Irish dance

Irish dance (sometimes referred to as "step dancing") is a type of recreational and competitive folk dance that has been popularized by the world-famous "Riverdance" and "Lord of the Dance." When performed as a solo dance, it is generally characterized by the stiff upper-body and the quick and precise movements of the feet. Couples may also dance in a manner similar to a square dance. Larger groups of four, six, or eight people perform traditional Ceili dances where steps and music are prescribed.

One folk-tale about Irish dance is that it originated when the practice of Irish culture, including dance, was forbidden in Ireland. When people wanted to dance, they would just move their feet and if anyone happened to look in the window, they would see only the motionless upper-body and think nothing of it. However, there is no firm evidence that this claim is true. Many foot movements of soft shoe dances seem similar to Scottish country dancing, while some hard shoe dances more closely resemble flamenco style dancing.

Two types of shoes are worn in Irish dance: hard shoes and soft shoes called "ghillies". The hard shoe is often mistaken for a tap shoe, but in fact, there are no taps on the bottom of the shoe. (Although Michael Flatley did attach taps to his shoes to make them louder). There are usually pieces of wood or fiberglass attached, depending on the desired sound. The soft shoe is like a ballet slipper, with soft bottoms and a flexible body. These soft shoes also lace up from the toe of the slipper up to the ankle. This shoe does not make sounds.

Soft shoes are worn when dancing the simple jig, reel, and slipjig. Hard shoes are worn when dancing the hornpipe, treble jig and treble reel. Ceili dancing is done in soft shoes.

Solo dances are composed of a series of foot movements, leg movements and leaps which when combined form a "step". Steps are developed by irish dance teachers for students of their school. Set Dances are a type of Irish dance where the steps are precribed for a given tune, broken down into "traditional sets" and "non-traditional sets".

In addition there are group "set" dances which are very similar to ceili but use different, less balletic and more shuffling foot movements. These are not generally performed in competition.

Competition

Competitive Irish dance has grown steadily since the mid 1900's, and more rapidly since the appearance of "Riverdance". An organized Irish dance competition is referred to as a Feis (pronounced "fesh"). Participants in a feis must be students of an accredited irish dance teacher. Dance competitions are divided by age and level of expertise. In North America, dancers progress from Beginner/Advanced Beginner to Novice to Prizewinner (in some areas this level is referred to as Open) to Preliminary Champion to the final level of Champion. Feis competition levels vary around the world (e.g. in South Africa there are Beginner XXX, etc.), generally depending on the local history and the presence of more advanced dancers.

Rules for Feiseanna are set by the World commission (An Coimisiún le Rincí Gaelacha). In addition, there are An Comdhail and Festival dancers, of which the former is more comparable to An Coimisiún. Local organizations may add additional rules to the basic rule set. There are seven regions in North America. An annual regional Championship competition is known as an Oireachtas (pronounced "ur-rock-tus). In North American, regional Chanpionship competitions are held the weekend of the "Thanksgiving " Holiday. Annual "national" championship competitions are held in Ireland (known as the "All Ireland" competition), North America (including Canada and the United States), Australia, and Europe. Annual World Championship competitions have been held in The Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland. The World Championship competitions are held around the Easter Holiday.

External Irish Dance Links

Ann's Place, a good source for basic information http://www.geocities.com/aer_mcr/irdance/

Also http://www.broesler.com/stepdnce.html and http://www.irelandseye.com/dance.html

World Commission http://www.clrg.ie/