Sunday, May 29, 2011

Ceili

The word "ceili" is Gaelic for "dance" and going to a ceili is one of the best parts about the kids playing Irish music. There is a monthly ceili in a shore town not too far from us and we try to attend as often as possible which means whenever we don't have anything else interferring.

The people there are very friendly and don't mind if you are not the best dancer in the world or are just trying to learn. They always welcome the kids and everyone dances with everyone else so no one feels left out. Haley and Dylan sometimes dance and sometimes play with the band. They always play during the rest periods for the dancers.

Last night we went to the May Ceili. The man who runs the dances...and calls them for those of us who are relative beginners...had some family there including his granddaughter who we'd met once before. She is almost 8yo and a good little Irish dancer. She and Haley hit it off whenever they see each other and being the only people their size tend to have a lot of fun dancing together. During breaks, Brenna and Francesca, the girl who dances for the kids at some of their gigs, danced to Haley and Dylan's playing.

I only had my small camera so just shot some pictures and this one little video which is really cute with the girls trying to learn a dance...


Here are some of the pics I took of the evening...
Haley and Brenna stop long enough to pose.

Dancing the Military Two Step with Ed.

Francesca, Haley, and Brenna

Haley and Brenna dancing.

Haley, Dylan, and Brenna ready to dance the Haymaker's Jig. (a favorite!)

The is the best I can do for a shot of Dylan...the rest have his hands on his face.

2 comments:

Linda said...

It's so interesting reading back through your blog! Nice to see that your daughter has teamed up with a clarsach (celtic harp) player. My daughter is Suzuki violin trained, and also studies clarsach.
The Scottish Gaelic spelling for dance is 'ceilidh', tho 'ceili' is how is sounds. Is 'ceili' the Irish Gaelic variant?

ptmom said...

Yes, ceili is how it is spelled by the Irish. Thanks for reading. I love the photos in your blogs.