Beer Aunt

What your relationship with the Republic of Ireland? Do you have one?

“Ireland and I go waaaay back, back to even the 7th Century. Most of it is just  trading, but it’s pretty significant since we’re one of the biggest trade partners with Ireland even now.”

(Ireland OC belongs to @ask-ireland)

Hello, hello! It's the Ambassador for Carpathian Ruś here! I have a (long passed, sadly) great grandmother from Ireland, and apparently she did Irish stepdancing! Would you be able to tell me more about it, please? Thank you in advance!!

Hello there! :D

Aaah well, I don’t really consider myself to be a big expert on Irish dancing or to be very knowledgeable on the technicalities of Irish step dancing. However since I’m a big history nerd, I can offer you a brief history on Irish dancing and how step dancing fits in the whole picture?  ;w;

(video of step dancing from 1972)

There is surprisingly not much that is known of Irish dancing in medieval Ireland and earlier. Therehave been quite a few references to it in written records throughout the centuries, but we know little of how these dances would have looked like back then.

We are first able to start working with known dance forms from the 12thcentury onward. Withthe Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century, various Normancustoms were introduced to the country. Among them was the Carol, a type of dancein which the leader sang in the middle of a circle of dancers who would reply tothe leader’s song. This dance was often performed in Irish towns that had beenconquered by the Normans. It is believed that the Carol introduced the concept of circledances in Ireland, although it isn’t completely certain that native forms ofcircle dances didn’t exist previously. However the Carol seems to have stuckaround for some time and perhaps popularized the concept of circle dances.  

 In the 16thcentury there were three types of Irish dances that were the most oftenmentioned: the Irish Hey, the “Rince Fada” (Irish for long dance) and the Trenchmore. 

- The Irish Hey was a type of circle dance that involved dancers wounding in andaround their partners. It was a forerunner of the reel, which is stillperformed in Ireland to this day. (the video above is an example of a treble reel, one of the evolved dance forms of the Irish Hey)

- The Rince Fada was typically done in two longlines, one line with women and the other with men. Hence the name “long dance”. :P The video is a pretty good example of how this dance would go, though usually there are more participants.

- The Trenchmore was apparently an Irish dance that was adapted for the Englishinvaders, being derived from an older type of Irish peasant dance. This dancewas very popular with the English, to the point that they brought it back tothe court of Queen Elizabeth. This video is a reconstruction of how it would have looked like, to my knowledge the Trenchmore hasn’t survived otherwise.

By the 18th century the jig was well established inIreland. Other popular dance steps included slip jigs, double jigs, slides,mazurkas and polkas. From around the 1750s to the early 1900s, travelling dancemasters were going from village to village, teaching various forms of dancesand steps. Step dancing in particular was widely taught in all parts ofIreland. Another type of dance that was taught during thistime was the reel, the whirling or spinning dance. Travelling dancemasters usually would spend a couple of weeks in each village, staying with alocal family. In return for the lodging, they would teach dancing free ofcharge to the family members.  

Inthe 19th and 20th centuries, the most popular dancesthroughout Ireland were sets and half sets. A good example of a set dance canbe seen in this video:

Setdances were brought over to Ireland and England by the armies of the Duke ofWellington returning home from the Napoleonic wars in 1816. This militaryorigin can be seen in the names given to certain dance movements. Beingoriginally derived from the French quadrille, set dances in Ireland developedfurther to better suit native Irish rhythms.

Dancesused to be commonly hosted in people’s houses but this practice would decreasewith the appearance of commercial dance halls and changes in travel,communication and lifestyle by the mid-20th century. However anotherfactor that is thought to have majorly contributed to the decline of housedances was the passing of the Public Halls Dance Act in 1935, which made thehosting of unlicenseddances illegal. House dances as they hadbeen known previously would disappear almost completely afterwards. A survivingrelic of this custom is the Irish word “céilí”, which refers to “an informalsocial gathering (at a neighbour’s house)” but now the word is mostly used to describean organized dancing session.

TheGaelic League, in their goal of re-establishing the Irish language and culturein the country, went on to ban their members from participating in dances thatwere regarded as being foreign introductions. One of the dances that werebanned was set dancing, which was regarded by the Gaelic League as being tooEnglish.

Stepdancing would instead be encouraged by the Gaelic League and this form ofdancing would become heavily popularized during the 20th century. Throughout the 20th century,the competitive solo form of step dancing would evolve. This would lead to step dancing becomingcodified and certain styles being standardised. (particularly styles from thesouthern areas of the country) Informal competitions for students of variousdance masters were held between towns for several years but the Gaelic Leagueheld the first organised competition in 1897. The Gaelic League would create in1927 An Coimisiún Le RincíGaelacha (The Commission of Gaelic Dances), a separate body that would be incharge of organising dances and contributing to the further standardisation ofIrish dances. This organisation wouldalso start holding examinations and giving certifications to dance teachers. 

Inthe recent years, older and freer forms of step dancing have started to betaught at summer schools and festivals. Showslike Riverdance would also revolutionize Irish dancing by returning to moretraditional step dance forms and move away from the rigid competitive forms. The video below shows the interval act of the 1994 Eurovision show, which is considered to be truly historic as it introduced Irish dancing (particularly step dancing!) to a global stage. This act not only managed to attract new fans to this dance form, but it also reinvigorated traditional Irish dancing and has contributed to the bright and vibrant culture it is today.   

Whereare the arms in Irish dancing?

So this is probably a question that has baffled many people when on the subject of Irish traditional dancing: Why is there little to no arm movement in Irish dances, particularly in step dancing?

Aaaahif only there was a straightforward answer to why arm movements became absent fromIrish dancing. The silliest explanation I’ve seen states that when the Englishbanned the Irish language and other forms of cultural expression, the Irish decidedto not only dance inside their houses, but to do so without using their arms sothat any Englishman passing by wouldn’t know the Irish were dancing.

A more likely explanation is due to lack of space back then. Local venues wereusually small, so travelling dance masters reportedly taught the steps bydemonstrating on tabletops, or even on top of barrels! If this was the case,these masters would have had to hold their arms rigidly at their sides and wereunable to do any kind of lateral movement. Later when there were larger venues,various regional styles evolved to include more movement of the body but armmovements never fully caught on.  

Anotherpossible explanation relates to the state of the stage, or a lack thereof. Mostplaces lacked a hard surface to dance on properly, so people often unhingeddoors and lay them on the ground to dance on. Doors didn’t offer a lotof space and so due to having a small “stage”, it didn’t favour using the armsmuch. Instead, people would favour dances that showed off the quick and intricatemovements of the feet.

Addingon to this explanation, there is a belief that in earlier competitions a danceteacher decided to have his students perform with arms purposefully heldrigidly to the sides to draw more attention to the steps. According to thisbelief, those students were praised for their movements and won thecompetition, which led to other teachers and dancers adopting this trend and iteventually became part of the standard of Irish dances.

I’mnot certain about the validity of this last explanation as we are not givennames, dates or any kind of specifics for that matter. But I could believe thatthe trend of not using the arms grew gradually and not one, but several danceteachers began to forgo arm movements completely and it eventually became thestandard.  

Inany case, we don’t have a straightforward answer to why arms fell out of use inIrish dances. The most likely explanations show that lack of space (and/or lackof a proper stage) led to arm movements being an underdeveloped aspect intraditional dances and with the establishment of dancing competitions, thenon-usage of the arms probably became deliberate. 

Inmodern Irish step dance, arm movements have started to be integrated more often thanks to showslike Riverdance but many regard it as non-traditional and dancing competitionsstill maintain the “no arms” rule.