I went to a ceilidh and didn't hurt anyone!

Last night I went to a ceilidh, and it was absolutely amazing. Before now, my previous experiences with dancing (other than freestyling it at my cousin’s wedding) were limited to compulsory square dance week in primary school PE class, and the Movement Styles for Singers class I took my second year at uni to learn useful baroque and renaissance dances for operas. Ergo I was rather nervous, because mostly what I learned from these experiences was that I am a terrible dancer and need things explained to me very slowly a lot of times.

Fortunately, my lovely friend Eleanor is very experienced at ceilidhs, and she nudged me and turned me and pulled me in all the proper directions so that I did not hurt myself or kick someone else in the face.

In case anyone doesn’t know (I didn’t), a ceilidh is a big social dance that is the funnest thing ever. The nearest thing I can approximate it to is square dancing – it’s not the same kind of dancing, but there is a band and someone who calls the dances.

The difference is that ceilidhs are awesome. No offense to hardcore square dancers, but you know how the cool people of America wouldn’t be caught dead at a square dance? Everyone wants to go to a ceilidh. The one we went to last night was sold out, and it was packed. With cool people.

The dancing is I think Scottish country dancing, and it’s simple enough at first when each dance starts but then it gets VERY FAST so I spent a great portion of the night frantically spinning around and jumping up and down and trying not to hurt anyone, whilst also trying to understand instructions shouted out over the band in a serious Scottish accent distorted by a microphone. I was screaming and laughing the whole time though, so I count it as a grand success. I can’t really describe it, so here is a video I swiped from the youtubes. It is not the ceilidh I went to, but it is in the same room, and I’m reasonably certain we did that same dance at some point.

I should also note the after effects of a ceilidh if you are as out of shape as me. I have NEVER done anything so physically demanding in my life. It lasted three hours, and this morning my whole body hurts. Also I have a dehydration headache, because I sweated out most of my body’s water content. *Seasonally appropriate movie reference alert* You know that scene in Hocus Pocus when the witches wind up on stage at the Halloween dance and they put a spell on everyone so they can’t stop dancing and Winifred screams, “Dance! Dance until you die!!!”? That’s kind of what it’s like.

That said, I had such a great time and I’m totally having a ceilidh at my wedding. Wear comfortable shoes.