For price and availability - contact Kate on 01202 882858 or email kate@swingyourpartner.co.uk.

What is a Ceilidh / Barn Dance?

A Céilidh, Céili or celidh (pronounced kay-lee) is a social event, typically with Celtic music and dancing. Incidentally the word céilidh is Gaelic for 'visit', which denotes the event's origin as an informal home gathering.

Folk dancing events are often referred to as barn dances, despite being held in locations other than barns. A barn dance can be a Ceilidh, with traditional Irish or Scottish dancing, and people unfamiliar with either format often confuse the two terms. However, a barn dance can also feature square dancing, Morris dancing, Contra dancing, English Country Dance, or any other kind of dancing, usually with a live band and a caller.

Traditionally the music was provided by acoustic instruments such as fiddle, accordion, tin whistle, flute, guitar and bodhrán. In more recent times as instruments have been amplified drums and electric bass guitar have been added. The music is cheerful and lively, and the basic steps are taught and can be learned easily; a walk through is usually provided for new dancers before the start of each dance.

FAQ’s and extra information

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About the band

Kate Carpenter (caller, whistle, fiddle, harp, and octave fiddle).

Kate was inspired to learn the violin as a small child because her father played Scottish dance tunes to her on his violin. Throughout her life she has played in many orchestras with the violin and flute, recorder ensembles and choirs, in a wide selection of musical styles. She also took up Scottish dancing as a child and as an adult has regularly danced at displays and tattoos in the South of England, and four tattoos at the Royal Albert Hall. An opportunity arose to train as an RSCDS Scottish country dance teacher in 2004, this was when she started calling for Barn Dances/Ceilidhs.

Robert Baird invited her to join his “Dorset” Scottish band, and she went with this band to play in a Scottish festival in Russia, in Moscow and also in the Cossack region. She has also played with Ken Martlew at summer schools in Germany and France. When she became aware of the existence of Irish sessions, she immediately joined in, enjoying them immensely. She plays at her local session every week, encouraging others to join in.

Through this connection she joined the band "Murphy’s Lore", of which she was a member for 5 years until the recent split. She and Jim formed the Scottish Dance Band Skara Brae as a duo, in November 2004, calling/playing for barn dances and also playing for Scottish dances. During the day she teaches violin, recorders and saxophone in school and at home. She has recently started an under 19's fiddle orchestra with some of her pupils, playing folk music at various festivals etc. Her latest acquisition is a folk harp, which she is busy practising!!

Jim Lush (piano accordion, continental chromatic accordion and fiddle).

Jim started playing the recorder at school and soon progressed to the clarinet at the age of seven after wanting an Acker Bilk record for his birthday (always was an odd child!). He put aside the clarinet when he moved to secondary school and joined Kingsleigh school brass band progressing through the ranks to be first cornet. At the age of fifteen he was in three different brass bands. The pressures of school exams and girls proved too much for him and it wasn’t until some nine years later that he started up his musical interest again.

Playing the accordion came about purely by accident. Jim's step-father bought a small second hand accordion to accompany morris music with, but gave up after a while. It hung around in the corner for a while until Jim picked it up and got a few tunes out of it, the rest as they say is history.

Jim, formally of "Carnac", "The Highly Strung Band" and "Murphy's Lore" has over 15 years experience playing for dances. He can also be found playing Irish music in pub sessions where there is a slimmest hint of free beer....

John Reeks (guitar and mandolin).

John took up the guitar at the relatively late age of 21. He had classical lessons for a year, after which his playing was confined to his bedroom for several years where he mastered the art of playing by ear to an eclectic record collection. John then embarked on a Folk and Ragtime course with Robin Greenwood. Still unable to confidently read music, he joined a Poole Adult Education Course where he had to read music and play with others. His confidence grew and he joined the Dorset Guitar Society for a while, then moved on to folk sessions in local pubs, where he finally found his niche playing both guitar and mandolin.

Occasionally, John stands in for absent guitarists and has played with Black Sheep, The Bushwhackers and Cottage Industry. John has also played in Alkmaar, Holland, during St Patrick's Day celebrations and performed vocals on Mark Carter's "Have a Banana" CD. John now plays alongside Kate and Jim in Swing your Partner, he has also recorded and performed nostalgic folk songs with the Blandford - based group Waifs and Strays, and also plays with the four - piece folk band Celtic Confusion.

A brief history of Swing your Partner

Swing your Partner was formed in 2005 when Jim & Kate started playing Barn dances under the name of Skara Brae on their own to fill the growing demand for small parties where a large band was too expensive. In 2007 they also recruited John to give some rhythm to the whole thing, they have a string of bookings for 2008 and have just come back from paying for a ceilidh at a Folk Festival in Segrè France where Kate called the dances in French!

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Clients comments

"Hello Kate

Just a short e-mail thanking you once again for the fabulous evening you provided for my good Wife's 50th birthday party last Thursday evening....... Our friends have not stopped talking about the amount of effort that you particulary put in the other evening in getting everyone "going" and how everyone had thoroughly enjoyed themselves. We will have no hesitation in recommending your first class trio to anyone. Thanks once again and please feel free to use my recommendation in any way you wish.

Kindest regards."

R.J.

"Hi Kate
 
Tony and I wanted to say again thank you for making our day so much fun. Everyone has told us how much they enjoyed the dancing.

We had a fantastic time! Everybody enjoyed themselves so much, it was better than a disco because everybody joined in together.
 
Take care and we look forward to seeing you all again soon."
 
K & T (Wedding Barn Dance)

"I really enjoyed your dance as it was much better than others I have been to. You gave really clear instructions and gave people time to get it right so I knew what I was doing."

J.D. (50th Birthday party)

"Dear Kate,

I just wanted to thank you for a wonderful evening of ceilidh music. My family and friends are still talking about it! We really all appreciate the fine programme you put together to make a very memorable evening.

Thanks once again."

C. M. (Birthday party / Scottish Ceilidh)

"I bet you didn't expect to do that for the evening, you entertained the children really well and everybody enjoyed themselves."

M.S. (Birthday / family celebration)

Forthcoming events

"Please book early to avoid disappointment.

Only a few Saturdays are free before Christmas

and next year is already filling up fast.

Other days Sunday to Friday are available" Jim

Contact us

We play for weddings, parties, fund raising, anniversaries and any other celebration you may entertain. We are based in Dorset near Bournemouth and cover most of the South Coast including Hampshire, Wiltshire, Devon, Somerset and further afield.

If you would like to hold a Ceilidh / Barn dance / Scottish Country Dance please contact Kate on 01202 882858 or email kate@swingyourpartner.co.uk for price and availability.

We look forward to making your occasion go with a swing.

Kate,Jim & John.

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