Garden Walk Ceilidh starting at 5pm!

Edmund Croft of number 13 volunteered to organise a ceilidh this year.

The dancing fun will start at 5pm.

I asked him how he got into this type of dance. 

For those who are interested this was his reply:

"I went to a couple of ceilidhs when I was in primary school (at Morley at the south end of Cambridge, as it happens), but after that I only danced again at university. I'm half Scottish and thought I ought to try Scottish country dancing. I really enjoyed it, and soon someone told me that there was an English country dancing group on another night of the week. It didn't take very long for me to get recruited into all the folk dance that was going.

I've recently escaped from five years running the university Scottish group, but still teach there, as well as calling for some of the ceilidhs and weekly meetings of the English group.

I also do molly dancing (Cambridge's version of morris), which is why in several previous years I have cycled back through the street party in bright colours with a green face - it's normally the day of the St Neot's folk festival!

A ceilidh is a celtic dance party with a caller (and if you come to some of our larger events, live music). Anyone can do it - the caller explains how each dance goes, then calls the moves as they happen. You don't need to bring a partner - it's normal to ask a different person to dance each dance (but I won't mind if you choose just to dance with your significant other, as long as we're not always leaving people out who want to have a go). You don't need special clothes (though to avoid twisted ankles and partners' bruised toes, I would advise against high heels), but if you happen to have something tartan, feel free to wear it. If you enjoy yourself, there are many groups in Cambridge who do this regularly (though some are university groups and only meet during term - you'd be welcome to join in for the remaining few weeks).

Scottish: http://cusarc.soc.srcf.net/

English: http://round.soc.srcf.net/

Molly: http://www.gogmagogmolly.org.uk/

Contra (American version of ceilidh, meets in Chesterton): http://www.cambridgefolk.org.uk/contra/programme.html

I can also bring flyers that give details of several more local folk dance groups (some are run by grown-ups rather than students, and thus continue to meet over the summer holidays).

Hope to see many of you there.