This is a great opportunity to KEEP FIT by enjoying the learning of some of the basic movements and actions involved in the Country Dancing styles of England, Ireland, Scotland and America. You learn this by getting up and doing some dances, with groups of fellow dancers. You don't need to know anything at first. All the dances and movements will be explained, and "walked-through" before any dancing is done. This dancing is suitable for total beginners, yet it can develop to really challenge those who have done it before. Maybe you have had a "taste" of it at a PTA Barn Dance? Dancers usually start by howling with laughter at the mistakes that we all make together at first, and then progress to feelings of delight when it all fits together. Either way, it makes for a most enjoyable session.

This is a KEEP FIT activity, which can help to keep your body working well through the exercise involved in the dancing, and your brain exercised by remembering the moves, and who goes where and when. The idea is mental and physical maintenance. As a result there is no exam, no "standard" to reach, no "progression" to aim for. There are extra benefits; after just one term, you will be able to go to English Barn Dances, American-style Square Dances, an Irish Ceili or a Scottish Ceilidh, confident that you will be able to take full part in the basic dances, and that you will have enough general knowledge to be easily helped through harder dances. Already, raw beginners will probably be looking up to you as an expert.
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COME AS YOU ARE!
You don't need any experience, equipment or materials - maybe a pair of comfortable shoes, and a few bob for a cuppa! Your Tutor, Gerry Jones, has wide experience of English, Irish and Scottish country dance, both as a dancer and as a musician. He is regularly a "caller" with a Country Dance band at venues all over Merseyside, and can cope with all-comers, be they school-children, parents, students, pensioners, PTA members, or indeed anyone who will get up from their chair and give it a try.
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Where can I go after I have been to the club for a while? Can I take this dancing further? you are welcome to return to the club - as most dancers do, term after term, year after year - as the need to KEEP FIT never ends. But you will have a good grounding in most of the basics of country dancing. So, you could also move on to joining another country dance club which specialises in English, Scottish or Irish forms of country dancing. Follow the LINKS to local Scottish or English folk-dance clubs. Back to the Top of the page.

ENGLISH dance ; Liverpool CONTRA Folk-dance club ENGLISH ; Mersey And Deeside folk dance clubs The English Folk Dance & Song Society. SCOTTISH : Liverpool branch of the RSCDS RSCDS (Royal Scottish Country Dance Society) HQ in Edinburgh IRISH Dancing: an information page. MacLENNAN Scottish Group, Kent ENGLISH : "Lancashire Folk" details of folk activities in Lancashire. "Down the Lane" forum; folk-dance section. All about dancing,bands,clubs, etc. Here are some pages linked to this page: Liverpool Country Dance Band Gerry Jones, the handy musician Lyrics of some Liverpool Songs. Back to Gerry's Home page Back to the Top of the page.