[July 26 (2021) might be my last virtual ceilidh dance. We will not be dancing in August. We'll see for September.]
If you're not familiar with Scottish ceilidh dancing, here are videos of a couple sample dances. Remember, everything will be taught!
I've been doing various dance activities over "Zoom", including teaching my English Country Dance group every other week since May 2020 (and you're welcome to attend that too if you like, but I digress); the Zoom software is easy for you to install and to use; and I think I have a good sense as to what will work for ceilidh dances over Zoom.
A great many ceilidh dances, including about half of the ones you may know from the St Andrew's Charity Ball, are "couples round the room" dances (such as the Gay Gordons). All of these can be done by a couple or solo dancer in isolation, seeing other couples and receiving instructions (and music) over Zoom.
As with all of the kinds of social dance I do, you don't need to bring a partner! Most of the dances we will do will be couples-oriented, but it will work just fine for you to dance with an imaginary partner. I will have a real-life partner to help demonstrate. I will also give tips when appropriate for solo dance. Keeping track of just one imaginary dancer, especially one you are holding hands with, is quite easy. (Keeping track of seven imaginary dancers in a four-couple set is more difficult; we won't be doing those dances here.)
And the pressure is off, because no matter how badly you stumble, you won't be able to interfere with any other dancers except your partner! (And if your partner is imaginary, even they won't mind!) If you're shy, you can turn your video off at first, although I hope you'll turn it back on soon.
Please join my announcement mailing list on which I will be announcing the
Zoom coordinates! If you are signed in to google you can ask to join at
https://groups.google.com/g/ceilidh-dance
Or you can join by sending an e-mail message (with
any contents) to
ceilidh-dance+join@googlegroups.com
(In either case, follow the subsequent instructions to join the list,
and ask me if you have any difficulty.)
(Note: E-mail to that address doesn't go to anyone; it just triggers the
request to subscribe to the mailing list.)
You can unsubscribe at any time;
only I have permission to post to the list;
and I promise to post only a handful of messages per MONTH.
I need to know who's on the mailing list, in part to avoid the spectre of "Zoom-bombers". If I know you, please just sign up and I'll approve the subscription. If I don't know you, please do sign up, but also send me e-mail telling me who you are. If friends are interested in the dance, please give them this web page URL to read about it, and have them sign up themselves, and send me e-mail.
Any questions at all, please ask!
p.s. I should mention that I am not a certified Scottish dance teacher. But I've taught ceilidh dances to a fair number of people in a variety of situations.