Jonny’s birthday reel

Ceilidh is a living tradition, with new dances and new tunes evolving all the time.

Here I’d like to share Ceilidh Cornwall’s new dance for the summer of 2023, to celebrate Jonny (who likes longways sets with arches) and those ceilidhers for whom OXO isn’t quite their cup of tea (perhaps due to more beer, or prosecco, than either OXO, bovril or tea!).

Formation: Longways sets, works well with 8 dancers but also fine with as many as will. Stand opposite your partner.

Music: 32 bar jigs or reels. Number of repeats at least equal to the number of couples in a set.

Bars 1 – 16 (A part):

Hold hands in lines.
Forward 4
Back 4
One line makes arches by lifting arms. Forward 4, under arches and swap sides 4.

Repeat above, but arches made by the other line.

Bars 17 – 32 (B part):

All join hands and make one large circle. Circle left for 8, right for 8. Back into original lines.

Top couple hold hands. Everyone else joins hands with partner and makes a tunnel of arches. Top couple gallop under arches to the bottom of the set. (8)

If there is time, everyone swing until time to start again. For fun, couples can swing as soon as the top couple have gone through their arch. (8)

Without calling from a stage it can be hard to see whether the top couple have reached the bottom of the set or not, if the set is very long. So best to encourage the top couple to move fast under the arches and call based on the beats, or whether it looks like dancers are mostly keeping up, or if there is chaos!

Reform into lines and hold hands in lines for the next time through the dance.

Would be lovely to know if you try this dance and enjoy it!