A lot of people don’t know what their teachers do during their free time. For art teacher Sarah McKee, her main hobby is an activity a lot of people don’t know about: Scottish dancing.

“Scottish dancing is an ethnic form of dancing that is particular to Scotland,” McKee said. “It’s kind of like ballet but you jump and move a lot, and a lot of the dances are derived from different parts of the country.”

Even from a young age, McKee was very competitive, and brought that into her Scottish dancing.

“When I was younger I was very competitive, so I did competitive Scottish dancing,” McKee said. “I reached what they consider the ‘professional level’ so I did that for most of my career.”

McKee’s main influence to get into the hobby was her family, especially her dad’s side.

“It was a family thing. My dad started the bagpipe band in Kansas City, and then everyone on my dad’s side of the family was involved in Scottish pipes,” McKee said. “I just grew up with it, and I thought that was normal to do, so I signed up when I was five and kept doing it ever since.”

To this day, McKee is still passionate about her hobby.

“It’s what I do in most of my free time,” McKee said. “I still also play snare drum with the bagpipe band, but I’m a lot more interested in dancing. I teach and perform on a pretty regular basis.”