Burns night & Holly Holy day.

I've been spending more time recently dancing than calling apart from a wedding in June, a harvest festival in October and a couple of club nights. There are plenty of good dances to go to.

But I seem to be busy again.
Friday a repeat booking at Whitefield for their Burns night dinner & dance, so I dusted off my Scottish dances - they were so keen to get up and dance that I had to use some that emigrant Scots might have danced too. Not that I feel guilty about that - the only ceilidh I've been to in Scotland included English and Irish dances too.

The same weekend always finds me in Nantwich for the Sealed Knot Holly Holy Day
So on Saturday morning I was in the museum with the Forlorne Hope. They played and talked about their instruments. People are usually interested in hurdy gurdies, bagpipes (small - not the Scottish type), and crumhorns (that look like walking sticks).

I taught a few C17 dances between tunes.

That's 2 down 3 to go before my next Saturday off. Have you reserved a ticket for Feb 6th?

A second chance of a good night out.

Looking forward to calling again with the Black Cat Band  in aid of RNLI at Kelsall Community Centre on Feb 6th

Last years event filled the hall with keen dancers.Your chance to dance again to Black Cat's fine tunes and enjoy an excellent Cheshire Hotpot with luxury Apple Pie and Cream. (Vegetarian option available to order )
Bar and Raffle.

Tickets £15 from the committee (message me your email address and I'll pass it on).

"Fun for all ages"

An 85th birthday party where all the family got up and enjoyed the dancing

including the Birthday girl.

Bernard Cromarty supplied both the excellent music and the sound system, leaving me the easy bit of telling people what to do and enjoying watching them doing it.

Two bookings with the Black Cat Band

Chester Festival invited us again for their Family Ceilidh. I always enjoy this, and we thought it went well this year with plenty of dancers of all ages.
Then the following Saturday a wedding anniversary celebration. We were impressed by the way everyone joined in, and their expertise. Then in the break we found a reason for their musicality -  many of the guests sang for us. They were members Cheshire Chord - excellent.

The year so far

The third weekend in Jan brought a repeat booking for a Burns Night ceilidh at Whitefield with High Jinks, then another regular event, the Sealed Knot banquet as part of Holly Holy Day in Nantwich where I called Playford dances from the 17th century, with the old instruments of the Forlorn Hope band. We enjoyed the whole of Holly Holy Day - the Forlorn Hope performed in the museum in the morning, there was a battle re-enacted in the afternoon but we opted for a music session in a pub instead.
In April I enjoyed calling with a band  I'd not met before, Devils Fire.
And the usual club nights, dancing and calling.

That's the way to run a ceilidh

Although Kelsall is an inland village it has an RNLI fundraising group. And last night they held a Barn Dance. They'd started selling tickets well before Christmas and had persuaded various groups that it would make a good new year's social event. I put the event on various folkdance websites and newsgroups and advertised it at the dance clubs I attend.
The hall was packed, and quite a few of those present had danced before; the rest were either quick learners or excellent at faking. The sets were full for every dance and there was even a spontaneous Bouree when the band thought they were playing a warm-up tune after the supper break.
I was calling with the Black Cat band so three of us were within 2 miles of home and the rest quite near. A sensible choice  at this time of year, why risk a distant band with such excellent musicians on the doorstep. Actually it didn't snow till we were tucked up in bed.
After testing another hotpot recipe (excellent) we carried on dancing. Although a few left early the floor was still full well after 11 as the band played till their fingers dropped off and the dancers stripped the willow.

Seeing the new year in

I was with White Knuckle Ride at Croft for a NYE ceilidh. Dancing from 8 - midnight, so I needed to remember more dances than I thought I knew. It was a good evening, I think some of the dancers were tiring by midnight!