Irish dance
Irish dance refers to the traditional dance forms that originate in Ireland, including both solo and group dance forms, for social, competitive, and performance purposes. Irish dance has evolved over centuries and is believed to have its roots in ancient Celtic dance. In the 17th and 18th centuries, dance was taught by "travelling dance masters" across Ireland, and separate dance forms developed according to regional practice and differing purposes. Irish dance became a significant part of Irish culture, particularly for Irish nationalist movements. From the early 20th century, a number of organisations promoted and codified the various forms of dance, creating competitive structures and standardised styles. Irish dancers who compete for competitive reasons dance in a dance style that is more modern than traditional Irish dance. It is mainly done solo, but there is some team dancing in groups of 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 16 or more.
Solo Irish dance includes the most well-known form of Irish dance, Irish stepdance, which was popularized from 1994 onwards by shows such as Riverdance, and which is practised competitively across not only the Irish diaspora but by many people of disparate cultural backgrounds. Stepdance is characterised by the rigid upper body and intricate footwork of its performers. Other forms of solo Irish dance include sean-nós dance, a relaxed and social dance style involving improvised steps, and festival Irish dance, a style which separated from step dance in the mid-20th century.
Irish group dancing has some French influences, and was particularly influenced by the French quadrille in the late 18th century. Ceili dance, practised both competitively and socially, is performed by groups of two to sixteen people, and often uses traditional or codified dances and formations. Its footwork is simple, and emphasis is placed on the figures and formations of the dances. Set dance is primarily a social tradition, for groups of four dancers, and includes elements of the intricate footwork found in step dance.
History
There is very little documentary evidence of dance being practised in Ireland prior to the 7th century; this could be due to the destruction of written records in Ireland during Viking raids. Scholars have hypothesised this is from non-literate nature of the Irish cultural tradition. Indeed, the modern Irish words for "dance", rince and damhsa did not develop until the 16th century. The scant evidence available is primarily that of visitors to Ireland, such as a fourteenth-century song written in the South of England, where the poet invites his listeners to "come ant daunce wyt me in Irlaunde". The first native Irish documentary evidence of dancing is an account of a Mayor of Waterford's visit to Baltimore, County Cork in 1413, where the attendees "took to the floor" to celebrate Christmas Eve. However, the Norman invasion of Ireland in the twelfth century may have brought with it the round dance tradition, as it was contemporaneously performed in British camps while every now and then being seen in a Norman stronghold.Accounts of dancing in the 17th century means that dancing was by that time extremely widespread throughout Ireland. In 1674 Richard Head wrote in reference to Ireland, 'In every field a fiddle, and the lasses footing till they all of a foam,' suggesting some type of Irish dancing or dance with heavy foot movement. There is ample evidence of Irish jigs or Irish dancing in the 16th century, in 1569 Sir Henry Sydney sent a letter to Queen Elizabeth in which he expresses his enthusiasm for the Irish jigs, or fiddle of Galway. A report from 1600 mentions that some forms of Irish dances were similar in form to English country dances, and later references mention the "rinnce fada", also known as the "long dance" or "fading". This dance, performed to a jig tune though not to any particular piece of music, became the customary conclusion to balls held in Ireland towards the end of the seventeenth century. At this time, dancing was commonly accompanied by musicians playing bagpipes or the Jew's harp.
By the 1760s, the distinctive hornpipe rhythm of the Irish dance tradition had developed, and with the introduction of the fiddle to Ireland from the European continent, a new class of "dancing master" began to emerge. Reference to the Irish fiddle can also be found in John Dunton's Teague Land: or A Merry Ramble to the Wild Irish he says “on Sundays and Holydays, all the people resorted with the piper and fiddler to the village green, suggesting the fiddle was introduced to Ireland much earlier then 1760.
The dancing traditions of Ireland probably grew in association with traditional Irish music. Although its origins are unclear, it was possibly later influenced by dance forms from the Continent, such as the Quadrille. Travelling dancing masters taught across Ireland as late as the 18th and early 19th centuries. Because local venues were usually small, dances were often demonstrated on tabletops, or even the tops of barrels. As a result, these early styles are characterised by the arms held rigidly at the sides, and a lack of lateral movement. As larger dance venues became available, styles grew to include more movement of the body and around the dance area.
Irish dance
Accounts of dancing in the 17th century suggest that dancing was by that time extremely widespread throughout Ireland. In 1674 Richard Head wrote in reference to Ireland, 'In every field a fiddle, and the lasses footing till they all of a foam,' suggesting some type of Irish dancing or dance with heavy foot movement. There is ample evidence of Irish jigs or Irish dancing in the 16th century, in 1569 Sir Henry Sydney sent a letter to Queen Elizabeth in which he expresses his enthusiasm for the Irish jigs, or fiddle of Galway. A variety of forms of solo Irish Dance have developed which are described as dance. These include the well-known "modern" stepdance performed competitively; old-style stepdance, which is closer in style to the dance practised by 19th-century travelling dance masters; and festival dance, which separated from modern stepdance over stylistic and administrative disputes in the mid-20th century.Modern dance
The most predominant form of Irish dance is that popularised by the Broadway show Riverdance, and other Irish dancing stage shows since the late 20th century. Characterised by a rigid torso and dances performed high on the balls of the feet, this style became distinct from the late 19th century when the Gaelic League began efforts to preserve and promote Irish dance as part of a broader nationalist movement concerned with Irish culture. Although a rigid torso may be the initial characterisation of Irish dance, modern soft shoe Irish dancers commonly gracefully use their arms in flowing movements, abandoning the traditional form. It is not uncommon for hard shoe dancers to use their arms in strict hand formations other than arms at sides, though competition dance continues to require the arms be kept by the dancer's sides.In 1929, the League formed An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha in order to codify and standardise stepdancing competition and education. Over the following decades, CLRG expanded globally, and promoted this particular form of stepdance by developing examinations and qualifications for teachers and competition adjudicators. Today, stepdance in the style codified by the Gaelic League is performed competitively in a number of countries, and under the auspices of a number of organisations which have at various times broken away from CLRG.
Dances
Irish solo dances fall into two broad categories based on the shoes worn: 'hard shoe' and 'soft shoe' dances.There are four soft shoe dance styles: the reel, slip jig, light jig and 'single jig'. Reels have a time signature. Slip jigs are in time. Light and single jigs are in time, with different emphasis within the measure distinguishing the music.
Hard shoe dances include the hornpipe in syncopated or time, the treble jig in a slow, the treble reel and 'traditional sets', which are a group of dances with set music and steps. Many traditional sets have irregular musical phrasing. There are multiple traditional sets, including St. Patrick's Day, Blackbird, Job of Journeywork, Three Sea Captains, Garden of Daisies, and King of the Fairies. While theoretically standardised, different organisations recognise different traditional sets and slight variations exist between teachers. There are also "non-traditional sets" done by advanced dancers. These have set music, but not steps; the steps are choreographed by individual dance schools.
Competitive dancers generally dance two or three steps at a time, depending on their dancing level. Each step lasts for sixteen bars of music for the treble jig and the reel. Dances such as the hornpipe and slip jig instead have eight bars of music for their third steps. The dances are each danced starting with the right foot for eight bars, then repeated with the left foot for the last eight bars, doing the same movements with the opposite feet. Set dances, however, have a different format. The dancer usually dances one step, which is limited to the length of the first part of the music that is repeated, and is then repeated, resembling the steps of other dances. Then the dancer usually dances a "set" which is not repeated. It is a highly sought after and competitive feat to recall to dance this "third round" — at regional, national, and world competitions, only a small percentage of dancers are invited back to perform.
The Céilí dances used in competitions are more precise versions of those danced in less formal settings. There is a list of 30 Céilí dances which have been standardised and published in An Coimisiún's ''Ar Rinncidhe Foirne'' as examples of typical Irish folk dances; these are called the "book" dances by competitive stepdancers. Most Irish dancing competitions only ask for a short piece of any given dance, in the interests of time and the endurance of the dancers.