From: Wooster Reports (Fall 2000) By Lisa Watts, Senior Writer

Things are hopping upstairs in the dance studio in Wishart Hall. It's a Tuesday afternoon and the College's Scottish Highland Dancers are preparing for a home football game on Saturday. Twelve women, their faces growing red, spring repeatedly from their toes in time to music as they warm up their well-defined calf muscles.

The dancers who accompany the Scot Marching Band out onto the field at John Papp Stadium feel more first-string than second-fiddle, they say. When the bagpipers begin to play at half-time, the stands grow silent, the dancers say. "Everybody gets real excited about watching our dancing," says Elizabeth Weissenborn '02. Some say that a six-step highlandfling requires the same amount of energy as a quarter of a football game."It takes a lot of endurance, it's very aerobic dancing," says Weissenborn.

Scottish dancing requires technique as well as strength. The student dancers are led by Amy Johnson '01, a studio art major with a minor in mathematics. Johnson has been performing and competing in Scottish highland dancing since she was a young girl in Sacramento, Calif. Johnson came to Wooster on a Scottish Arts Scholarship so she could continue to dance. She since has earned a certificate from the official Scottish governing board to teach the highland dance steps.

With all the vertical hopping, highland dancing looks like a cousin of Irish stepdancing. But where Irish dancers hold their arms by their sides and their knees facing front, Scottish dancers use their arms in graceful, overhead flings and turn their knees out, "more ballet-like," notes Johnson.

The dancers know that the chance to learn and perform Scottish dancing is an experience unique to Wooster. After football season, a handful of the most accomplished dancers are selected to tour over spring break with the Scot Symphonic Band.

Even those not inclined to things Scottish find themselves drawn to the tradition at Wooster. "I'm Irish," laughs Johnson. "There's just something that calls you to Scottish dancing." "When I first got here, I thought bagpipes were sort of dumb," admits dancer Cori Philips '03. "Then you fall in love with it all."