Highland Dancing

Another thing I never knew until I started learning about Scotland is Highland dancing. Honestly, this dancing is so beautiful that whenever I look up youtube videos of it, I can never take my eyes off the dancers. What they wear is beautiful too. The girls wear a shirt with a tartan design and a vest. As you can see from the picture below, they also wear knee high socks. Also interesting, is they wear special shoes called ghilles. I have to admit, I jump around alot when nobody in my house is looking (and sometimes even when they are looking), so those shoes have caught my interest. I really want a pair, all my shoes are loose and hard to jump in, so most of the time I go barefoot, but then my mother complains that my feet are black. Ghilles would help me out when it comes to that, I mean they are made for jumping! Also, they would encourage me to dance more, which is good exercise. Maybe I'll get a pair at the highland games? I looked on amazon, but they didn't have size nine, which is ridiculous, thats like the average size in the USA.




This dance originated in the Gaelic highlands of Scotland, and is supposed to be danced to a bagpipe. Its a solo step dance, that evolved because of its popularity at highland games and other events. It has celtic roots, just like irish dancing, if you've ever heard of that. The difference between Irish dancing and highland dancing is huge though. Highland dancing is traditional, and Irish dancing is progressive. In addition, Highland dancers use their arms more, dance of the balls of their feet more, and bend their legs less than Irish dancers, or at least that is what I have observed.









Highland dancing is one of those dances that takes alot of stamina, I can tell from just watching them. The dancers make it look so easy, but I know that it must be difficult. It probably takes years to master, and its very technical. I tried to learn one on youtube (not a good place to learn anything, I know, but sometimes I forget that when I am excited). It was so hard!! I couldn't even bend my foot the right way, let alone dance with those straight legs they use. If by some chance my legs were somewhat straight, and by some miracle I moved my feet at the right time, I totally forgot about my arms. I have alot of respect for these dancers.

Well anyway, here are some good youtube videos about highland dancing. What do you think?

highland dancing at disney

sword dance

dancers at halkirk highland games

world champion trio

touch of tartan