Welcome
I love ceilidh dancing. I may be a little biased.
I’ve spent a lot of time dancing, teaching dances and standing behind a microphone watching other people dance. But one of the things that has always intrigued me is that I can’t spot a ‘ceilidh type’. I couldn’t look at a group of people and tell you who would give it a go, who would love it, or who would still be dancing years later.
We spend a lot of our lives in our own little social bubbles, mixing with people a bit like ourselves. On a ceilidh dance floor, I see all sorts of people dancing together. And that made me curious. What brought them there? What made them stay? And what did dancing mean to them?
So I asked.
The people in these pages have all found their way to ceilidh dancing. Some have danced for much of their lives, some have returned to it after many years, and some are only just discovering it. Their experiences are their own, but as I listened to their stories, familiar threads began to appear.
Rather than me telling you why ceilidh dancing matters, I wanted the people on the dance floor to tell you themselves.
These are their stories.
I hope that somewhere in these pages you find a story that makes you smile, one that feels familiar or touches your heart – or perhaps one that makes you think, “I might enjoy that too.”
So, why do we dance?
To read or download the whole collection you can flick through it here, download it as a pdf, or click on the images below to take you to each story individually (stories are 1, 2 or 3 pages long – the links take you to page one of each story, do look on the next page for more).
Kate
Thank you to all 19 people who contributed their stories, to share their ceilidh thoughts and to celebrate our wonderful Ceilidh Cornwall community and European Folk Day.
Inspired? Fancy joining us? Find out more.
Today we face challenges that we can only respond to by coming together. The fourth European Folk Day will take place on Wednesday, 23rd September 2026. From grassroots communities to national organisations, and from individual musicians to companies involved in traditional arts at any level, anyone can get involved. There are millions of us who work, create and actively participate in this fundamental element of our culture. It’s time to celebrate that! European Folk Day highlights the value of the traditional arts, a milestone for everyone in the world of folk music to show that we can come together and that we are an essential part of Europe’s rich cultural spectrum. The traditional arts are an essential element of European cultural identity and diversity. They are a source of wealth of a magnitude we can only begin to imagine.
