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It is claimed that there is little in the written record about the dances and culture of Ireland in ancient times. Most history has been handed down orally through the nation’s dance, music, and stories (Flynn 13). Indeed, a visit to the university’s library confirms the lack of a detailed written record. One example of the scarcity of authoritative sources of information is this: On page 41 of Duggan’s Folk Dances of the British Isles first published in 1948 there is a section describing Irish Folk Dances that appears to be plagiarized from page 174 of Kinney’s The Dance published in 1914. Fortunately, a swift visit to the bibliography of Duggan’s book provides a better explanation; it shows Kinney’s book listed in it.
The middle of the fifth century was Ireland’s “Golden Age.” Poetry and music flourished. The Church built monasteries, schools, and Ireland became a great center of learning (Duggan 28). Unfortunately in the eighth century Vikings destroyed most of the books, and in the twelfth century, the English created laws to ban dancing and other aspects of Irish culture (Flynn 9-10).
The Irish are said to have, “or have had, at any rate,” possessed an unrivaled reputation for fun and humor, and that it should be no surprise that dance flourishes in Ireland. Apparently, they took their merriment very seriously and were quite competitive. As also practiced in the courts of the Sun King, and while drowned in Irish whiskey, the gatherings took notice of a dancer’s missteps. The crowd would promptly tease the subject for their error (Grove 198-199).
One such example of Irish joviality is the Sunday cake. Not exactly a competition, more of a festivity connected to sporting events, cakes date back to the nineteenth century but are no longer performed. On Sunday afternoons, after five hours of Church attendance, it was tradition to hold a cake. It was called a cake because the most talented dancer would receive a cake for their efforts (Grove 208). The participants split the cost of the purchase of the cake that was usually provided by the wife of the innkeeper or pub operator, and the cake was placed on a pole about ten feet high (Flynn 35). The contestants also paid the piper to play music at the cake. The piper would sit on the ground, near the cake, and into a hole he dug besides him each participant would deposit money after dancing (Grove 208).
Irish style dance has influenced American dance styles including jazz and tap. Irish music has also provided quite an influence in other nation’s dances. One source reports that nearly one-third of British broadsides are Irish in origin (Myers 74).
The most important and most commonly overlooked instrument is the hard shoed foot. Kinney stresses this in his book when he quotes Mr. Hill, a professional Irish dancer of eleven years experience:
“The thing of great importance in Irish dancing,” Mr. Hill says, “is the music of the shoes. In the eleven years that I have been dancing, the greater part of my attention has been spent on the development and control of the variety of tones that can be produced by taps of heels and soles on the floor and against each other. Style is necessary, of course, as in any other dancing, and so is exactness in ‘tricky’ time. But control of a good variety of sounds which is the most difficult part of Irish dancing, is the most important because it is the most Irish.” (175)
The harp is considered the true Irish national instrument (Grove 199), emerging in its most familiar form in Ireland in the twelfth century. What parted the Irish harp in similarities from other variations was the solid and robust construction of the Irish harp. The harp appearing on the coins of Ireland, the country’s national identity, is the “Brian Boru Harp” and is preserved at the Trinity College in Dublin (Breathnach 65-66).
Commonly fiddlers sang and danced while playing, they were rarely seen standing (Emmerson, 194). Many sources researched for this paper inform that the fiddle is considered interchangeable with the violin of today. By the eighteenth century, this instrument became quite capable of producing music suitable for dancing when commanded by a skilled fiddler It quickly became the most widely used instrument at dances.
Today, the most popular instrument associated with Irish dancing is the Irish bagpipe, or more correctly the “uilleann” pipes, although the fiddle is actually more commonly used (Breathnach 76-79). It is said that in 1751, every village had its own bagpiper (Grove 203). The Irish uilleann pipes should not be confused with the Scottish bagpipes, also called the War pipe (Kinney 179). In the present day you may find an accordion playing the part of pipes (Breathnach 87).
As observed at the Renaissance Faire in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in October 2000, the uilleann pipes were smaller than their counterpart, the War pipe. The Irish instrument’s notes are softer and gentler than its counterpart’s loudly screaming notes, the notes of the Scottish instrument being able to broadcast orders to troops over the noise of battle if needed. Lastly, the Irish pipes differs from the Scottish version in that the Scottish pipes are supplied with air from the musician’s lungs whereas the Irish bagpipe’s supply is provided through a bellows operated by the musician’s right elbow.
Refereed sometimes to as ghillies, soft shoes, or pumps (Theresa), are similar to ballet slippers. They are made of a soft leather that molds to the foot. They are very light and are used in the Aran Islands and are called Broga uirleathair. These shoes are worn during reels and jigs, but not hornpipes (Flynn 45).
Soft shoes tend to cost between $25.00 and $35.00 in new condition.
Hard shoes, also called jig shoes and heavy shoes, as pointed out by dance student Theresa, are neither tap shoes nor clogs. Modern hard shoes have fiberglass tips with elevated heels. Historically, the shoes were constructed with wooden heels. Hard shoes are not worn during reels (Flynn 45).
A broken in used pair in good condition will run a purchaser about US $50.00 whereas new shoes may go for between $70.00 to $120.00 depending on the materials and quality of the construction.
Although Ireland is known as the Emerald Isle, not all of her costumes contain green. In fact, not all authentic costumes necessarily contain any green at all. Men sometimes wear high top hats with wide brims and buckles. Lower on his body are a white shirt and darkly colored tie, fitted knee trousers, and woolen socks with low quarter shoes. The women’s costume is a simple one, though sometimes is complex with intricate patterns and ornamentation. Frequently women wore a white dress with black stocking, black shoes or slippers with a solid or plaid cape (Duggan 43-44).
An entire woman’s costume may cost upwards of $800.00 for all articles in new condition.
To demonstrate control and grace, arm movements are restricted when dancing. There was a time in the early nineteenth century when participants wielded shillelaghs, club-like sticks. This was abandoned early in the twentieth century (Flynn 32).
Step dances are of the “clog and shuffle” type of dance. The clog and shuffle dances of Ireland are the most technically challenging and demanding dances that can be found. The dancer’s feet strike the floor upwards of seventy-five times in fifteen seconds (Duggan 41, Kinney 174).
George S. Emmerson notes in A Social History of Scottish Dance the origins of the term “jig.” It is quoted below.
“It has often been suggested that the word ‘jig’ is derived from the old French name gigue meaning a small fiddle, and certainly the first recorded use of the word in English in John de Garlandia’s Vocabulary (ca. 1225) seems to confirm this supposition” (Emmerson 193).
Sailors historically danced the jig of which there are many variations. Some examples of the jig are the light jig, heavy jig, slip jig, hop jig, and triple jig. The light jig is the fastest; the dancer’s feet infrequently leave the floor higher than twelve inches, and for each bar of music the action is repeated three times. The dancer wears heavy shoes when performing the heavy jig, and there is much loud stomping (Flynn 31-33). The slip jig with its combination of grace and power is danced in nine-eight time and is so unique as to be called the ballet of Irish dance (Theresa).
The Kinneys, in their book The Dance, quote Mr. Patrick J. Long, himself a scholar on Irish history, as saying:
“[Jigs are] danced as solos by man or woman, by two men, two women, a couple, two men and a woman, two, three, four or eight couples. In ‘set dances,’ as they are called when performed by a ‘set’ of couples, the steps are simpler than in solo work; and the time is also simpler in the music of set dances that in the airs used to accompany solos and the work of teams of two” (177-178).
Danced on the flats of feet and usually performed by four couples, set dances are usually arranged on the sides of a square. Further, they are arranged into “figures” numbering two to nine, but usually five or six. Leaps and traveling movements are usually avoided (Fiona).
The jig and reel have a lot in common – enough so that the jig and reel can be danced to each other’s music with minor modifications to the underlying rhythm (Theresa). The reel is characterized by speedy gliding movements that are silent (Kinney 177), although the reel is less graceful and smooth than the light jig and single jig. The reel, is also the first Irish dance generally learned by novice students (Theresa).
With its upbeat rhythm and danced in two-four time, the hornpipe is the most invigorating of the Irish hard shoe dances (Theresa). Mr. Emmerson points out that the difference between the Irish jig and hornpipe is narrow (Emmerson 211). The hornpipe contains more clogging than the jig (Kinney 177).
“It is clear that the second, third, and forth steps of the hornpipe are ‘slips and shuffles forward,’ ‘spleet and floorish backwards,’ and ‘Hyland step forwards.’ … [in the hornpipe] there are directions to ‘heel and toe forwards,’ ‘single and double round step,’ ‘slaps across forward,’ ‘twist round backward,’ ‘cross strocks aside and sinks forward,’ ‘short shifts,’ and ‘back hops’” (Emmerson 211).
Of the two kinds of styles of hornpipe, women tend to dance the single hornpipe, and leave the more difficult double hornpipe to the men. This is because the double hornpipe contains much “drumming” and “grinding” that is considerably more difficult to accomplish than the shuffles of the single hornpipe (Emmerson 207).
Danced in longways formation, as in the Waves of Tory (Burchenal 4), precise and small movements of the legs characterize the Irish long dances. The troupe of dancers tap out an ocean of clear sounding rhythmical patterns of clicks, clacks, and stomps. With the exception of interacting with their partners, the dancers’ bodies remain upright, and the arms, as with most Irish dance remain at the sides suspended loosely though any movement is suppressed (Duggan 95).
One popular long dance is the Kerry Dance, originally the Rinnce Fada (Burchenal 4), and pronounced reenka faudha. The dance was popular with nobles and their ladies and was known as a dance for couples. This dance’s descendants are the dances called the Sir Roger and the Virginia Reel of America (Kinney 177). Apparently, the Kerry Dance is popular enough to have had the pages documenting the exact steps to the dance in Burchenals’s book titled Rinnce Na Eirann – National Dances of Ireland torn free from the West Chester University’s copy located in general circulation department of the library.
The earliest reference to the Kerry Dance is in 1549 when an author noted similarities between Irish and Scottish versions (Flynn 33). The similarities in the Scottish and Irish versions should come as no surprise as both Scotland and Ireland are rather small, each about the size of Maine (Duggan 25). The North Channel at Ireland’s northern coast and Scotland’s southwestern cost is all that separates the two countries. This waterway is not wide enough to prevent the easy migration of inhabitants, and thus probably did not significantly interfere in exchange between the two cultures.