IRISH DANCES

(Or We All Know Them, But We Actually Don't)

I mean, we've all seen them, we know how the music sounds... But they all kind of look the same. At least, to me they do. They're not really... They also look pretty easy until you try them. I did it once with a bunch of people at some party, and in the end, I wasn't sure which leg was which... It was a lot of fun, though. Try it sometime.



The most notable features are surely the footwork and the stiff upper body. The dances have developed together with Irish music, but were influenced by other countries' traditions as well.

So, the types of dances. The basic division is into social dances and performance dances.

Céilí dances. It's one of the social dances, danced in the formations from two to sixteen people. It is performed in a line or a circle.

Set dancing. Dances adapted from French quadrilles, performed by four couples. The sets, consisting of several figures, are often named after the place of their origin.

Stepdancing. Can be performed either solo or in groups, and is danced with both hard shoes and soft shoes (similar to ballet shoes), depending on the dance performed (there are a number of dances for both types of shoes, but I won't go into names because they wouldn't really make anything any clearer).
The steps in the dance differ from one dance school to another, meaning that even though the basic elements are the same, the choreographies are unique. It is actually forbidden to film the competitions for that reason.

Sean-nós dance. It's an older Irish solo dance, less known than traditional dancing to today. Its characteristic are the "low to the ground" footwork and free steps (in other words improvisation). It also involves more arm movements than the traditional kind. 

Old style dancing. It's similar to the sean-nos dancing. Stemming from the late 18 century, the old style dancing supports the idea of making every step twice, first with one foot, then with the other, and dancing in limited space.