Ah, you've come to be innundated with my obsession. Irish dance is by far the most wonderful thing in life. Well, sometimes. Irish dance has been getting lots of publicity lately, through from Riverdance and Lord of the Dance. Personally, I love the style of both shows, but many purists are upset. Actually, there are lots of different kinds of Irish dance which I couldn't even differentiate between until a few weeks ago.

The three main styles are set dancing, ceili dancing, and solo dancing. Set dancing and ceili (a ceili is a big wonderful Irish party) dancing seem similar, and it gets really confusing because some of the ceili dances are called sets (like an eight-hand set or a four-hand set). Set dancing is a lot less bouncy than solo dancing or well done ceili dancing. I think it's from a different part of Ireland. Each dance is set to a particular piece of music, or perhaps each piece of music is set to a particular dance. Whichever way, the dances are set in patterns and forms. See? Set dancing. A good set dancer makes a whole bunch of taps with his feet during the basic motion of the dance and it doesn't look like he's doing much more than walking. I don't know how to do that. Set dancing uses a lot of people, usually eight to a set, as does ceili.

Much of ceili dancing can be learned quickly so everyone at the ceili can dance. Solo dancing is, well, you dance reels, jigs, slip jigs, hornpipes, treble reels, and treble jigs by yourself, usually in competition. Teams also compete in competitions. Competition solo dancing is divided into different levels, and depending on the particular school you attend, you usually have to win one division before moving up to the next one. The beginning divisions start with beginning steps, and the dances required as the level of competition increases get harder.

Jigs are usually considered easier, a jig is danced in 6/8 time. Reels can be easy or hard, they're danced to a relatively fast 4/4 time. Slip jigs are the other soft shoe dance, they are danced in 9/8 time which has a tendency to make them look floaty and beautiful. Both the big shows right now have significant slip jig sections in them. The hard shoe dances are hornpipes, treble reels, and treble jigs. Hornpipes are done in a slow 4/4, and the treble reel and the treble jig are done the same as a reel and a jig but with more clacking, as my mother likes to call hard shoe steps.

I love dancing, I take classes and also dance socially quite a bit where everyone is welcome, although I have to admit I get an ego boost from being a dancer and looking like I know what I'm doing at ceilis while some people are just running around in time to the set. Which is cool, I jsut happen to like attention. Then there's Ann's Irish dance page with links to lots of accredited schools, the places all the magic starts.