When Grace steps onto the small black wooden stage, a moment of panic hits her like a bolt of lightning! Grace is a nine-year-old Irish dancer who loves to dance but is super scared to compete at a Feis, which is just a fancy word for an Irish dance competition. When her sister suggests turning her worries into sillies, Grace not only finds a way to help herself, but also every other dancer in the world through the weird advice in her Irish dance survival guide.
Irish dancing has never been more popular. In recent years, the success of Riverdance and Lord of the Dance has enthralled audiences worldwide. The Complete Guide to Irish Dance offers a comprehensive history of all aspects of Irish dance, from its ancient origins right up to the present day. The book gives detailed information about Irish dancing from the first day a dancer enrolls at a dance school, right through the different levels of competition up to the World Championship. Special attention is paid to music, costume, embroidery and shoes. With clear and simple instructions and diagrams for 30 popular Irish dances, as well as step-by-step photos demonstrating arm and body positions for reels, jigs and hornpipes, this book will be of great benefit to anyone with an interest in or a love of Irish dance.
In Dance in Ireland: Steps, Stages and Stories, Sharon Phelan provides an in-depth view of dance in Ireland during the colonial and post-colonial eras. She presents dance as an integral part of Irish life and as a signifier of cultural change. Central themes are documented and analysed. They include cross-cultural influences, the dance master and pantomimic dance traditions, dance during the Gaelic Revival, dichotomies in dance, and the theatricalisation of Irish dance. The book is illustrated with photographs and it is an indispensable resource for academics and artists alike, as they continue to foster dance, on the page and on the stage.
Provides instructions for over 150 Irish dances, bringing together ceili, set and two-handed country dances; explains basic steps, progressions and terminology used in dance instructions.
While the wooden simple-system flute is traditionally used in playing Irish music, a growing number of folk players have adopted the silver flute as a viable alternative. Here for the first time, The Complete Irish Flute Book presents the silver or Boehm flutist with a method for learning authentic Irish ornamentation! This thorough guide provides detailed fingering charts, exercises, and technical essays for learning to execute ornaments in the in the Irish style. Through a wealth of hornpipes, reels, jigs, set dances, and slow airs and songs. This book focuses not only on musical accuracy, but stylistic authenticity as well. The companion CD contains 26 of the 101 tunes from the book.
From early accounts of dance customs in medieval Ireland to the present, Helen Brennan offers an authoritative look at the evolution of Irish dance. Every type of dance from social to traditional to clergy is included. Brennan takes care to explain the different styles and traditions that evolved from different parts of Ireland; which results in some lively discussions as people reminisce over old favorites. She also discusses how dance evolved to become such an important part of Ireland's culture and history. An appendix is offered to help explain the various steps involved in each style of dance including the Munster or Southern style, Single Shuffle, Double Shuffle, Treble Shuffle, the Heel Plant, the Cut, the Rock or Puzzle, the Drum, the Sean Nos Dance Style of Connemara, and the Northern Style.
Introduces the history and basic concepts of Irish dance. Easy-to-read text, vibrant photos, and dance tips will make readers want to get up and dance.
Partly thematic, partly chronological, this account of dance in Ireland emerges out of a broader interest in the body in society as well as in the construction of national and gender identities. It comprises seven chapters each of which addresses a particular form of cultural identity. These include national, ethnic, gender, social class, postmodern and global identities. It is structured in such a way that many of the chapters are devoted to a specific identity formation while issues of gender and social class are interwoven into most chapters. Underpinning the discussion throughout is the assumption that dance both reflects and produces the social, cultural and politic contexts within which it is performed and represented. This is so because bodily movement including dance reflects societal structures, norms and values as attested to by sociologists and dance scholars alike. Interwoven into the dance narrative, therefore, is the flow of Irish society over this time; a flow that incorporates social stability and social change, tradition and modernity, men and women, rural and urban, as well as the local, the national and the global.
