The Gay Gordons is the dance I reach for almost every time to open a ceilidh. It’s a couples dance, it’s straightforward to call, and it gets the whole room moving within the first minute. If you’ve ever been to a Scottish wedding and found yourself on the dancefloor before you’d quite decided to be, there’s a good chance the Gay Gordons was responsible.

Why I love starting with the Gay Gordons

The reason I use it as an opener isn’t just tradition — it’s practical. The Gay Gordons is progressive enough to feel like a proper ceilidh dance, but simple enough that guests can follow it from the first run-through without feeling lost. That first successful dance is everything. Once people realise they can do it, they stop worrying and start enjoying themselves. The Gay Gordons does that better than almost anything else.

It also works for every age and level of fitness. Couples of all ages can do it together, it doesn’t require any previous dance experience, and there’s no complicated footwork to trip people up. It’s the perfect confidence-builder to set the tone for the rest of the ceilidh.

How the Gay Gordons works

The Gay Gordons is danced in couples moving anti-clockwise around the room. You’ll start in a side-by-side hold — right hands joined over the lady’s shoulder and left hands joined in front — and the dance follows a simple eight-bar pattern that repeats throughout.

The basic pattern

• Walk forward four steps in the line of dance (anti-clockwise).
• Without letting go, pivot on the spot so you’re now facing the other direction, and walk four steps backwards (which keeps you moving in the same direction around the room).
• Repeat the whole thing going back the other way — four steps forward, pivot, four steps back.
• Drop the left hand, raise the right hand, and the lady turns underneath in a full spin on the spot. (The man can set — a little step side-to-side — while she turns.)
• Take ballroom hold and polka around the room for four bars before returning to the starting position.

Then the whole thing repeats. I’ll walk everyone through it once before the music starts, and after the first run-through it becomes second nature.

Tips for guests

The most common moment of confusion is the pivot on bars 3–4 — people sometimes let go of one hand when they shouldn’t. The trick is to keep both hands joined throughout and just turn on the spot without releasing. Once you’ve done it once at walking pace, it clicks immediately.

For the polka section, don’t overthink the footwork — a bouncy walking step is absolutely fine. The point is to keep moving and enjoy it, not to execute a technically perfect polka. Nobody is watching your feet.

What the Gay Gordons feels like on the night

Lively and warm. It’s one of those dances where the room starts a little tentative and then, about halfway through the first run, you can feel everyone relax into it. By the time the polka section comes around people are laughing and the floor feels alive. That’s exactly the energy you want at the start of a wedding ceilidh.

It’s also a brilliant icebreaker between couples who don’t know each other well — because you stay with your own partner throughout, it feels safe and manageable even for guests who are nervous about dancing.

The Gay Gordons is just one of the dances covered in my ceilidh dance guide. If you’re planning a wedding ceilidh, take a look at the full DJ ceilidh calling service or read the complete guide to ceilidh at a Scottish wedding for help planning your evening.