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An overview of Irish Dancing
Traditional Irish Dancing has been around for a long time, but it is in fact a mixed bag of different forms of dance including such descriptions as Step-Dancing, Set-Dancing, Ceili Dancing and Sean Nos Dancing. The body of traditional music with which the dances are carried out is one of the strongest uniting factors. In any case people have been dancing in Ireland for a long time and the dance form has probably evolved gradually over the years as most things do. There are very little early written historical records of Irish dancing, probably because up to the time of Cromwell most of recorded history was that of the upper classes and aristocracy. Queen Elizabeth I professed a liking for the Irish Jig and dances of Irish origin such as the Trenchmore. Despite this, her governors outlawed and suppressed all forms of Irish culture including dance, for fear that it would feed Irish Nationalism.
From around the end of the 17th century the history of the ordinary people began to be told. During the 18th and 19th centuries Irish dance evolved through the Dancing Masters. The Dancing Master was a flamboyant well-respected figure in rural Ireland, who travelled around his territory from village to village in the company of a piper or fiddler. They taught the locals group dances and his arrival in a village was greatly anticipated. They also created solo Step-Dancing and the earliest competitions were usually between the masters, often taking place on a tabletop or door taken off its hinges. This created a style of dance that didn't involve much 'travelling' as there wasn't any space to move around whilst dancing. Nowadays the competitive step dancers will use every last inch of a stage in their efforts to get noticed by the adjudicators. Sean Nos (old style) dancing dates back to the earliest forms of solo dancing and it is distinguished by it's relaxed body stance. It is danced low to the ground with arms loosely hanging by the side or raised above the head. Today's solo step dancers dance to a strict set of rules and their arms are kept rigidly by their sides unless they happen to be in one of the Riverdance spin-off dance shows.
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SET DANCING
Set Dancing is not to be confused with the 'Set Dances' done by Solo Step Dancers. Set Dancing is a form of social group dancing with four couples generally forming a square. These dances are descended from the French Quadrilles, which were brought into Ireland by the soldiers returning from war in the nineteenth century. Irish dancers adapted and enlivened these dance 'figures' to their own music and steps. With time various regions developed their local 'Set' which was danced at the crossroads and in homes. The Government in conjunction with the Church felt that these dances were an occasion for immoral behaviour and in 1935 The Dance Hall Act was used to put an end to this form of social group dancing. But despite those efforts these dances continued in the West of Ireland. There are about 100 different sets, which have been gathered from all parts of Ireland but only a few such as the Caledonian, Connemara, Cashel and Sliabh Luachra Sets have an unbroken history. Over the years where Set Dancing was alive and thriving, the musicians took great pleasure playing for the sets. To some extent the dancing of the sets in homes helped to preserve the traditional music. To quote from 'Coisceim', a book on Set-Dancing: 'Authentic Set-Dancing remains true to tradition and the environment in which it flourished - the aroma of the turf fire and the joviality of the crowded kitchen linger in each step and movement as if time had stood still.'
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CEILI DANCING
The phrase 'le cheile' means together, and the word Ceili derived from that, originally meant the gathering of neighbours in a house at night to have a chat. I am sure song was always a part of this so it would have only been a matter of time before other music and dance were added. Ceilithe (the plural) date back to pre-famine times and would often take place at the crossroads. In 1893 The Gaelic League (An Conradh na Gaeilige) was formed in order to promote Irish culture. They saw Set-Dancing as being foreign and tried to replace that with Ceili dancing that was another group form of dance but considered to be more Irish. The Irish Dancing Commission (An Comisiun) that now presides over the Step-Dancing was founded in 1929. One of their first tasks was to produce a series of books, Ar Rinncidhe Foirne, that detail the movements and steps of 32 Ceili dances. The question that remains unanswered is whether they actually restored old truly Irish dances, made up new ones or more likely a mixture of the two.
Ceili dances range in the number of participants from two to sixteen. Some of these such as The Siege of Ennis or The Walls of Limerick are relatively easily learned unlike the more complicated Sets. For a long time the two forms of group dances were the subject of deep division, but that is now changing. At our last 'Ceili night' in the Irish club here in Perth we featured Step-Dancing, Set-Dancing and got everyone (well almost) up for a Ceili dance (Siege of Ennis).
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Try dancing on top of this
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