I'd just like to know the variations in stances in the Gekisai kata for those of you doing Goju Ryu. In Gekisai Dai Ichi and Dai Ni, what stance do you use for moves like the first move.

The senior students and various guest instructors who've visited our dojo have different stances - some use sanchin dachi, and some use moto dachi. What about after the sweep with the shuto uchi - what variations have you learned? We were taught to land in heisoku dachi, but some of the students more senior in rank use hachiji dachi.

We use sanchin dachi no han-zenkutsu dachi or hanko-dachi.
IOGKF uses han-zenkutsu dachi in the jodan zuki.
We use heiko dachi not hachichi-dachi with the shuto.
But both are correct, depends a bit on the school and interpretation although you can consider hachichi-dachi and han-zenkustsu dachi more natural fighting stances.

exactly as CVV said...just to add variants: first sequence to Gekisai - Matsubayashi-Ryu uses Shizentai dachi (natural stance) AKA Ayumi dachi in their version of Gekisai-Dai-Ichi (called Fukyugata-Ni).

Since Nagamine and Miyagi co-authored or at least consulted each other on this kata during composition, the variant is worth note.