This turned out to be a very nice Saturday evening set dancing ceili, primarily attended by Irish dancers that enjoyed an entire week-end of set dancing, organised by the Irish Club of Belgium in the Irish College of Leuven. Dancing master was Jim Keenan who grew up in County Armagh but teaches Irish dancing in the Washington area. When in trouble during a complicated figure, don't worry, Jim sees everything (mpg; 1.3Mb) and runs to help you out.
It was The Davey Ceili Band that made sure nobody would be able not to dance around. They just released a new album with 4 sets: The Fermanagh Set, The Kilfenora Set, The Monaghan Set and The Clare Lancers. Just look how beautifully they play (mpg; 4.1 Mb) some reels for the Clare Lancers. And watch how much the dancers enjoyed it (mpg; 5.2 Mb).
Near the end, two traditional step dancers demonstrated a few reel steps in free style (mpg; 9.3 Mb). One - the first starting to dance - was Christine Karo who runs the Irish Dancing School Karo-Steps in Bern, Switzerland. Only a few months later, purely by coincidence when attending a traditional dancing workshop, I found out that the other one was Aoife Garrard, a qualified dancing teacher from Limerick.
We also enjoyed the presence of Bill Lynch, editor of the world-famous Set Dancing News site.
Here is the material that figured on the programme.
Fermanagh Set
We covered this set in our report on the
Wattrelos 17-18/01/2004 set dancing weekend. Have a look there.
Kilfenora Plain Set
Also for this one, please see the
Wattrelos 17-18/01/2004 set dancing weekend.
Ballyvourney Jig Set
This is a set from the town of
Ballyvourney in
County Cork. Some on-line descriptions (with differences!):
Music for the set can be found on the following recordings:
Plain (Reel) Set
This set from
Co. Clare is just called
The Plain Set and it shouldn't be confused with other sets such as
The Corofin Plain Set or
The Kilfenora Plain Set and some others.
Here are a few on-line descriptions, with major differences both in the order of the figures, and the choreography of some individual figures with even differences in length:
Here are some musical resources for this set. Due to the many variations, one should pay attention to select the appropriate music for a particular variation. Just as an example, the description in
Pat Murphy's orange book of the third figure does not match Michael Sexton's playing, but can be danced to the Abbey Ceili Band's CD:
From the
set dancing class in Antwerp on August 4, 2004, I took the following tips back home :
- Whereas in many set dances the lead around is followed by a swing your partner, in this case there is a dance at home, except for the jig figure;
- The normal reel step is used, also during house around. It might be a personal thing, but I have to pay attention not to adopt a continental polka style of dancing for which the steps are the same, but the weight balance is different. I noticed this while housing around with this lady (in orange) experienced in set dancing;
- Ladies should not give hands when coming back to their partner during the ladies chain;
- Also during the ladies chain, gents should be quick in picking up the opposite lady and turning back to place;
- When the gents cross after the ladies crossed, they first turn the lady with the right hand, and then twice with the left hand while moving into the right position. A gentle pull with the right hand (as in rock&roll) on the first beat of the fifth bar of that movement, does it make feel more natural;
North Kerry Set
This set is from the North part of
Co. Kerry, and is also known as
The Kerry Set,
The North Kerry Polka Set or
The Ballybunion Polka Set,
Ballybunion being a popular beach resort in the north of Kerry. It is different from the
West Kerry Set.
Available on-line descriptions (with differences), are:
Shaskeen's Music for Set Dancing vol 2 has the right music for it, and so does
Matt Cunningham's Dance Music of Ireland, Vol 1.
Monaghan Set
This set is attributed to
Co. Monaghan, in the north of Ireland.
Available on-line descriptions (with differences), are:
Music for the set can be found on:
It is explained by Tom Quinn on the video
Set dancing made easy.
Connemara (Reel) Set
This set is from
Connemara, a region in County Galway. Here is a
description by the
Irish-American Lobby Education Foundation, as well as a
description by the
Newcastle Irish Set Dancers. Or you might take as well
Joseph O'Hara's study notes
There is music for this set on:
The set is shown on
Come to the Ceili by Matt Cunningham & his band. Also on a
brand-new DVD from
Sessions from the hearth.
During the
set dancing class in Antwerp on August 25, 2004, I learned to pay attention to the following pecularities of this set:
- At the end of the ladies chain in figure 1, the gent picks up his lady with the left arm, turning her under as usual while moving anti-clockwise to his own spot, but then on his spot, turns clockwise to face into the set;
- In the second figure, after the dosido, gent and lady jump before starting to swing in the centre.
Caledonian Set
According to
A Brief History of Irish Dance by Donncha O Muineachain, the Caledonian Set (Clare) is said to have been introduced into Co. Clare by Scotsmen who came to work there.
Available on-line descriptions (with differences), are:
Music for the set can be found on:
September 1, 2004, during the
set dancing class in Antwerp, the particular step for the advance and retire in the jig figure was explained. It goes like this: //L-step - -/R-step - -//L-step - -/R-kick R-heel R-tip//R-down L-heel L-tip//L-down R-heel R-tip//R-down - L-down/R-down - -//, the first two bars advancing, and the last two retiring. This step turned out to be a variation of what I learned from Patrick O'Dea in October 2003, he did "X-shuffle X-down" instead of "X-heel X-tip X-down", with no difference in rhythm.
Armagh Set
This set is named after
County Armagh in Northern Ireland. Only Jospeh O'Hara has a
description of the Armagh Set on-line.
Clare Lancers
This set comes from
Crusheen in County Clare.
Available on-line descriptions (with differences), are:
July 28, 2004, during the
set dancing class in Antwerp, some often forgotten details (or accepted variations) were pointed out. I mention them here since I used to do these bits differently:
- In the first figure, gent and opposite lady should meet in the center with left shoulder, and turn the long way, i.e. turning with the back towards each other;
- At the end of swinging the left corner lady, the gent should make sure to position him facing his house, and the lady facing her house such that entering into the partner swing becomes more easy;
- In the third figure, after weeling back, the gent should position the lady back to his right hand side before entering into the christmas;
- In the fourth figure, we performed the lead-arounds of the body first anti-clockwise and then clock-wise contrary to the on-line descriptions;
- For the last figure, the line-up, it is common procedure that couples line up lady in front of the gent, and couples in the middle moving into the line going right from the opposite couple. It is always described as such, but it seems to be a continuous point of confusion.
Music for the set is on various resources:
- Mémoire Celte, vol 1, Broken String,
- Shaskeen Irish Music for Set Dancing Vol. 3,
- Matt Cunningham's Dance Music of Ireland, Vol 5,
- The Set, vol 4,
- the CD Sets Ceili 2, with life recorded music from the McElroy Band, has a fast version called by Joe Farrell.
It is danced on the video
The Magic of Irish Set Dancing - Vol. 9 by Brooks Academy. It is also on
Come to the Ceili by Matt Cunningham & his band.
For ontology freaks: this nonsense is what you get if you don't have proper Semantic Web technology.
