Irish Dance Traditions

Dancing in the Middle Ages (England)

Irish dance dates back to its origins in Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries and became closely tied to Irish independence and cultural identity in the middle ages.  Through history, these ancient dances were never documented or recorded due to Ireland’s occupation by England, which tried to make Ireland more “English” by outlawing certain traditional practices.  Many Irish cultural traditions were banned by the English authorities during the 400-year period that came to be known as the Penal Days.

Despite this ban on cultural traditions in Ireland, Irish dancing continued behind closed doors. Because their musical instruments had been confiscated by the authorities, Irish parents taught their children the dances by tapping out rhythms with their hands and feet and making music through “lilting” (or mouth music somewhat similar to “scat singing” in jazz).  Irish dances came from Ireland’s family clans and, like tribal Native American dances in this country, were never formally choreographed or recorded.

History records a variety of dances done by the Irish in the mid-1500s. These include Rinnce Fada where two lines with partners faced each other, Irish Hey (possibly a round or figure dance), jigs (likely in a group), Trenchmores (described as a big free form country dance), and sword dances. 

The Rinnce Fada or Hey (also Hay)

English suppression of Irish culture continued, exemplified by the banning of piping and the arrest of pipers. However, Queen Elizabeth I was “exceedingly pleased” with Irish tunes and country dances.

Power struggles between the Irish and English continued during the 1600s. The Penal Laws enacted in the late 1600s crushed Irish commerce and industries. The laws also banned the education of Catholic children leading to hidden (hedge) schools. Traditional Irish culture was practiced with some degree of secrecy. This period of severe repression lasted for more than a hundred years, explaining some of the initial secrecy of teaching Irish step dancing. Country dancing continued, one description being that on Sundays “in every field a fiddle and the lasses footing it till they are all of a foam”; another being “the young folk dance till the cows come home.” Dancing continued during the 1700s, often during holidays, weddings, christenings, and wakes. However, the Church sometimes condemned dancing, “In the dance are seen frenzy and woe.”

A major influence on Irish dance and Irish culture was the advent of the Dance Masters around 1750, beginning a tradition that you could argue continues today. A dance master typically traveled within a county, stopping for about six weeks in a village, staying with a hospitable family (who were honored by their selection as host). They taught Irish dancing (male teachers) in kitchens, farm outbuildings, crossroads, or hedge schools. Students would first learn the jig and reel. Sometimes, the teacher had to tie a rope around a student’s leg to distinguish right foot from left. Besides dancing, they also appear to have given instruction in fencing and other skills. Some teachers had other skilled trades that were used on occasion by the villagers, helping to explain dance masters habit of traveling from town to town. Having an eminent dance master associated with your village was a cause for pride and boasting by the community.

Each dance master had a repertoire of dance steps and he created new steps over time. (Eight measures or bars of music are called a “step,” hence the term step dancing.) Sometimes the masters danced competitively at feisianna, the winner being the one who knew the most steps, not the one with the best execution. The loser of a competition might have to concede a town in his territory to the winner. These men were the creators of the set and ceili dances and they carefully guarded their art of step creation. Dance masters created the first schools of dancing, the best known being from Counties Kerry, Cork, and Limerick. One dance master described himself as “an artificial rhythmical walker” and “instructor of youth in the Terpsichorean art.” Villagers paid dance masters at the end of the third week of teaching at a “benefit night.” They paid the accompanying musician a week later. Sometimes, the dance master was both musician and dancer simultaneously! Apparently the level of pay for the dance masters was relatively high for Ireland and it included room and board.

The Penal Laws were finally lifted in the late 1800’s, inspiring Irish nationalism and the Great Gaelic Revival—the resurgence of interest in Irish language, literature, history, and folklore—and its accompanying feis (essentially a gathering that included carious forms of competition).  The feis was typically held in open fields and included contests in singing, playing music, baking, and, or course, Irish dancing.

In 1929, the Irish Dancing Commission was founded (An Coimisiun le Rinci’ Gaelacha) to establish rules regarding teaching, judging, and competitions. It continues in that role. Prior to 1929, many local variations in dances, music, costumes and the rules of feisianna existed. Part of the impact of the Commission was standardization of competitions.

During the 20th Century, Irish dance has evolved in terms of locations, costumes, and dance technique.  For example, during the period of the dance masters, stages were much smaller including table tops, half doors, and sometimes the “stage” was simply a crossroad. (An old poem called dancing “tripping the sod.”) Tests of dancing ability involved dancing on the top of a barrel or on a soaped table! As stages became larger, the dance changed in at least two ways. The movement of dancers across a stage increased greatly (a judge would now subtract points if a dancer did not “use the stage”), and dance steps that require substantial space became possible (e.g., “flying jumps”). The location of competitions also changed over time from barns or outdoors where flat bed trucks were (and still are) used as stages, to predominately indoors in hotels, schools, or fairgrounds. (Note that fairgrounds are particularly appropriate in a historical context of where ancient feisianna were located.)

Irish dance has evolved in other ways during the 20th Century. Instruction is beginning at a younger age. Who is instructed has also changed from mostly males to mostly females (the turning point was before 1930). Girls dancing solos in competition were rare before the 1920s. Dance styles have also changed; for example, arms and hands were not always held rigid during solo dances. Previously they were sometimes more relaxed and were even placed on hips. It seems that the influence of parish priests led to the lack of arm movement; some argue that stiff arms were less provocative, others argue that the Church was trying to increase dancers’ self control. Hand movements still occur in figure (group) dances.

The Church opposition to dance was a European universal from the 1740s to the 1930s in Ireland in tandem with state desire for control, resulting in the 1935 Public Dance Halls Act (EDI).* 

Dancing at the crossroads

Houses and crossroads, where Irish music was played and danced, had been the main venues for social dance in Ireland prior to 1935.  These were still in "operation" well into the 1950s, especially for the American wakes.  House dances were often fundraisers, generally benefits or for the fun of it, but sometimes for political groups, and they could be held in anyone's house.  Neither they, nor cross-roads dancing could be legally controlled by the church and this of course they didn't like.  But emigration and recorded music combined with foreign dance forms (the waltz, foxtrot, twostep, shimmy-shake) were beginning to be popular in Ireland.  Private commercial dance halls were being opened to take advantage of the new fashion.  The Gaelic League was against this activity for its perceived "undermining of Irish culture". 

The Church damned dances and saw them as not only improper (on the borderline of Christian modesty - Irish Catholic Directory, 1924), and "direct and unmistakable incitements to evil thoughts and evil desires".  In addition, there was concern among the authorities about the hazards of overcrowding in unsupervised premises, and even about groups like the IRA running dances to raise money for guns.  The issue became a battle for control.  Religious and political forces combined to demand licensing of dancing.  Intensely conservative lobbying was engaged in by the Church.  Under the Public Dance Halls Act (EDI) of 1935, dancing required a license, and this would only be given to people approved of by a district judge.  Failure to comply was a criminal offence.  Overzealous vigilante style enforcement of the Act by the Church destroyed social, noncommercial house dancing, and gradually shifted the social dance from private space to public. 

Church approved dancing

Many argue that the Church destroyed Irish traditional music and discouraged new players.  But it also laid the groundwork for the "band", the "ceilidh band" in particular, as the mainstay of music for dancing in Ireland, opening a new chapter in Irish music History.

In 1969, the Irish Dance World Championships started in Dublin, and competitive Irish dancing continued to gain momentum.  As the students of the first generation of dance masters became established in American in the 1970’s, the first American Irish step dancing champions began to emerge, and would change the art form forever.

Irish Dancers At The Crossroads No More

What images do you conjure in your mind when you think of 'Irish Dancing' ? Do you think of dancers at the crossroads in times gone by or the over dependence on false tan and hair pieces that grace the stage today?

Whatever your individual image of 'Irish Dancing', it remains a global phenomenon , from its humble formal beginnings in the latter part of the 19th Century to the jaw dropping shows that continue today around the World.

Indeed, Irish Dancing wasn't always as auspicious as it is today. The Irish people fought against the repression of the penal laws in the 17th Century ensuring that Irish education, Culture and dancing survived for future generations. It is to their credit that the sense of national pride was nurtured during these very difficult times often practicing in secret and following the tragedy of the Irish famine in mid 1840’s, a stoic sense of national pride needed to be fostered. Despite this draconian past, Ireland's culture, traditions coupled with the strong sense of nationalism ensured that language and dance survived.

The 'Dance Master' was a predominant feature from the mid to late 18th century where usually a colorful individual would earn his living by teaching the children of the local gentry deportment as well as traditional Irish steps and was usually accompanied by a musician. The Dance Master also taught peasant children during the era of the hedge schools in Ireland when there was prohibition on the practice of Irish Culture and tradition and dance. The Dance Masters varied in their levels of accomplishment with some teaching only the basic rudiments of the craft in the form of the rising step, while the level of intricacy employed by others involved team dances and difficult footwork.

With similar etiquette to that which exists today among Irish Dance Teachers, Dance Masters seldom encroached on another Dance Masters territory and overall they were widely esteemed by the Community.

Outlets for this new founded skill began to emerge with small sessions engaging in communal dance instruction and open air displays when the weather permitted. Thus in this way, dancing at the Crossroads was born and following the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829 Irish tradition had had its reprieve.

This practice continued well on into the late nineteenth Century with Dance Masters surviving in more isolated areas into the early twentieth Century. However, the devastating famine of the 1840’s which resulted in mass emigration and the deaths of almost a million people had far reaching effects on the emphasis towards the Irish Language and Culture.

Towards the end of the nineteenth Century as the Country struggled to rebuild it’s sense of nationalism the grip of the Catholic Church tightened with crossroads dancing and such informal gatherings as had become common being denounced from the pulpit as 'sinful'.

The Gaelic League was set up in 1893 to encourage the renewed interest in Irish Culture and the first ‘Ceili’ was organised in London in 1897 by the Irish Diaspora residing in London who wished to keep a stronghold on their own traditions. It was highly successful with many high profile members of the Gaelic League attending and it created a blueprint for encouraging the same in Ireland.

These ‘Ceili’ were encouraged in Ireland by the Catholic Church who wished that any socializing between men and women be supervised and with the introduction of the ‘Dance Halls Act’ in the 1930’s it seemed that dancing at the Crossroads had come to it's inevitable end.

Thus the first Irish ‘Feis’ was held in Macroom, Co. Cork on 20th March 1898 with Irish Dancers competing in Reel, Jig and Hornpipe and Irish Dance Schools were set up to fulfill the growing demand for tuition.

Irish Dancing continued to flourish throughout the 1930’s and 40’s with the introduction of ‘An Coimisiún le Rincí Gaelacha’ which was set up by Conradh na Gaeilge in 1929 to promote and preserve the skill of Irish Dancing and to aid in the running of Feiseanna. Feiseanna were organised competitions and proved hugely popular. Developing on the Tailteann Games, the nature of Irish Dance Costumes began to change with individual Schools creating their own costume embellished with Celtic Designs most of which were hand embroidered with Collar and Cuffs hand crocheted.

In the 1950's there was a marked decline in the numbers of Dancers particularly in rural areas with many people leaving school early and travelling to Dublin and other major cities with the promise of better prospects and a higher living standards. With the happening years of the 1960’s, 70's and 80's the main Dublin Venue, The Lord Major’s residence, The Mansion House continued to play host to many Dublin, Leinster and all Ireland Dance Championships although this was a controversial period with policy differences in 'An Coimisiún' leading to the setting up of 'Comhdháil na Muinteorí Rince Gaelacha' in 1969 and further differences in 'An Comhdháil' resulting in the setting up of ' Cumann Rince Naisiunta' in 1982. Since this period many other Irish Dance Organisations have been set up Worldwide exploiting areas where previously no Irish Dance Classes existed.

Then in April 1994, during the interval of the Eurovision Song contest in Mill Street, Co. Cork the history of Irish Dancing was re-written.

‘Riverdance’ as it was named, was a line up of uniformly clad Irish Dancers fronted by the American Duo, Jean Butler and Michael Flately in a piece created by the team of Moya Doherty, John Mc Colgan with Music by Bill Whelan.

They took to the stage with such force and energy that the dynamics of Irish Dance changed forever with Irish step dancing being transported into the 21st Century overnight.

Classes immediately saw huge influxes of eager students wishing to emulate the dancers they had seen with Butler and Flately becoming overnight sensations.

'Riverdance' the Show was launched in 1995 to Worldwide acclaim and has been instrumental over the last fifteen years in setting trends not only within Irish Dance footwork but with Irish Dance Costumes becoming lighter, shorter and more embellished with exotic fabrics being used in dazzling creations and spawning countless dancing shows.

The future of Irish Dancing is as strong as it has ever been, since the beginning of the 20th Century, Irish Dance has changed from a rural preoccupation of the working classes to the global phenomenon with exponential increases in Eastern Europe, South Africa and USA. In these challenging times where Tradition and Culture are often looked on as the staples in peoples lives, Irish Dancing has become synonymous with a deeply rooted sense of National pride.

Irish Dancing - Ceilidh and Set Dancing

Irish dancing or Irish dance is a group of traditional dance forms originating in Ireland which can broadly be divided into social dance and performance dances. Irish social dances can be divided further into céilí and set dancing. Irish set dances are quadrilles, danced by four couples arranged in a square, while céilí dances are danced by varied formations (céilí) of two to sixteen people. In addition to their formation, there are significant stylistic differences between these two forms of social dance. Irish social dance is a living tradition, and variations in particular dances are found across the Irish dancing community; in some places, dances are deliberately modified and new dances are choreographed.

Irish dancing, popularized in 1994 by the world-famous show Riverdance, is notable for its rapid leg and foot movements, body and arms being kept largely stationary.

Most competitive dances are solo dances, though many stepdancers also perform and compete using céilí dances. The solo stepdance is generally characterized by a controlled but not rigid upper body, straight arms, and quick, precise movements of the feet. The solo dances can either be in "soft shoe" or "hard shoe".

The dancing traditions of Ireland probably grew in close association with traditional Irish music. Although its origins are unclear, Irish dancing was later influenced by dance forms from the Continent, especially the Quadrille. Travelling dancing masters taught all over Ireland, as late as the 18th and early 19th centuries. During this time, places for competitions and fairs were always small, so there was little room for the Dance Masters to perform. They would dance on tabletops, sometimes even the top of a barrel. Because of this, the dancing styles were very contained, with hands rigid at the sides, and a lack of arm movement and travelling across the stage. As time went on, larger places for dance competitions and performances were found, so styles grew to include more movement, more dancing across the stage as seen, for example, in Riverdance.

Irish social, or céilí /ˈkeɪli/ dances vary widely throughout Ireland and the rest of the world. A céilí dance may be performed with as few as two people and as many as sixteen. Céilí dances may also be danced with an unlimited number of couples in a long line or proceeding around in a circle (such as in "The Walls of Limerick", "The Waves of Tory", "Haymakers Jig", "An Rince Mor" or "Bonfire Dance"). Céilí dances are often fast and some are quite complex ("Antrim Reel", "Morris Reel"). In a social setting, a céilí dance may be "called" – that is, the upcoming steps are announced during the dance for the benefit of newcomers. The céilí dances are typically danced to Irish instruments such as the Irish Bodhran hand drum or fiddle in addition to the concertina (and similar instruments), guitar, whistle or flute.

The term céilí dance was invented in the late 19th century by the Gaelic League. Céilí as a noun differs from the adjective céilí. A céilí is a social gathering featuring Irish music and dance. Céilí dancing is a specific type of Irish dance. Some céilithe (plural of céilí) will only have céilí dancing, some only have set dancing, and some will have a mixture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_dance