Success is sweet and swinging is one of the most exciting of ceilidh experiences whether you are a new or experienced English country dancer. Many dances have swinging as part of their dances moves. So, looking forward to our May 2025 Summer dance entertainment in Vivary Park, Taunton UK, we at Barnbuskers thought it might be useful to provide a few tips on how to be the perfect ceilidh barn dance swinger.
At the heart of swinging is spin turning with your partner. The alternative ways of doing this depend on how you connect with your partner. As always with dancing, consent is really important. Many English country dances are progressive so, in one dance, you can get to dance with lots of different partners and quickly judging how to swing your partner is the key to a really successful dance and happy partners.
The simplest way to do the spin turn (and safest if you don’t know them very well) is to each cross your hands right-over-left and offer them to your partner. Then hold hands right-to-right and left-to left, lean back a little and step to the left to start the spinning round at a speed where you both feel comfortable.
Where partners are happy to dance more closely together, you can put your right hand on their waist, and your left hand on their arm, look past their left shoulder, put your right foot in and then spin round to the left.
It’s as easy as that! For more information on English country dancing, you might like to checkout our article on the do-si-do. In future weeks, we will be posting lots of other ceilidh barn dance moves for your enjoyment. So check back here regularly and we look forward to seeing you!
So, when the dance caller announces ‘swing your partners‘, now you know what to do and how easy it is. We look forward to seeing you happily swinging your partners Sunday 18th May 2025 from 3pm to 5pm at the band stand in Vivary Park, Taunton, UK. Barnbuskers ceilidh barn dance band will be there providing the toe tapping English country Summer dance entertainment music with a dance caller from 3pm to 5pm where we look forward to you having a great time!
By the way, if you are thinking of celebrating a special private birthday party, anniversary or wedding with a barn dance or ceilidh or even holding an open to the public ceilidh dance at your village hall, Judy, our intrepid band leader and organiser would love to hear from you to help you with your planning.
We love doing events open to the public, like Vivary Park, but we also do many private dances in local village halls throughout Somerset and Devon. For more information about our band simply follow the link to Barnbuskers Ceilidh Barn Dance Band or to get information about our availability from Judy, visit our Barnbuskers contact page. We look forward to playing for you!
Barnbuskers 