Personally I love ceilidhs, however I’m aware that many people don’t. I’ve been doing Scottish country dancing since I was 5. We did it at School when I was growing up (although as I was tall I often ended up being the man) so I generally know what I’m doing. I don’t have “the fear” of turning the wrong way and everything going wrong.
I don’t think there is any evening entertainment better than a good ceilidh. A bad ceilidh where the caller is vainly attempting to get people up while they attempt to hide under their table is horribly cringe worthy however.
So here is my quick start guide to a good ceilidh.
- Good caller
- Frequent breaks
- Have water available
- Be enthusiastic
- Keep it simple
This is key. It’s a wedding, there will be alcohol. Get a good patient caller who is happy to get everyone to walk through the dances before the music starts. This is so important. In my opinion the caller is by far the most important person of the band. Particularly if a lot of people aren’t used to ceilidh dancing
Scottish ceilidh dancing is tiring! People can’t keep going the whole time. If the breaks aren’t scheduled then the whole thing will lose it’s momentum and people will start sitting down and not joining in. Either that or they will all be knackered in the first half hour. At my wedding I interspersed the dances with the DJ which allowed people to have a break and a rest between the dances.
Dancing is very tiring and thirsty work. Particularly the energetic ceilidhing type. If you have jugs of water available at the bar then people will drink that. Trying to slake a thirst on beer is never a good plan.
You’re the bride. The queen. It’s your day. If you ask people to dance then they will dance. However be enthusiastic and bouncy and people will enjoy themselves and you won’t need to prod them for long. If you rope in your close relatives, ushers and bridesmaids then everyone else will follow.
Some ceilidh dances are far easier than others. If people are getting lost go back to the old favourites. The Dashing White Sargent, Strip the Willow and the Gay Gordons. They are popular for a reason.
Follow these simple steps and you should have a fantastic night! Have fun.
Good post.Is there anywhere we can go to learn the scottish ceilidh dances.
In Edinburgh Dance Base does classes where you can learn to ceilidh dance. They are quite reasonable and have drop in classes as well as bookable courses which are currently running on Wednesday.
How do you find having the u comment i follow badge on your website? do you find it leads to more interesting debate overall? I’m thinking of trying it on a few of my blogs but I’m not sure. On one side its a good way of attracting interest for articles and increasing the content on your website but on the other you could be inundated with moderating comments.
I’ve only had it for a short time myself. It definitely encourages debate – although you also get a lot of spam messages. They don’t take too long to go through however and most are caught by the spam filter. At the moment I am going to keep it.
I am very interested in learning these dances I am thankful to the info supplied here.
thanks for the above cool entry.