The Celtic Minstrels are a fun band of musicians who play Irish, Scottish, American, Australian music and are locally based, with some members on the island and some at Burpengary and elsewhere locally.
The Minstrels are regulars at The Jetty in Bongaree and love to play sets of tunes, with musical friends from around the district joining them at times.
They have started to teach Bush Dancing for Fun in the Bribie U3A classes and are having so much fun playing for the dancing that they hope to continue throughout the year in any venue that could host a Bush Dance. Two of the band, Mike and Beth, have been involved with playing for bush dancing for almost 30 years in Tasmania, where it’s cold enough to warrant a lot of leaping around in the evenings. Ted and Sarah have played for bush dances in Queensland, but are enjoying the challenge now of playing for several hours, with 7 or 8 dances being on the programme.
There is a caller, who teaches the dance which may be in longways sets, circles, square sets, progressive, and could be in jig time, polka time, reel time, march time and quite often, waltz time.
The caller will continue to assist once the music starts but the music itself tells the dancers when to come in, go out, spin, change partners, or progress onwards.
The Minstrels are pleased to have been included in the U3A classes, as it’s a first for Bribie to have bush dances such as Waves of Bribie, Strip the Willow, the OXO reel, Haymakers Jig, Troika, so if you would like to join the class which returns to the Term 2 programme on August 12th, please contact U3A office and the friendly staff will give you all the information you need.