Oh, and for those of you who have no idea what I am on about, ceilidh is googleable!
So yeah, as the Highland Annual or Dannsa Bliadhnail (Edinburgh's biggest ceilidh, organised by the university's very own Comann Ceilteach and which I, funnily enough given my love for such events, have never been to before) is drawing near, I thought I'd devote two blog posts to this phenomenon.
After almost six years of experience I would say I've become fairly confident about the whole ceilidh thing. I was going to say that I'm the best ceilidh dancer from Finland but that might be pushing it a little, so I'll stick to saying I'm the best ceilidh dancer from Jakobstad as I think that's 100% certain!
Through a lot of trial and error during these years, I have also realised that having the best time possible at a ceilidh really is a skill that takes some practise. That's why I've compiled ten rules that might be helpful for anyone who is going to the Highland Annual, or any other big ceilidh, in the future. The first few are mainly applicable to females.
[Warning: as the title says, no details are omitted here!]
1. Skip the heels
Really: high-heeled shoes are among the most unnecesarry things you could ever bring to a ceilidh. I know that some girls seem to master the skill of stripping the willow in heels, but I certainly don't and most of the time you'll end up taking them off at some point and dancing without shoes can actually be as dangerous as dancing in high heels - that's how I sprained my knee in 2011 and that knee still bothers me from time to time, so surely not recommended! An option if you definitely need to wear heels is to bring flats with you for the dancing but then you'll just end up changing shoes every 5 minutes and who wants to waste their time doing that at a ceilidh?! No, comfortable flats only is the best option!
2. Wear a skirt.
Or a dress. Ceilidh-ing in jeans will make you terribly sweaty/hot/boiling (your legs will basically feel like they're gasping for air) so dress/skirt is definitely a better option. I'm sure the guys prefer feeling the breeze as well, hehehehe (yup, that had to come in at some point...).
3. Wear a good bra!
Very important! Strapless bras have a tendency to end up somewhere around your waist, especially at the beginning of the night. It usually gets better after a while when you've started sweating a bit and things start to, ehm, cling a bit more but I'd avoid strapless stuff if possible!
4. Dance with a pro
If you don't know the dances, look out for that dashing young (or older!) man (or woman!) who seems like they've never done anything else in their life. The dances aren't hard at all and through dancing with someone who knows what they're doing you'll learn in no time. Because let's face it, ceilidhs are only properly fun when you know the dances. I went to a "postgraduate and mature students' ceilidh" during freshers' week in September where exactly no-one but me knew the dances and it was just chaotic (and for an impatient self-proclaimed ceilidh-expert like myself, in all honesty, a bit infuriating).
5. Don't be afraid to ask strangers to dance
On a similar note, if none of your friends/the people you know are available and you really want to dance, just go and ask someone you don't know (because there's nothing worse than standing there watching the others skip about merrily when you don't want anything else than being on that floor yourself). They usually won't say no, unless they belong to that minority who "don't dance", but then you can ask yourself why they are at this event in the first place.
[End of part 1 - part 2 coming soon!]
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