I have loved dancing Irish ceili ever since I first found it at the Starry Plough. Ever since, I've been trying to find ways to incorporate more Irish dance into my life. Just like all folk dances, you cannot dance it alone. For Irish ceili, the smallest dances we do have four people. Trying to find more circumstances to dance Irish ceili also means including the public. All the previous months, I was thinking of doing ceili cardio exercise classes. I am not shelving this idea yet, but I also came up with this idea that I found rather exciting concocting up. They are morning ceili dances in the spirit of waking up and doing things like yoga -- why not ceili as well? I imagined a morning like many mornings where we do something like this in the outdoors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_eQ71gpg5w
The Morning Ceili Dances
After washing up in the early morning, the sun begins to touch down on the Earth and I bring over my speaker and iPod to a small open stage. We've been doing this for a few months now and it really speaks to our environmentalism and physical health. The others of us start to trickle in and we become eight people in total. First we stretch our legs and whole bodies. Some of us do some sun salutations. I prepare the offerings of tea and oatmeal but nobody drinks just yet. The first serving goes to the earth. Once the stretching is done and offerings are prepared, we circle up and say thanks to the new day. We throw some dry oatmeal to the wind and water to the earth. We say our gratitude before we eat our breakfast and when we eat, we don't eat too much. The food and water enter our bodies and we feel energized enough to start.
Somebody else has put pieces of redwood and leaves in the center to remind us of the trees that give live to us. And we start with the Bonfire reel. The music seems to electrify the morning air as our breaths turn into clouds and then disappear into the air. Our hearts race and we ring around and enjoy the beginnings of the day and the sun. For a total of three cycles, we dance. Then we continue with two other dances.
Once we are finished, I clean up the tea and the oatmeal and people have their last bites and gulps before we all say our goodbyes and start our daily lives in class and in work.
