Learn more about Irish Dancing

Learn more about Irish dancing with these articles taken and adapted from Wikipedia

• Shoes •

Three types of shoes are worn in competitive step dancing: hardshoes and two kinds of softshoe. The hardshoe (or heavy or jig shoe) is unlike the tap shoe, in that the tips and heels are made of fiberglass, instead of metal. The first hard shoes had wooden taps with metal nails. It was common practice in the 17th and 18th century to hammer nails into the soles of a shoe in order to increase the life of the shoe. Dancers used the sounds created by the nails to create the rhythms that characterize hard shoe dancing. Later the soles were changed into resin or fiberglass to reduce the weight.

Each shoe has eight striking surfaces: the toe, bottom, and sides of the front tap and the back, bottom, and sides of the back tap (the heel). Hardshoes are made of black leather with flexible soles. Sometimes the front taps are filed off in order to enable the dancer to stand on his or her toes, somewhat like pointe shoes. Hardshoes are worn when dancing the hornpipe, the treble jig or "heavy jig", and the treble reel. The same hardshoes are worn by all dancers, regardless of gender or age.

A legend about hardshoe dances is that the Irish used to dance at crossroads or on the earthen floors of their houses, and they removed and soaped their doors to create a resonant surface for hardshoe dancing. (The more common actuality was that dancers "battered" on a stone laid in the floor with a space underneath; in the case of set dancing, the head couple of the set would claim the stone.)

Softshoes, often called "ghillies" or "pomps", fit more like ballet slippers, but they are of black leather, with a leather sole and a very flexible body. They lace from toe to ankle and do not make sounds against the dance surface. They are worn for the light jig, the reel, the hop or single jig, group dances-with two or more people, and the slipjig. They also can be worn for céilí dancing, though this can be done in any kind of shoe.

The other kind of softshoe is worn by male dancers; these are called "Reel Shoes" and are similar to oxford or jazz shoes in black leather, with fiberglass heels that the dancers can click together. Younger male dancers often do not have the fiberglass heels. The men's steps are choreographed in a different style to girls' in order to take advantage of the heels.

• Dances •

The terms "reel", "slip jig", "hornpipe", and "jig" and "set dance" are used to define dances, but refer in fact to types of Irish traditional music. Reels are in 2/4 or 4/4 time. Slip jigs are in 9/8 time, a structure which is more or less unique to Irish music. The slip jig is usually only danced by female dancers. It is considered to be the lightest and most graceful of the dances. Hornpipes can be in 2/4 or 4/4 time, and are danced in hard shoes. There are three jigs danced in competition, the light jig, the single jig and the treble (or double) jig. Light and single jigs are in 6/8 time, like "Pop Goes the Weasel", and are soft shoes dances, while the treble jig is danced in hard shoes.

The actual steps in Irish step dance are usually unique to each school or dance teacher. Steps are developed by Irish dance teachers for students of their school. Each dance is built out of the same basic elements, or steps, but the dance itself is unique, and new dances are being choreographed all the time. For this reason, videotaping of competitions is forbidden under the rules of An Coimisiún.

Each step is a sequence of foot movements, leg movements and leaps, which lasts for 8 bars of music for the "right foot" and is repeated for the "left foot" of the step. Hardshoe dancing includes clicking (striking the heels of the feet against each other), trebles (the toe of the shoe striking the floor), and stamps (the entire foot striking the floor).

There are two types of hard shoe dance, the solo dances, which are the hornpipe and treble jig, and the set dances. There are approximately thirty solo set dance tunes, mostly jigs and hornpipes. These tunes vary a bit in tempo to allow for more difficult steps for higher level dancers. Teachers choreograph the contemporary non-traditional sets their dancers dance to these special tunes. An unusual feature of the set dance tune is that many are "crooked", with some of the parts, or sections, of the tunes departing from the common 8 bar formula. The crooked tune may have a part consisting of 7.5 bars, or 14 bars, etc.

The traditional set dances are historical in significance. The music and steps for each traditional set was set down long ago by past dance masters and passed down under An Coimisiún auspices as part of the rich history of stepdancing, hence the "traditional." There are many traditional sets, but the traditional sets performed in competition are St. Patrick's Day, the Blackbird, Job of Journeywork, Garden of Daisies, King of the Fairies, and Jockey to the Fair.

The group, or céilí, dances vary widely throughout Ireland and the rest of the world. The céilí dances used in competitions are bouncier and more precise versions of those danced in pubs and church basements. There are a group of céilí dances which have been standardized, called the "book" dances, as they have been archived and published in An Coimisiún's "Ar Rinncidhe Foirne" as examples of typical Irish folk dances. A céilí may be performed with as few as four people and as many as sixteen. The Irish word "céilí" has no precise English word that means quite the same thing; "party" is the closest English can come. These dances are meant more for socialization and fun than as an athletic and competitive form. But the céilí dances are still fast-paced and may be quite complicated. In a social setting, the céilí may be "called" -- that is, the upcoming steps are announced during the dance for the benefit of newcomers.

This is not to say that céilí dancing is not part of the world of competitive step dancing. On the contrary, team ceili dancing is very important to dancers and their teachers, providing opportunity for international travel and acclaim. Many CLRG dance schools place as much emphasis on solo dance as ceili dancing, meticulously rehearsing the dances as written in the book, striving for perfect interpretation. In local competition figure dances may be competed included 2 or 3 dancers. These are not traditional book dances and are choreographed similar to solo dancing. Dances for 4, 6 or 8 dancers are also often found in competition, but the book dances for 16 dancers are rarely offered. The Figure Choreography competition at Major Oireachtasi must be for more than 8 dancers and is a chance for teachers to show off interesting and intricate group choreography. A winning team at an Oireachtas gains a reputation for their school, and is thus an important part of competition. The teams that have won the most figure and ceili competitions are Sean Eirann McMahon, and Doherty, both from the midlands, UK.

Some of the ceili dances are named after the traditional Irish tunes to which they are danced, others after the region of Ireland they were developed in, and some may be done to any jig or reel. The ceili dances developed from the French quadrille dances; and are among the ancestors of the North American square dance.