Siege of Ennis

Last night I decided which ceili dances I'm going to tackle next. I used the remarkably unscientific method of reading through the entire book, noting down which ones looked short (in terms of number of movements) and easy (in that I kind of understood most of them already), and wrote myself a little list. Then I put them in order from shortest to longest. Here it is:

The Walls of Limerick - 4 parts - done
The Rakes of Mallow - 5 - done
Siege of Ennis - 4
The Bridge of Athlone - 4
The Siege of Carrick - 4
An Rince Mor - 5
Haymaker's Jig - 5
Rince Fada - 6 (or 4 depending on how you're counting)
Glencar Reel - 7
Harvest-time Jig - 7
Haste to the Wedding - 8 (or 5)
Antrim Reel - 8 (or 7)
The Fairy Reel - 8
Bonfire Dance 9 (or 7)

Hence it's the Siege of Ennis tonight.

I actually remember doing this one many years ago, for a school play during 'Irish Week' called "Larry and Kathleen's Wedding". I had a line, too! My very own line; "Come on lads, play the Siege of Ennis!" To this day I can't say 'Ennis' in an Irish accent. Got a laugh from the crowd, did that.

Siege of Ennis is my first jig-time ceili, so it's got the amusingly-named Rise and Grind (hop, hop back, hop back 234). Obviously I've been dancing this move in light jigs my entire life but didn't know it had a name.

"Dancers line up in fours, two couples in each line; each set of two couples stands facing another set of two couples, each gentleman on his partner's left."



Advance and retire, sides, hands across, advance retire and pass through. Dead easy. What I don't get, is how to decide which couples make the arches. It says "each set of four facing the music raise hands". Facing the music, wtf? There won't BE any music. I'm probably just going to get the left hand lines (as you look at them) make the arches, same as in the video.

Other plans for the evening - practice St Patrick's Day, do some exercise. I'm not going to pass the dancing part with my current level of fitness. Tomorrow, review the ceilis I know so far, practice St Patrick's Day, and learn the Blackbird. I'm under the impression that one's harder, so maybe only the step. I'll see how I go.

Advance and retire, sides, hands across, advance retire and pass through.