Horses Branle/Horses Brawle Horse Branle description @ Webfeet
Andy "Scarf" calling but the jumps should be pronounced. This, I am sorry, is the best YouTube video I can find that demonstrates it as a Ceilidh Dance, rather than a display dance. But it is 300 years old - but don't tell them until they have made it their own.

I champion it because it is easy, doesn't need a partner, can be done with 8, or 7, 6, 9 or 10.

Bands and callers don't like it because it is easy, but what better way to get a wallflower off the seat - a non partner dance. Boys will have to hold hands with boys but that can generate laughs. It involves a simple leftwards step & jumping several times which young people can do. Then there is a "do something unsual" bit which really gets their creative juices flowing. And finally a weave for one person, which is designed to allow someone to get closer to someone they want to show off to.

I love the tune too.

Another good one is Chapelloise (there are better tunes - but YouTube again). Strictly speaking it is French, and at any Fest Noz they would dance it at least twice. We might even dive in after the dance has started, you can time it easily.

And at any Fest Noz they will do Circassian Circle at least three times in an evening. The French make it progressive - "as male" dancers move anticlockwise to the next "as female" person and indeed they start with partner on tother side so that the first progression is to your partner. And they love clapping as the "other" goes in. But in the UK we do it once (if called), usually as the last dance. And clapping is infra-dig in the English Ceilidh. I don't care I muck about clapping and it always gets a laugh.

I would have thought the "Dashing White Sargeant" is simple enough. And "Gay Gordons" maybe if you have got them polkaing by then. But there is always the girl turning under man's arm instead. A bit like Chapelloise with its forward backward move.

One I would avoid is TAG written by Richard Whynott (?) an American Contra caller - a wonderful dance but takes some understanding.

Any dance that includes a "if there's time swing your partner" helps them take stock.