Category: barn dance

barn dance, Carharrack, ceilidh, classes, community, dance instructions

Ceilidh class notes (21/11/23)

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Somewhat international this time, with a Danish dance mocking the Swedes and danced in Scotland, two American dances and an English barn dance, as well as one of my own.

Jonny’s Birthday Reel

We started the class with an easy longways set for as many as want to join in, one devised at a birthday party earlier this year for Jonny who liked dances with arches. Still not caught it one video, but you can read about it here.

Swedish Masquerade

This dance was a request at our last Rosevilles public ceilidh – so the band have learned the tune and ready to dance it on December 8th.

The Swedish Masquerade is a fairly common ceilidh dance in Scotland. It isn’t Scottish and it isn’t Swedish. It is purported to be Danish. A similar dance is danced across Scandinavia and in Germany.

The distinguishing characteristics of the Swedish Masquerade are the three sections – a 4/4/ march, a waltz and a polka (or hopsa). The walking section allows for some pantomime as the Danes make fun of the Swedes, with exaggerated proper dancing.

With 3 walking steps and turn, repeat, twice, to start with.
With 7 walking steps and turn, then back, to start with

This next video breaks the dance down into sections and has a fun variations with hands together as you balance (or pas de basque) away and together in the middle waltz section, and with a kick in the polka section. Despite what the presenter says the waltz section is not in 4/4 but is in 3/4 as a waltz should be!

Snowball

Since the winter has started to reach Cornwall I thought we’d do this wintery sounding English style barndance written by Martin Hodges. Snowball refers to the gradual increase in the number of the dancers with each 16 beats of the music. It’s a good one for early in a ceilidh to teach a few basic moves. With 5 couples in the dance it is a bit longer than many dances – you’ll need a 48 bar jig for this one.

Polka Dots

I enjoy dances that are a bit different. This one is excellent for not needing to have a partner at all – you dance as a group of 5 and you dance with everyone in the group. It is also great practice for a reel of three figure, or if you prefer you can do si do.

I found it in a book called ‘Barn Dance Hoedown’ by the Ring O’Bells band and haven’t found any videos of it yet. So, here is a summary of the dance:

Arrange yourselves like the dots on the 5 side of a dice: 4 people each standing in the corner of a square, one person standing in the middle.

Photo by Jonathan Petersson on Pexels.com

First half of the dance:

A1: The person in the middle initially faces the person nearest the band (with their back to the band), and then next with the person directly opposite (facing the band) – these three dancers form a line aligned up and down the dance hall from the band to the end of the room. The original dance involves these three dancing a reel of three together (see notes from the last class), but to make it simpler for beginners or dancers at a ceilidh, I suggest dancing a do si do with the first person, then turning and dancing do si do with the second person in this line. This takes 16 beats.

A2: After this, repeat this figure with the other two dancers (aligned across the dance hall). This takes another 16 beats.

Second half of the dance:

B1: The same dancer is still in the middle, and they again face the person who has their back to the band. With this person, set (jump right, jump left), then turn that person by a half turn using the right arm, so that they are in the middle and you take their place. This takes 8 beats.

This person then does the same with the next person around the formation – set then half turn to swap places. Another 8 beats.

B2: The third dancer now dances sets and half turns to swap places with the next person in the formation. 8 beats. And that fourth person does the same with the final fifth person. Final 8 beats.

The fifth person is now in the middle ready to start the dance again.

Sashay the Donut

This is one of my favourite first dances for a wedding, starting with the newly wed couple leading the dance. It is very similar to the first half of a Virginia Reel bent around in a circle formation – personally I think it is a dough ring rather than a doughnut. See what I mean here:

The dance is from this book of the same name, and is Anglo-American in origin.

What’s next? Some dates for your diaries

Our last class on the autumn term of ceilidh classes is tomorrow, Tuesday 5th December. Do join us – we’ll have a couple of new dances and some refreshers! Feel free to make requests.

Then, we have our Christmas-ish ceilidh on Friday 8th December with The Rosevilles Ceilidh Band. If you get your ticket at the class tomorrow, that is the cheapest way, otherwise, £5+fees on eventbrite or £7.50 on the door – whichever way it is excellent value for an evening of happy, upbeat music, fun dancing that everyone can join in with and an evening in a gathering of friendly folk. Hope to see you there.

We’re then taking a wee break over the holiday time, but back on Thursday 28th December for a free ceilidh workshop (19:30 – 21:00) at Carharrack Social Club, with some guest contributions of Cornish dancing alongside our other ceilidh-ish plans.

And, how fast time has flown, our next term will start on 9th January, and run fortnightly until the end of March. All welcome. No experience or partner needed! £5 per class or a bit cheaper if you block book.

Do pop these all in your diaries please – booking coming soon!

barn dance, Carharrack, ceilidh, classes, community, dance instructions

Ceilidh class notes (24/10/2023)

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This week we danced some ceilidh classics, getting ready for a flurry of ceilidhs in the run-up to Christmas, and because lovely couple H and S are looking forward to a ceilidh at their forthcoming wedding 🙂

So, a couple of classic English ceilidh dances, and a couple of classic Scottish ones. Plus, one extra for our almost-but-not-quite-Hallowe’en class:

Lucky Seven

Lucky Seven is a classic ceilidh dance that is an excellent mixer – a progressive dance where you dance with different partners each time through the dance. The origins of the dance seem a little unclear, with some sources describing it as Welsh, others as American-Danish, others Scottish (though I never encountered it living in Scotland) and others as English-style. It is so simple that it isn’t impossible that it has evolved from a variety of origins. As with so many ceilidh dances there are many variations of this dance (circling for different numbers of steps, other figures, turning partners, do si dos, etc etc), but they all have this grand chain and counting to seven.

The key thing here is to be able to count to seven (or however many the caller asks you to count to).

Slightly chaotic version!

Lucky Seven has a fragment of a ‘grand chain’ figure, a move that I really love because when it works well it really flows very nicely. In a grand chain you face your partner – shake or take their right hand and ‘pull’ them passed you, then give your left hand to the next person, pull them passed you, then right for the next person etc etc. Count your partner as person 1, then keep going until you reach person number 7 The key to making it work is knowing which direction to head around the circle when you start the grand chain – you start facing your partner, so if you are on the left of your pair then you will head anti-clockwise around the circle, right of your pair, then you head off clockwise. Person number 7 you spin instead of passing – so after spinning making you sure you end up on the left or right of your new partner, just as you were arranged before, back into the circle to start the dance again.

When it doesn’t quite work there is chaos! Usually this is because of either, instead of passing your partner or people in the circle you’ve done a complete turn and headed back the other direction, or you’ve ended up on the wrong side of your new partner after you had a spin, or perhaps after the quick spin you’ve forgotten whether the person on your right or left is your new partner and you turn to face the wrong person at the start of the grand chain. Easily done – the spin is a bit disorientating. Don’t worry about chaos – if you find yourself partner-less just head to the centre of the circle and you’ll find anyone else who is lost. If you are lost there must be at least one other person who is also lost.

Often, once you’ve got the dance a caller might change the number of people you pass on your grand chain, so you need to keep one ear open to the instructions from the caller.

Dashing White Sergeant

Extremely popular at ceilidhs in Scotland, the Dashing White Sergeant is actually inspired by Swedish circle dances. In this dance you stay with the same set of three people and progress around the room dancing with other threes, so you meet many of the people in the room.

Ceilidh style

Don’t be put off if other sets of 3 in a ceilidh do something a bit different than your set of 3. There are quite a few variations and flourishes. Variations in the dance are usually in the section danced in threes (the reeling section).

Scottish Country Dance style is more elegant, a two-handed turn and a reel of three or figure of eight move (where the dancers trace a shape on the floor). Sometimes you’ll see this figure of eight at ceilidhs also, but rarely the double handed turn.

Scottish Country Dance style

Reelers do their fancy turns and add claps in between setting and turning:

Reeling style

Witches’ Reel

In light of this being our class just before Hallowe’en it seemed important to include this one. A very easy longways set dance with a ‘thread the needle’ figure – see the video below for an illustration.

Gay Gordons

A couple / sequence dance classic at ceilidhs is the Gay Gordons. It is considered a traditional dance across multiple countries. This video below outlining the steps and the specific ‘Gay Gordons’ hold is very clear:

And here it is in action:

Oxo Reel

The OXO reel is an English ceilidh dance which is one I’ve picked up in recent years, and I really like the way it starts (so I have ‘borrowed’ that move for my dance Jonny’s birthday reel). OXO is the figure to remember here, and keep an eye out for where you are in the set to know what to do each time around: in a set of 6 couples he top and bottom 2 couples circle left for 8 then right for 8 and the middle couple make right- then left-hand stars. Where numbers of dancers can’t make a set of 6 couples callers may vary the instructions for the OXO bit. This dance is on the repertoire of many English ceilidhs so a very good one to know.

Glossary

Grand chain: In a grand chain, usually in a circle, half the dancers travel clockwise around the set and the others anti-clockwise, alternately taking right then left hands with the person in front of them and passing them on to the next person in the circle. Start facing your partner and take their right hand to start, then keep moving around the circle in the same direction. Here, below, is a very formal demonstration of a grand chain, from Scottish Country Dancing. It is a good illustration of the movement dancers make around the circle.

Grand chain demonstrated for Scottish Country Dancing

Progressive: A progressive dance is where you change partners at the end of each repeat of the dance.

Thread the needle: In a longways set, all join hands on the sides of the set and across the bottom of the set, then the person at the band end of one of the sides followed by the others dances through an arch made by 1st and 2nd people in the other line. Usually this is repeated – one line leads first (traditionally women) then the second line repeats.

This dance video starts with the ‘thread the needle’ move, in a dance of the same name:

Thread the needle
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Ceilidh class notes (10/10/23)

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The class this week was focussed on setting steps – or pas de basque.

Circassian Circle (non-progressive)

To warm up we danced a Circassian Circle Scottish ceilidh dance, setting to our partners and promenading around the circle. It is an easy dance, one we adapt to add in new figures or steps and it gets us warmed up.

Not to be confused by the Circassian Circle Scottish Country Dance which is entirely different!

How did two dances that appear very different get the same name? Originally the Circassian Circle was a dance of multiple parts – the Scottish Country Dance version was originally part 1, and the ceilidh version was part 2 or 3. The ceilidh version is now the most commonly seen. John & Karen Sweeney’s Contrafusion website discusses this quirk.

So popular – two circles – the caller says “all the posh folk into the inside”! Also, see this version from Edinburgh which is the same as the version we’ve done in class.

Circassian? What is Circassian about the Scottish dance? Not clear! Circassia was a small nation on the northeastern shore of the Black Sea, until 1864, after which time it was conquered and occupied by Russia. Most of the Circassians that survived were exiled and the Circassian diaspora is now spread around the world. Perhaps this explains why there are very similar folk dances in many different countries.

A very similar German dance (Fr̦hlicher Kreis РHappy Circle)

The Reel of the 51st Division

Whereas at last class we danced Strip the Willow, to practice spinning (it is all about spinning), this time we danced the Scottish Country Dance Reel of the 51st Division to practice setting – there is a lot of it in this dance.

The trickiest aspect of this dance is ‘corners’ (see glossary below)- after initially setting to each other (also see the glossary) the active couple casts to the bottom of the set and then moves to face their ‘first corner’, dances with them, then turns to face their ‘second corner’ and repeats the moves of the dance with them. When both the active dancers face their first corners (and then later their second corners) they form a diagonal line of dancers across the set.

Beats 1 – 12:

Beats 13 – 16:

A video makes this clearer:

Here, danced in the Scottish Country Dance style with 6 dancing in a set of 8. See also Robbie Shepherd’s explanation of the dance with annotations over the video.

The dance is most often done in a set of 4 pairs (or couples), but has been adapted for 3 pairs (one version here, and another here – the difference being where the active couple goes at the end of each time of the dance – see ‘dance notes’ on these links).

“In June 1940 after the fall of Dunkirk, over 180,000 British soldiers were left in France – including 10,000 soldiers of the 51st Highland Division captured on the Normandy coast after brutal fighting. Following their forced march to captivity deep within Germany, over the next five years the men plotted to survive and escape. To keep up moral, three officers devised a new Scottish country dance based on the insignia of the St Andrews Cross [the Scottish flag, the Saltire]. The reel quickly spread to other camps, and when the men tried to send details of the dance steps home on Red Cross cards to their families, their German captors were convinced they were trying to communicate in secret code. It was only when the men were released at the end of the war and reunited in Scotland with their wives, mothers, sisters and girlfriends could the whole dance be pieced together.” (BBC “Picture This” documentary description).

Britannia Two Step (progressive)

An easy three-person dance, quick to pick up, and a bit of light relief! Starting on the left foot!

Watch how some sets on each side of the room say ‘hi’ by joining hands at the start of the dance after heel toe and step to the left into the middle of the room, a sweet friendly touch.

Now we’ve master travelling steps, turns and setting, we’ll be all ready for The Dashing White Sergeant in our next class. Looking forward to dancing with you next time.

Glossary

Setting step, or pas de basque – used for dancing on the spot, or for only a small amount of ‘travelling’. To set means to dance a pas de basque in one direction and then the other.

Family tutorial, building up the pas de basque setting steps from walking to full speed.

Corners – In a longways set, to find your corner: your corner dancers are in the line facing you before you start the dance, never in the same line as you. Once positioned between the two lines standing back to back with your partner and facing the ‘other’ line from the one you belong to, your first corner is diagonally to your right and your second corner is diagonally to your left.

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Ceilidh class notes (26/09/23)

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Class 2 of our autumn term ceilidh classes involved spins and turns. There are so many ways to spin, swing and turn your partner in ceilidh-ish dancing, so we just looked at a few.

Strip the Willow (original) / Drops of Brandy

Strip the Willow is danced in a longways set and is all about spins!

To start the dance the active dancing couple use a two handed turn, sometimes called birling at the top of set and then repeat this whenever they are at the bottom or top of the set again (see videos below to see what I mean).

Cupping right elbows and holding left hands above. This gives stability for spinning at the top and bottom of the set. Note how right feet are closer together and the left feet are used to scoot around.

Crossed hands turn – a variation of the above, but not quite so stable, is to hold crossed arms – right hand in right hand, left hand in left hand, without the elbow grip. This is most common when just doing a single turn or not dancing fast. You’ll find this is often used in ceilidhs, and it particularly flows nicely into a promenade hold because you can keep holding hands and stand side by side and are conveniently in the right position to promenade (see Borrowdale Exchange and Glossary, below)

There are several options for the single handed turns used in the rest of the dance:

Shake-hand hold
Elbow grip (cupping right elbows) – this is my preference in Strip the Willow.

Here’s how this all looks put together in the Strip the Willow dance:

Strip the Willow – fairly polite version of ceilidh style, shows spinning holds reasonably well.

You can see the flow of the dancers and how the active dancers dance down and up along the lines of the set in this video:

Scottish Country Dance style, more than ceilidh – worth checking out the comments on this! Narrated by the late, great Robbie Shepherd. Key differences are the holds which in ceilidh are more ‘robust’ allowing you to go faster and in ceilidh generally we spin for 16 beats at the top and bottom of the set. The overall flow of the dance and figures are shown well in this video.

Commonly at a ceilidh the dance might end with an Orcadian Strip the Willow, essentially the second half of the normal Strip the Willow, danced in a very long longways set, and with top couples starting sequentially so that multiple couples will move down the set at the same time. At wedding and party ceilidhs the Orcadian Strip the Willow is our most requested dance.

Orcadian Strip the Willow, viewed from the end of the set

Borrowdale Exchange / Sextet Mixer

Our next dance to learn was Borrowdale Exchange. This dance has variations, and the one I taught has turns by the right hand with your partner, and left hand with your neighbour, to give us a chance to practice turns more. Most also involve a single turn or do-si-do.

Our version of Borrowdale Exchange with spins. This variation is also good if the dancers have had enough of ‘advance and retire’ moves in other dances! Note the crossed hold used for the promenade move as the dancers look for new sets.
Most common version of Borrowdale Exchange – advance and retire (in and out of the circle) instead of right and left hand turns.

The key move in Borrowdale Exchange is an unusual right hand star where you hold hands only with the person directly opposite you, and then separate out into couples with this new partner, then find a new set. The key to keeping to time we found is promptly reaching out to your opposite then counting to 8 for the right hand star before separating.

There are several ways to make right hand or left hand stars, sometimes also called teapots, wheels and right or left ‘hands across’. The types of hold vary between dance origin, in ceilidh most often People just pile their hands into a heap in the middle of the star and walk to turn the star or wheel. Sometimes all hold hands, sometimes dancers just hold hands with their opposite as in Borrowdale Exchange. Don’t worry about this, just be aware when dancing with others you might come across variations.

Pat-a-cake Polka (progressive version)

For a bit of light relief and an easy dance to learn, we ended on a couple/pair dance.

We dance it like this when dancing with the same partner throughout the dance, usually with ballroom hold at the end, but note the simple variations, just whatever you are most comfortable with is the way to dance it.
Here’s the progressive variation we used in class – replacing the ballroom hold step-hop at the end with a turn. Pick your favourite turn, but there isn’t long, about 4 beats before you have to be getting ready to move to your next partner. Also a nice video of similar at a wedding here

You’ll also find this called Heel Toe Polka, and lots of different spellings and variations of Pat-a-cake.

Nice variation: Heel Toe Polka

Fancy a flourish?

The Tulloch Turn is one of my favourite variations, suitable for any turn where you have a bit of time, such as the 16 beat turn at the start and end of Strip the Willow. It looks fancy and is fun! Unless both dancers know what to do then it can end up with some awkward fumbling at the start, in which case it is probably better to go for something simpler! A quick conflab before the start of Strip the Willow with your partner to decide on how to turn is a good idea.

The Tulloch turn is shown when the dancers are in the middle of the set (time: 0.16 – 0.20) – right arms behind backs, held with left hands, left hip to left hip.

Enjoy swings, spins and turns? Then take a look at John & Karen Sweeney’s Contra Fusion site to go down a rabbit-hole of 20 different ways to swing (and more), not including the ones we have covered! The Contra term ‘buzz-step’ referred to in these pages is closest to how we position feet in the two-hand turns to scoot around. But beware if you tend to want to learn all the details and could overwhelmed this is not something to worry about – the point of dancing is to have fun! Next time you’re at a ceilidh or barn dance look around – you’ll see lots of different swing and turning styles being used, especially by those who are experienced folk dancers. Ceilidh is very relaxed, all are welcome, with and without flourishes!

How to avoid getting dizzy

Eye contact is the key here: look into your partner’s eyes as you spin. This helps to keep a connection while dancing and it also reduces the dizziness factor.

Alternatives to spinning

Spinning isn’t for everyone! It is a bit tricky in Strip the Willow since it is almost entirely spinning, but in many dances where a spin, turn or swing is the normal way to do the dance you can substitute this with a gentler, slower turn just once around and back to place, or a Do-si-do. Do-si-do works particularly well, since it still involves you moving around you partner but there is no turning around, so you can’t get dizzy or feel unstable. You can also step-hop around in ballroom hold, as in most old time dances (e.g. Canadian Barn Dance).

Glossary

Ballroom hold – best illustrated with a photo:


Do-si-do – sometimes called back to back, or with various different spellings – dancers walk little clockwise circles around their partners, passing right shoulders first:

  • dancers advance and pass right shoulders,
  • without turning each dancer moves to the right passing in back of the other dancer. At this moment the partners face away from each other,
  • then moving backwards dancers pass left shoulders returning to starting position.
First time through is most likely do si do in ceilidh, second time is to the slower Strathspey tempo.

Sometimes you’ll see various arm crossing arrangements – they aren’t necessary.

See-saw – the same as do si do but danced the other way around, anticlockwise, passing left shoulders first. Not common in ceilidh dancing.

Promenade hold – Crossed arms in front, usually right hands above left hands. Walking/dancing side by side.

A very formal Scottish Country Dance explanation of promenade, the first bit shows clearly the position of your hands.

Strip the Willow – the action of alternatively turning your partner and the dancers in the line of a set is called ‘Strip the Willow’ and is a figure used in other dances too. The key rule to remember is that you turn your partner by your right arm and people in the line by your left arm.

Pat-a-cake – you may remember this from playground games, a sequence of 8 beats with accompanying claps (for example: right hands together, left hands together, knees, both hands together). Or you can improvise for 8 beats.

Progressive – a progressive dance means that there is a move at the end of every repeat that moves you on to dance with another partner.

barn dance, ceilidh, dance instructions, new dances

Jonny’s birthday reel

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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!