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The Ceilidh
Last night, I went to my first ever Ceilidh (pronounced Kay-lee). It's an
evening of Scottish folk dancing, and it is quite possibly the most fun
I've ever had at a dance in my life.
It was held in Elphinstone Hall, the big hall used for everything big;
more than half was devoted to the dance floor and the other part was
tables and chairs. At the end of this big long hall stood "Itchy
Fingers", one of the many bands brought in for such events. They
consisted of two bag-pipers, bass guitar, fiddler, and guitarist. Wow
they were incredible and incredibly loud.
While it is *Scottish* folk dancing, they LOVE to have new people, foreign
people, anyone join in. They call all the dances before they play and
then once they get going most dances last around 5 or 10 minutes or longer
so you have plenty of time to pick it up.
So, from 9 PM until 1 AM I danced harder and longer than I ever had
before. I couldn't believe how fun it was....lines and circles and
couples of hundreds of people moving up and down and all around, circling
and stomping and switching and spinning in all kinds of crazy
directions...it was incredibly intoxicating. I managed to learn most of
the dances except anything that involved a waltz sort of movement, as I
kept stepping on my partners` toes, but I eventually got most of it.
Absolutely amazing. Everyone was sweating and everyone smelled and
*everyone* was smiling and laughing and having a wonderful time.
I think I need a kilt for the next one.
Chris
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