After two nice dancing performances with The Swigshift, one in Wervik and one in Genval, Peter, the band leader, thought it would be a good idea that I would teach his friends and fans a few Irish dances. Because the repertoire of The Swigshift is quite divers in style, I accepted the offer on the condition that I would not limit my teaching to traditional dancing, but that all styles would be covered. And so it happens that since September 2005, once a month, between 12 and 20 future dance champions are convening in 't Isermael to learn a few steps.

Here is what has been covered thus far.


Ceili dances

Two Hand Reel
This is a couple dance for reels, danced counter-clockwise in a circle, gent on the inside, taking the lady right hand in right hand. There are 3 figures of each 8 bars:

• Move along the circle in jump-2-3 or skip-2-3. At the end of the last bar, face your partner, gents looking outwards, ladies inwards;
• Gents sidestep to the left and ladies, moving along with their partner, to the right (2 bars), 2 jump-2-3s (2 bars), sidestep back to place (2 bars), 2 jump-2-3s (2 bars);
• Both gents and ladies, still holding right hand in right, first point and cut right (1 bar) and point and cut left (1 bar), and then change places in skip-2-3 turning clock-wise (2 bars). This four bar movement is then repeated after which figure 1 is danced again, and so forth.

The Peeler and the Goat
A description of this dance is here.


Sean nos hornpipe
Individual steps (The steps are explained on the right foot only):

Basic hornpipe step:	tip-down-right, tip-down-left, tip-tip-right (=treble right), hop-left, back-right (1 bar).
Basic hornpipe ending:	- down-left, tip-tip-right, hop-left, tip-tip-right, hop-left, back-right (1 bar).
Heels:	left-heel-in-front, left down, right-heel-in-front, right down, left-heel-in-front, left down, tip-tip-right, hop-left, back-right (2 bars).
Ground cuts:	- down-left, cut-right, down left, - down-right, cut-left, down-right, - down-left, cut-right, down left, tip-tip-right, hop-left, back-right (2 bars).
Jump:	This is a variation for the basic hornpipe step. The first tip-down-right is replaced by a wiggle of the right foot in the air in front. Fall down on that foot when you normally would do the tip of the tip-down-left that follows the tip-down-right, and put then the left foot down. You can now finish the basic hornpipe step in the normal way, or do something else.

8-bar step sequences (The steps are explained on the right foot only, and composed of the individual steps described above).

Lead around:	Repeat 4 times a right basic hornpipe step followed by a left.
The heels:	basic-right, basic-left, basic-right, Heels right, basic-left, basic-right, basic ending right.
End and Heels:	basic right, basic ending right, basic left, basic ending left, basic right, heels right, basic ending right.
The cuts:	basic-right, basic-left, basic-right, ground cuts right, basic-left, basic-right, basic ending right.
Heels and cuts:	basic-right, heels right, ground cuts right, basic-left, basic-right, basic ending right.
Jump, cuts and heels:	Jump right, basic left, basic right, ground cuts right, heels right, basic ending right.

Set dances

The Ballyvourney Jig Set;