The Military Two Step is another couples dance that appears early on in most ceilidh programmes. It’s a lively, bouncy dance. Have a listen to the Orkney two step music.

DIFFICULTY RATING: EASY

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

A partner. Couples arrange themselves around the dance floor in a circle, gentlemen with their partner on their right hand side, both facing anti-clockwise, arms around each other’s waist.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE STARTING

The heel, toe movement noted in the steps simply involves pointing your foot at an angle so that only your heel or toes of the relevant foot are touching the ground. You can bounce slightly on the other leg while performing the heel, toe movement.

THE STEPS

Beats Description 1-8 (8) Both with your outside foot (ie gent’s left, lady’s right) point your foot heel, toe, heel, toe; Step forward (anti-clockwise) for the count of 3 then about turn (turning in towards each other so that the gent now has their partner on the left) and place your arms round each other’s waist again. 9-16 (8) Both with your outside foot (ie gent’s right, lady’s left) point your foot heel, toe, heel, toe; Step forward for the count of 3 then turn to face each other (gent facing out from the middle of the circle, lady facing in towards the middle of the circle) holding each other’s hands. 17-24 (8) Both jump, then kick your right leg across to the left; Both jump, then kick your left leg across to the right; Gent drop your left hand hold only (lady’s right hand), raise your your right arm above your head and your partner will make a complete turn underneath. 25-32 (8) Take a waltz hold with your partner and polka round the floor for the count of 8 (similar to waltzing to a beat of 4).

HOW TO CONTACT THE HEADLANDERS CEILIDH BAND

If you would like a specific dance included on these pages or want to know more about us then please let us know.

Email: mail@headlanders.co.uk, or telephone/text: 07721 494 004

If you want a list of ceilidh related books with a wide range of dances please refer to the links page.

We have invested substantial time and effort in putting these resources together and you are welcome to use these dance instructions if you are seeking to organise your own ceilidh. In return all we ask is that you do one, or more, of the following:

• send us an email saying thanks, let us know how you found the site (Google etc, recommendation by a friend), some details about your ceilidh - how it went, what it was for etc, tell us if the instructions are clear enough;
• if you’re in Aberdeen or the North East of Scotland why not ask us for a quote/check our availability. Our prices are competitive and having a band, with all the equipment, music and dance calls can make organising the ceilidh significantly easier on you - we know the amount of work that is involved in organising a ceilidh (and how heavy PA equipment is!) having been there ourselves;
• mention us to your friends and relatives if they are looking for a ceilidh band;
• provide a link to our homepage on your own website. All you need to do is paste the code between the square brackets into your own html code: [<A HREF=”http://www.headlanders.co.uk”>the Headlanders ceilidh band</A>]
• buy something from amazon (US or UK) or musicroom.com, just follow the links