I brought along a couple of visiting family members to Alicia Guinn's Beginner Sean-nós Irish Step Dancing workshop in Milton, Massachusetts, yesterday - they were good sports to accompany me and had never done Irish dancing before.
Alicia teaches in the Seattle, Washington area. By the end of the 1 1/2 hour lesson, they had mastered the not-so-easy heel lift and were looking mighty fine as they danced to the concertina music provided by
George Keith.
Alicia (left) at Sean-nós workshop August 2009
It was a great class. We started off with just slow-walking in time to the music and built on that rhythmic step, adding the heel-lift - "lift 1-2-3, and 1-2-3," then adding the heel-taps to this basic step- "lift and-1-and-2-and-3, lift and-1-and-2-and-3" (or "lift a-1 a-2 a-3" the "a" being the heel tapping or dragging on the floor; it's a quick and light movement). We added the hop-back step - "hop-1 hop-2 hop-1-2-3" - and variations on the basic steps.
After a summer break, I'm eager to start my second year of
classes with
Kieran Jordan in the new
Green Street studio location in Cambridge (MA). Not only is it a great low-impact aerobic workout, but it is wonderful to be able to tap out a reel or a jig any time, anywhere, to give the spirits a lift. I personally find it invigorating to tap it out in the ladies room at work for a bit before heading back to my sedentary desk job.
Kieran has made this form of Irish dancing popular in the Boston area, as evidenced by the thirty or so dancers who show up for class each week and struggle to make their feet tap out a rhythm in time to a slow reel with some semblance or order. As this is a "free-style" type of dance, there is really no *wrong* way to do it, within some guidelines like "keep your feet low to the ground" and "stay in time with the music," made all the more difficult by trying to remember to stomp first or struggling to switch from leadnig with the right foot to leading with the left. Ah, but wait 'til you see us in a couple of months! Hopefully, the stage-fright jitters will have worn down, as Kieran has us dance a solo before the group at each class. Here's what Sean-Nós dancing looks like as seen at the 2008 ICONS Festival in Canton (MA). 
The pace was brisk at the Irish Cultural Center in Canton (MA) on Thursday night (7/24/08). Guest dance instructor Patrick O’Dea from Ireland kept the crowds hopping, first the step dancers then the set dancers. Patrick dances and teaches the old style of step dancing, known as sean nos Irish step dancing. “His feet batter in loose shuffles, hops, rocks and drums - complicated and percussive - but graceful, effortless and understated.” [From the Boston Irish Reporter, August 31, 1998 By Kieran Jordan; article archived at Celtic Cafe. I believe the step dance he taught was The Blackbird; as I sat waiting for the set dancing to begin, I watched the dance come together and was inspired into thinking about adding step-dancing lessons to my fall schedule; it looked like so much fun to do.
The organizers, Jackie and Janine, are shown here with Patrick. [View larger image] Keiran Jordan arranged and promoted the event, and Pat Callahan notified the set dancers on his email list covering Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Together they pulled together the "last minute" step and set dancing workshop with Patrick O'Dea. As you might imagine, word passed quickly among the dancers of the opportunity to learn from a renowned dance teacher. 
