at my graduate school, the University of California, Riverside, in 1986. Barbara Sirotnik was teaching a class through the Recreation Program, and my then-wife Deborah and I signed up. These two photographs (extremely rare—I saw to that) show me doing the Fling on the lawn of the quad at that institution.
Actually, I was pretty good, especially at the Sword Dance. My wife and I did a few performances as a duo. But alas, I didn’t have the bone structure for all that jumping: a scan showed that I was getting permanent shin-splints—tendons actually tearing away from the shinbones—and I had to give it up. I moved on to something a whole lot easier: caber tossing.
If you visit Highland Games for the athletics I’m here to tell you: the best athletes to be found at the Games are in the dance competitions.
For more about Highland Dance, as well as Heavy Events and Piping, at the Games, see Donaldson, Emily Ann, The Scottish Highland Games in America (1986) still available new and used at BookFinder and elsewhere.
Back to Scott Leslie’s Highlands Page
