Ceilidh Dance Lessons - 2021
Ceilidh Dancercise is pleased to announce that we will be part of the New Celtic Arts Community in Truro who will officially be opening it's doors hopefully early in 2021 at the
St Johns Anglican Church Hall on Prince St, Truro.
There will be many classes on offer including Irish, Scottish Highland & of course, Ceilidh Dancing.
Scottish Ceilidh Dance Lessons
Make New Friends
Have Fun
Get Fit
& tone up
in our first session of 2021 we will be offering a special price of only $2 per lesson
First Lesson is Free - if you enjoy it,
come back for more.
Due to the covid-19 Pandemic please stay tuned for details of scheduled classes
Ceilidh Dancing
Dance - Dashing White Sergeant
Edinburgh Ceilidh Club. Dances include:-
Strip the Willow, Gay Gordons, Dashing White Sergeant &
Orcadian Strip the Willow
An Introduction to Scottish Ceilidh Dancing
Ceilidh Dancing = Dancing Reels & Jigs = Controlled Abandon!
Come and abandon yourself to dance. Feel free, get fit, loose weight, have fun and laugh.
There are no strict rules in our classes. Our dances will be shown in low and high impact where applicable. Once you have learned the basic steps you are free to perform them to your own level.
High impact tends to be a more formal style of the dance with appropriate footwork, ‘toe pointing’ and ‘jigs’.
If you attend classes regularly you should start to feel an improvement in your fitness level.
There is no requirement that you should obtain expert levels of dance skill. These classes are mainly to have fun, improve your body tone and fitness and hopefully meet some new friends into the bargain.
Every class is different and various dances will be learned throughout the course.
*Before participating in any fitness programme it is advisable to discuss the implications to your health that this may bring with your doctor. We encourage you to participate at a level that is comfortable for you.
1600’s – still going strong.
WHAT IS INCLUDED IN CLASS
Each week will have initial similar components before practicing and learning the actual dance in an aerobic style workout.
- Introductions………….........To welcome any new members and go over basic dance rules
- Warm up exercises……......To warm up your muscles and joints to prevent injury
- Basic Steps…………...…........Practiced every week, hopefully they will become second nature
- Basic Holds…………...............Basic hold positions that will be required for most dances will be practiced weekly
- Learning the Dance…….....New dances are learned on a weekly basis.
- Dance Reminders................We will go over previous dances each week as time permits and as per requests.
- Cool Down & Stretches.....To prevent muscle fatigue (no one wants to wake up to find they can’t walk!)
The class is structured to enable you to ‘catch up’ and learn the dances as they come around. Each dance will be practiced again throughout the season until everyone is comfortable with the steps.
If you make mistakes don’t worry, it is meant to be fun, and mistakes are sometimes what makes it fun.
Just stop and wait until the next section of the dance then join back in.
Some dances are extremely easy and some are more tricky to master. I don’t expect everyone to have the same skills and I am happy to go over steps until everyone present is happy.
I have been doing this since I was 4 years old and even I get it wrong sometimes.
Feel free to stop and chat at the end of the class. I am always interested in what you would like to learn.
Steps
The steps are fairly easy to learn,
can be low or high impact depending on how much energy you wish to put into it.
Some dances are more tricky to learn than others but our main aim is to have fun and learn a new skill.
People
Anyone young or old can participate. Come prepared to have fun.
You can bring a partner or borrow one of ours!
Under 16's must be accompanied by an adult.
Equipment
No special equipment is required.
Comfortable clothing and indoor sneakers or dance shoes.
Wear layers that you can take off as you get warmer.
If you want to wear a kilt - please do.
On the left is one version of the 'Strip the Willow' dance. You will note the fast speed and sometimes the ladies being hoisted up in the air. This is filmed in Scotland where most of the dancers have been dancing since they were small.
This version is called the 'Orcadian Strip the Willow'
The dances in the following video's listed below have lots of variations
I have tried to include those closest to what is taught at classes. Enjoy!
Canadian Barn Dance St Bernards Waltz Pride of Erin Waltz Circassian Circle
Highland Schottische Eightsome Reel Virginia Reel Strip the Willow
The Gay Gordons Dashing White Seargent Boston Two Step Witches Reel