TRADITIONAL DANCING IS FOR EVERYONE

Northampton Ceilidhs are Ruth Green, Sheila Cox, Lisa Heywood, Valerie Jolly, Julie Beatty (Bubbles) and John Green and we all live in either Northamptonshire or North Buckinghamshire.

We are a group of 6 friends who have been dancing this country's traditional dances for most of our adult lives with a wide range of interests including traditional Ceilidh (or Barn) dancing, Contra (American style dances) , Playford and Country dancing as well as the various forms of the Morris dance and folk song. Our chief purpose in starting Northampton Ceilidhs in 2009 was to try and bring something we truly enjoy to a wider audience and draw new people into the folk world by promoting ceilidhs and other forms of folk dance in Northampton and other places in the area.

We decided from the outset that we should be a "not for profit" organisation. This aim we have succeeded in all too well. Our initial funding consisted of donations from ourselves and our friends in the folk dance world including individuals and some of the local Folk Dance Clubs who support our ambitions. We are affiliated to the English Folk Dance and Song Society without whom much of what we and others do would have been lost forever under the modern pressures of urbanisation, industrialisation and, probably most significantly, the bloodbath that was the 1st World War.

The hall where we dance found fame (if not fortune) as the church hall featured regularly in "Keeping Up Appearances" as did many other locations around Northampton - though the Bucket's house was apparently in a suburb of Coventry. Both interior and exterior of the hall, together with the front of the adjacent vicarage and the church itself were used although the area under the stage where Richard found the Vicar hiding from Hyacinth is sadly non-existent.

What We Do

English Ceilidh is high energy mixture of traditional and other dances from Great Britain and elsewhere. We dance to live music from amazing bands who each play their own brand of traditional / fusion music.

Contra dances are American style dances which are often faster and more intricate than our Ceilidh dances. Many of the moves, however, are common to both as both have their roots in the same traditional dances. Another thing they have in common is that they are great fun to do and a fine way to meet new people and make friends. A bonus is that they keep you fit at the same time!