Welcome to Gaia! ::

I decided to start a thread about Irish dance, as I love it myself. Here you can discuss anything you wish about Irish dance. smile


Do you know any Irish step dance? (tell us about yourself: how long have you been dancing? your level? your school? whatever!)
What is your favorite dance?
Do you prefere hardshoe or softshoe?
Favorite song to dance to?
Why do you like Irish step dance (or why do you not like it)?
Or whatever else you can think of. biggrin
Riverdance, I don't know. biggrin Michael Flatley? hehe.

And remember! This thread is welcome to everyone, even non-Irish dancers!

I took the adult classes at our school for a couple of years before my health got me. I'd like to get back into it, though. I loved all the set dances we were doing. Blackbird and Job of Journeywork were my favorites, but I find the last part of teh set to be a killer to do to the music!

I should get my daughter over here to post. We just came home from a performance!

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My daughter does some ceili. Usually the Fairy Reel, another 6 hand, 4 hand, 2 hand or, lately, a 12 hand.
In shows, she mostly ends up in the Slip Jig, reels, slow Treble Jig, Slow hornpipe and, when we do it, the Treble Reel.

Way cool! My daughter is from the Bracken School of Irish Dance. She's been dancing about 7 years or so and is also Novice/Prizewinner. She has only three left in Novice and a competition is coming up soon. We're hoping she can pull her last three up.
She really doesn't care for the St. Patrick's Day anymore and usually competes with the Blackbird. She's learned the Hunts and is working on Ace and Deuce. I keep telling her I'll teach her Job of Journeywork, but she usually just sticks her tongue out at me when I do that! lol

For those crazy good dancers out there biggrin

I have a question:

What goes into a reel -
I know it's a 4/4 count and the whole 8 bars thing... but yeah. Give me your knowledge. smile I am only a lowly beginner 1.

I'm not quite sure... I'm mainly looking for some info that can help me make my own dance... as idealistic as it sounds sweatdrop
Our beginner reel has 8 bars of 123's, 16 bars of 7's and then 16 bars of a hop and heel. I guess i'm looking for information of variations of the reel, like different steps, their beats, etc.

H'lo. I'm not a competitive Irish dancer, but this is my fourth year in the class at my school (all hail the greatest variety of arts in SoCal!). This year my level is being considered Novice, though we're really more like Beginner IIs since most of us haven't actually competed outside of school.
My teacher is a Preliminary Champion, and so is one of the girls in the class (heh... we only have one boy right now...). Then there's a... I think Prizewinner? but maybe she's only Novice, or part-way between. The other Novice/Prizewinner isn't in the class anymore. They all study at Fearon-O'Connor.
My favorite softshoe dance is probably the slip jig... but I really do love hardshoe (especially now that I actually have hardshoes instead of tap shoes... O.o). In hardshoe... gosh, I can't decide. I love 'em all. Ooh. I also like ceili. We're doing the Kerry Sets right now, but I also like Faery Reel, Haymakers Jig, and Three Tunes.
Every year our club, Cara Go Celtica, puts on a performance at the Winter Dance Concert, and also for St. Patrick's Day (of course). We usually dance to stuff like AfroCelt Sound System, which is always fun. We're also beginning to be cursed, so that every year one of us dances in a cast (I was it last year with a broken wrist! This year it was someone else... but I still broke my toe... crying ).
At the end of the year, we watch Riverdance, or Lord of the Dance. I admit, however, that I positively detest Michael Flatley...

Heh... on that note, however, a story I find humorous. At the end of a few years ago, we were watching... one of the older Flatley ones (Riverdance or Lord of the Dance, I can't remember), and some of the younger girls were talking about how hot he was. At the time, I had heard a certain story in the news about him... so, in my usual impish manner, I decided to enlighten them. "He's also just been accused of rape!"
Ah, the looks on their faces...