Learning to Ceilidh dance to a Gay Gordon in an immersive 360° video

Looking back at the development of our production, Eigg, it is amazing to see how early experiments shaped the final performance in 2023. One of our most exciting workshops took place way back in 2019, when we were figuring out how to seamlessly integrate a traditional Scottish Ceilidh dance into several key scenes of the show. To pull this off, our team needed to deeply understand the spatial dynamics, energy, and steps of the dance long before tech rehearsals began. Enter Tim and Jennifer Luscombe, who kindly stepped up to teach us the Gay Gordons, captured entirely in 360-degree video.

Why 360° Video for Choreography?

A standard flat video only shows you one perspective. But a Ceilidh is all about community, movement, and rotating through space. By recording Tim and Jennifer in 360° during that 2019 phase, we were able to:
• Study every angle: Viewers could click and drag the video to watch the footwork, hand positioning, or the progression of the couple through the room.
• Map out the staging: It allowed us to visualize how a crowd would move together, which directly informed how we blocked the scenes for the 2023 live performances.
• Preserve the choreography: It served as an interactive, digital archive that performers could virtually "step onto" to practice their timing.

Watch the Archive: The Gay Gordons

Check out the interactive video below. If you are watching on a desktop, you can click and drag your mouse to change your perspective. If you are on a mobile device, simply move your phone around or use the YouTube app to experience the dance in full immersive 360 degrees!

Capturing the Process This 2019 workshop was a fantastic proof-of-concept for our creative process. It proved that immersive tech isn't just a gimmick for the final audience, it was an incredibly powerful tool for rehearsal, choreography, and collaborative development that ultimately brought the spirit of the Isle of Eigg to life on stage in 2023.