Benefit Session at The Burren with Set Dancing

Some of Boston's best traditional Irish musicians will be playing a benefit at The Burren authentic Irish music pub / restaurant in Davis Square, Somerville on Sunday June 13th from 4PM to 1AM. The trad session goes from 4 to 9 featuring Helena Delaney, Peter Malloy (catch Helena and Peter Thursdays in the Burren's Front Room), Jimmy Noonan, and many more; this is followed at 9:30 by the Johnny Come Lately's.

The fundraiser event is for the Maunsell family, Seamus Maunsell, a friend and valued employee of The Burren and Hannah Maunsell, his 8 year old daughter, her mum Jen Maunsell, brother Seamus Jr. and sister Micheala.

If you're a set dancer, Ger Cooney will be leading a set or two around 5 o'clock. What an opportunity to dance to the live music of these great musicians!

Set Dancing at The Burren in the Back Room

Set Dancing at Vaughan's Barn in Kilfenora

Set Dancing at Vaughan's Barn, Kelfenora, Ireland February 2010

On a recent trip to Ireland, I made my way far to the West of Ireland for a night of set dancing with friends at Vaughan's Barn in Kilfenora before heading back home. Yes, it was worth it. Here's a little video of a set with Mr. John Vaughan himself in the set closest to us dancing to the music of the Four Courts Ceili Band.

Irish Dancing at Your Wedding

A wedding is a great time to celebrate your heritage and what better way to entertain your Irish guests than with an Irish dance. You could, for instance, like this bride, surprise your husband and amaze your guests with an Irish jig you've secretly practiced.

Or you could hire a professional dance troupe, like Celtic Storm, to perform during your wedding reception.  How about the bride kicking off freestyle Irish dancing with the guests, the wedding party, and the groom joining in - that looks like a lot of fun to me. You're lucky if you've got a talented Irish dancer in the family, like this bride's brother,  willing to do an Irish dance on your special day.

The whole family joined together in what looks like an Irish set dance (or an 8-hand reel) in this video. That's very impressive and they've done a great job. You can hear in the background a guest commenting, "This is my favorite part of the whole wedding."

Here the bride and groom join the traditional Irish dance troupe (girls with curls). This video clip had me laughing out loud at the non-dancer groom's efforts (What a good sport!) and the groomsmen as they are obviously having a great time, and that's the way it should be.

Even if it's just you and your new spouse doing your first dance together, like this couple dancing to a bagpipe tune, you can honor your Irish heritage with a two-hand reel or a highland fling. But then, why not respectfully dance down the aisle like this wedding party - it's not Irish, but you get the idea.

Even if there is nothing in particular scripted into the event, with an Irish tune playing, the guests will surely want to give it a try and have some fun.

So, if there's a wedding being planned in your family, these videos  provide some great ideas to express your individuality and honor your culture. But you don't have to wait for a wedding to incorporate Irish dancing into an event. Get inspired and, most of all, have fun!

Clare Lancers Set With Sean-Nos Style

The Clare Lancers is a fun traditional Irish Set Dance. with a variety of moves. This YouTube video clip of the 3rd & 5th figures of the Clare Lancers, "Maldon Meehan's Irish Dance Show "An Damhsa": Clare Lancers Set Dance," is especially well done and what footwork!

The video is a clip from a show presented in Portland, Oregon, in September 2008. I recognize  the names of two of the dancers in the video from my brief foray into Sean-Nos Irish Step Dancing, Alicia Guinn and Maldon Meehan, who are dance teachers, as well.

There are some links to videos and study notes for the Clare Lancers on the Irish set dancing social network, irishsetdancing.ning.com along with notes for other sets in the Notes tab.

Gathering Momentum

"The Gathering" flyers are ready. If you've been set dancing in the Boston area for any number of years, you're bound to hear about The Gathering in Killarney in February. Ger Cooney-Browne, who teaches set dancing at The Burren in Somerville, organizes the hotel and bus arrangements for most of the Americans making the trip from the northeast. Download a flyer and find more about information and articles on this traditional Irish music and dance extravaganza on the Joy of Sets website. There are set dancing workshops, sean-nos dancing workshops, ceilis, concerts, and a whole lot more.

Saturday morning set dancing workshop with Pat Murphy at the INEC - February 2009

Alicia Guinn's Beginner Sean-nós Dance Workshop

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.

Irish Dancing in Florida

It's August and I'm still dancing. Summer is a less rigorously scheduled time when most dance classes take a break and here in Boston, at least, the regular Sunday set dances to live Irish music run from September to May, roughly. But Irish festivals, special Irish dance cruises, workshops, and a few year round set dancing groups keep the music going and the feet battering.

I was happy to read about the Irish dancing activities in Gainesville, Florida. The Inisheer Irish Dance Company sponsored "The Long Hot Summer Irish Ceili Dance and Workshops" in July - read the article in the Gainesville Sun - consisting of an Irish step-dance workshop and a subsequent ceili and set dance workshop, followed by an evening ceili dance accompanied by excellent area musicians, with guest instructor Liam Eagan of West Palm Beach leading the social dances and Piper Call leading a workshop on Sean nos ("old style") Irish step dance. [The article, by the way, does a great job of defining the various types of Irish dancing: step dancing, sean-nos dancing, set dancing and ceili dancing.]

 

Harrington's Beginner Class - Nora Helps Out (Reading Advocate photo)

It has long been a wish of mine to some day be a "snow-bird" but the one thing I would miss if I headed south in winter would be the Irish dancing - in season, September to May, you could dance every night of the week around Boston and several groups remain active all summer - so I'm glad to know that there are pockets of it alive and "kicking" in Florida. It's funny, though; as part of a plan to ensure that I would be able to dance no matter where in the world I go, I have started to teach set dancing to beginners so I can bring the Irish dancing with me.