Talk:Céilí dance

Relationship to ceilidh page
It has been suggested that this page might be merged with the ceilidh page. On the basis of titles, this might seem reasonable, but the two topics refer to rather different uses of the same word. It was the absence of one of the two usages that led me to create this page. The ceilidh page describes the social gathering, generally for the purposes of dancing. At Irish ceilithe, social dancing takes place which which is generally one of several different kinds: set dancing, two-hand dancing (a generic term for certain non-ceili round dances), waltzes, quick-step, or ceili dancing, as described here. The actual dance styles involved for ceili dancing are rather different and distinct from the others. While one tactic might to be to encompass discussion of these various styles on the ceili page, it would begin to become long and diffuse as it drifted from the original discussion of the dance as an event, since each kind has its own particular style and history. In addition, set dance and waltz are already on their own pages, and waltzes are also performed at dances that are not considered to be ceilidh. In fact, many ceilithe in Ireland and the US have no ceili dancing at all.

Time permitting, I would plan to clarify the ceilidh discussion of the kinds of dances which take place at such an event in the Irish context, with reference to the separate material on the varioius dance styles, and to introduce the fact that terms like fior ceili are used to distinguish events that may restrict their content to a narrower selection of styles of dance.CSProfBill (talk) 09:44, 28 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Ah yes I see... in that case the distinction should be made clear. I've added a link from this page to Céilidh, but it'll probably take someone with more knowledge in the area to move the parts of Céilidh that are talking of the dance rather than the event out. Perhaps a good way to do it would have a small section in Céilidh talking about the dance with a { {main|Ceili dance} } tag... Proberts2003 (talk) 11:10, 28 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Sounds like a good plan. CSProfBill (talk) 10:50, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Adopting and updating
I'm unofficially trying to adopt this page and get it up to date. The ceili dancing originally described here is a very narrow definition of it, and is a major form of competitive irish dance competitions, as well a very common social dance style. I'm an active american adult ceili dancer with a ceili national championship under my belt and feel I'm pretty knowledgeable about the subject :)  Sapphiremind (talk) 20:53, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

I strongly recommend John Cullinane's book "History of Irish Ceili Dancing". Since I'm NOT a native speaker I hesitate 2 add more info 2 the article. The fatal role of the kathChurch in the field of (Irish) Dancing is'nt mentioned. --Cuchullain10 (talk) 06:40, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

What are the 30 ceili dances
The article states there are 30 named dances, with no list or reference. Paul foord (talk) 12:43, 11 March 2016 (UTC)