Peregrinator Mark: "Waltzing" on West Sands

Jack Vattriano

"Singing Butler"

There seems to be a ball every other week or so when students wear fancy dresses and tuxedos or kilts, but these dinners and dances can be quite expensive. The cheaper ones tend to be around £30, but the more expensive ones include lots of alcohol. These balls remind me of 'formals' and 'informals' back at Mississippi College. For formals we would usually drive three to five hours away from Jackson to Memphis, Birmingham, New Orleans, Mobile, or even Destin where we would spend a couple nights with everyone else in the 'service club' (aka- fraternity). Unlike St Andrews' balls, everyone had a 'date' when they went to these formals; guys and girls wouldn't show up and hope to find someone to dance with while there. The 'date' wasn't a true date because there was rarely any romantic intentions (at least not with both the guy and girl- maybe one side had a romantic interest). Instead, the 'date' was usually a friend who couldn't say no because everyone had to find a date, and people would often go to informal with someone one night and then a formal with someone else the next night. Though they weren't 'dates,' they were nice because no one had to be a 'wallflower' hoping someone would dance with them. There was a lot of ritual and tradition wrapped up into these formals. For instance, everyone had to buy a 'happy' (a small gift for a friend- traditionally for Mississippi/Deep South and not anywhere else in the States) for their 'date.'

In St Andrews, no one would have a 'date' at a ball unless he or she had a girlfriend or boyfriend. That seems so odd to me because I don't see the point in going to a ball without a date. I would just hang out with all my friends, which is what we do anyways. However, with the ball I'd have to spend a lot of money to get in. If we want to dance, we could go somewhere else for a lot cheaper. Therefore, I never had a serious interest in going to a ball here.

There was another option at St Andrews for those who didn't want to go to a ball: Waltzing on West Sands. Since Jack Vattriano is from Fife and not far from St Andrews, students have organized a 'waltz' in order to mimic his famous painting, "Singing Butler" (pictured above). It's free, so I thought I would enjoy this event a lot more than an expensive ball. The facebook group had thousands of confirmed guests, and the police almost shut down the event because they were worried about what would happen if a 1000+ drunken students built bonfires and danced all over the beach. They legally couldn't stop us because there was no law prohibiting this activity.

When I arrived to West Sands, I was very disappointed. There might have been 300 people there, but there was absolutely no dancing. There were some bagpipers who would occasionally play if prodded, but they seemed to be more interested in drinking than playing. Other than these sporadic bagpipers, there was no music. Instead, there was a lot of bonfires and drinking, which isn't very unusual or special for St Andrews. Moreover, there were mostly undergraduates, and I'd rather spend time with my postgraduate friends. I did waltz with one friend after we asked a bagpiper to play something (waltzing to bagpipes is a different experience), and a bunch of people I don't know started taking pictures of us because we were the only two actually dancing at the event (except for a quick ceilidh earlier). For some reason I thought the event would have been a huge waltz, but I could organize a true waltz with friends another night. I'd say there's a 50-50 chance that will actually happen.