I have heard for a long time from friends of the way 'folk dance club' members look down on ceilidh-goers, but have had no experience of this myself until last night. I rang for tickets for an event that was advertised (wrongly) as a ceilidh. I was told from the other end of the phone in no uncertain terms that this was a "folk dance" and "certainly not a baaaaarrrrrn dance" (not a term I had used, and imagine this said with absolute maximum disdain), that everyone there will know what they're doing and that, if I am a ceilidh dancer, I couldn't possibly know how to dance properly so don't bother turning up.

This raises a few questions for me:
1. Why this attitude (that I had been told about but never experienced myself)? Where does it come from?
2. The folk scene is small enough. Why does anyone think we need internecene warfare?
3. What an attitude like that, surely the only expectation is that 'folk dance clubs' will die out? Only the initiated are allowed in, and no newcomers are allowed to become initiates!

Thoughts, please.

Ian