Friday, April 27, 2007

Brush Dance online

Hi all,

Here is a video of a dancer dancing the brush dance. We will be learning the brush dance in class soon, so take a good look.

-Maldon Meehan

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Looking a head to the Month of May

Sean-nós and battering for sets

For the month of may we will continue to learn sean-nós steps in each class, but we will also be focusing on integrating battering steps and sean-nós steps into set dancing. The beginners will be working with the Connemara set and the intermediate dancers will be working with the Clare plain set.

Every Saturday
Performance Works Northwest
4625 SE 67th Avenue (between Foster and Holgate)
11am Beginners
12pm Intermediate

Saturday May 5
Beginners: The Connemara Set (advance and retire steps)
Intermediate: Clare Plain Set (advance and retire steps)

Saturday May 12
Beginners: The Connemara Set (battering during a house around)
Intermediate: Clare Plain Set (battering during a house around)

Saturday May 19
Beginners: The Connemara Set (ending steps/finishing off steps)
Intermediate: Clare Plain Set (dance at home battering steps)

Saturday May 26
Beginners: The Connemara Set (more ending steps/finishing off steps)
Intermediate: Clare Plain Set (dance at home battering steps)

Connemara Set first figure

Connemara Set
Figure 1: Reels
a. Lead around / lead back
b. Swing
c. Tops Advance / retire twice
d. house
e. swing
f. Sides dance figure (c-e)
g. Top ladies chain
h. swing
i. Side chain and swing
j. Tops repeat figure (c-e)
k. Sides repeat figure (c-d)
l. All swing to finish

Next Week

Hi lads,

I’m a little behind in getting out the steps. I have just posted the notes for the April 14th and April 21st classes on the blog.

Next week we will be covering more battering for the Galway and Clare sets. We will also be talking about Sean-nós dancer Máire Áine Ní hIarnáin. Máire Áine Ní hIarnáin is the 2004 second place winner of the Oireachtas. She won second the year Padraig Ó Hoibicín won first. She currently teaching sean-nós in Dublin and is a former student of Padraig Ó Hoibicín. She has a beautiful and graceful sean-nós style. Like Padraig she dances on and off the beat. If you would like to see a clip of her dancing she is in the 2005 Oireachtas that can be viewed online at TG4’s website http://www.tg4.ie/.

-Maldon

April 21st class

April 21st class
Beginners
We reviewed Rosin’s stamp and stamp step, heel and toe. If you would like these steps written out they are on the blog ‘April 7th Class Notes’. We also reviewed ‘The Johnny’ (toe toe heel and a 1 2 3). Please let me know if you don’t have notes for these steps. We also dance the first figure of the Connemara Set.


Intermediate
In the intermediate class we covered Clare battering. We danced 3 variations of the clare batter that can be used for dance at home, advance retire and house around.

The following steps are written for the woman, men dance the oposit using there left foot for the batters.

Clare Batter 1 (I got this step from the dancing of Alicia Guinn)
1(L) 2(R) down(L) heel(R) toe(R) heel(R) down(L)
down(L) heel(R) toe(R) heel(R) down(L)

Clare Batter 2
And(L) a(R) 1(R) down(L) heel(R) toe(R) heel(R) down(L)
down(L) heel(R) toe(R) heel(R) down(L)

Clare Batter 3 (I got this step from the dancing of Alicia Guinn)
down(L) heel(R) toe(R) heel(R)
down(L) heel(R) toe(R) heel(R) down(L)
down(L) heel(R) toe(R) heel(R) down(L)

April 14th Class Notes

April 14th Class Notes
Beginning class
In the beginners class we reviewed Rosin Ni Mhainnin steps, including stamp and stamp, heel and toe and the cross step. We also reviewed the rhythmic variations of the ‘hips’ step.

Intermediate Class
The intermediate class we review Rosin Ni Mhainnin’s jig steps. We also covered 3 of Padraig Ó Hoibicín steps. I went looking for the documnatry of Padraig on youtube and it has been taken down. In the video he talks about horses, sheep, dancing and teaching dogs Irish (Gaelic). If you can find it it’s worth watching. You get a since of who he is from the video. You get to see him dance, but it’s more like MTV than trad with rock music overlayed. If anybody finds it online or knows how to get it in video format let me know.

As you will remember these steps are danced on and off the beat, so rather than just dancing to 8 bars Padraig will dance over the bar of music. From what I can tell he usally dances his steps on bar into the next 8 bars. Padraig tends to favor his left foot, I believe that he dances over an extra step so that start his basic step with his left foot.

Basic (Padraig Ó Hoibicín)
(you can starts with a step on right foot to get you on the right beat)
Shuf(L)-le(L) step(L), Shuf(R)-le(R) step(R), heel(L) heel(L), heel(R) heel (R)
(dance for 8 bars or so)

Toe toe heel (Padraig Ó Hoibicín)
Toe(L) toe(L) heel(L), down(L) heel(R) down(R) heel(L) down(L)
Toe(R) toe(R) heel(R), down(R) heel(L) down(L) heel(R) down(R)
(dance for 8 bars or so)

Kick up (Padraig Ó Hoibicín)
(Note that the step in the beginning is only a lead in for when you first dance the step it is not repeated. This step is dance in the same timing as the step above.)

Step(R) Heel brush(L) Heel drop(R) toe brush back(L)
down(L) heel(R) down(R) heel(L) down(L)

Heel brush(R) Heel drop(L) toe brush back(R)
and(R) heel(L) down(L) heel(R) down(R)
(dance for 8 bars or so)

Monday, April 09, 2007

April 7th Class Notes

The Saturday class this week focused on the dancing of Rosin Ni Mhainnin.

Beginners
The beginner’s class covered 2 of Rosin’s steps

STAMP AND STAMP STEP (8 BARS) (Rosin Ni Mhainnin)
back (L) Stamp (R) and (R) Stamp (L)
Hop (L), heel (R) step(R), heel (L) step (L), stomp (R)
(repeat 4 times alternating right and left)

HEEL AND TOE STEP (8 BARS) (Rosin Ni Mhainnin)
Back (L), heel (R), step (R), toe (L)
Hop (L), heel (R) step(R), heel (L) step (L), stomp (R)
(repeat 4 times alternating right and left)

We also reviewed last weeks ‘hips’ step.

Intermediate
The intermediate class covered Rosin Ni Mhainnin’s jig steps.

STAMP AND STAMP STEP (8 BARS) (Rosin Ni Mhainnin)
back (L) Stamp (R) and (R) Stamp (L)
Step (L) heel (R) step (R) 1(L) 2(R)
(repeat 4 times alternating right and left)

HEEL AND TOE STEP (8 BARS) (Rosin Ni Mhainnin)
Back (L), heel (R), step (R), toe (L)
Step (L) heel (R) step (R) 1(L) 2(R)
(repeat 4 times alternating right and left)

CROSS STEP (Rosin Ni Mhainnin)
Step (L), Cross (R), Step (L), Step (R)
Step (L) heel (R) step (R) 1(L) 2(R)

Step (L), Cross (R), Step (L), Step (R)
Step (L) heel (R) step (R) 1(L) 2(R)

Step (L), Cross (R), Step (L), Step (R)
Step (L), Cross (R), Step (L), Step (R)

And (L) back (R) and (R) back (L)
Step (L) heel (R) step (R) 1(L) 2(R)

RHYTHM CIRCLE STEP (8 BARS) (Rosin Ni Mhainnin)
(in a circle)
Step (L), Heel (R) Heel (R) (7 times), stamp (L)
(Repeat 2 time in 8 bars)
(we covered other variation of this step you can change where you put the stomp)

We didn’t cover Rosin’s ziz zag step as a jig. Those of you who have the step try putting it into jig time. It ends up being quite a nice step.

See you next week when we cover some of Padraig Ó Hoibicín’s steps and style. I have talked about Padraig Ó Hoibicín in past classes. Padraig is one of the dancers I’ve talked about in class that will dance over the bars of music. Padraig is the 2004 Oireachtas winner. We will cover a few of his reel steps in both the beginners and intermediate classes next week.

-Maldon Meehan

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

March 31st Class

Notes from the March 31st Class

The class this Saturday was great. We had a real nice balance of music, dance and song. Last week we began talking about Sean-nós singing. Nancy Jarrell was kind enough to bring in a CD of the Connemara Sean- nós singer, Áine Uí Mhuíneacháin. Once the CD was put on it felt as if we were in a pub in Ireland, there was complete silence as we all listened to Áine's voice. After the song was finished, Phil Meehan, sang us his newly writen song entiteld ‘Departures Lounge’. A powerfull song, one that will have deep meaning to anyone who has been part of this music and dance community over the years.

Both the beginners and intermediate classes covered variations of the ‘hips’ step. The ‘hips’ step is a step that I created. I tend to dance several varations of the step depending on what tune I’m dancing to and which musican is playing.

Beginners
We covered two variations of a movement from the ‘Hips’. The full ‘hips’ steps can be found on the Dance Sean-nós DVD.

Variation 1 ‘hips’
Toe (R) toe (R) heel (L) heel (R)
Repeat as many times as desired

Variation 2 ‘hips’
Heel (R) toe (R) heel (L) heel (R)
Repeat as many times as desired

Intermediate

Step (L) Heel (R) toe (R) heel (L)
heel (R) heel (L) toe (L) heel (R)
heel (L) heel (R) toe (R) heel (L) heel (R) down (L)
(repeat 3 times)

(ending step)
Step (L) Heel (R) toe (R) heel (L) heel (R) down (L)
Step (L) Heel (R) toe (R) heel (L) heel (R) down (L)

We also danced the ending step alternating right and left side.
There were several versions of this step taught and created. We will go over all of them again, just ask.


Next Class is:
Saturday April 7th
Lecture/demonstration: Connemara dancer Rosin Ni Mhainnin

Here is a video clip of one of Rosin Ni Mhainnin’s students. The clip is of a 7 year old girl dancing. I hope it gives you inspiration. If you want to see more of her dancing there is also a clip of her on youtube from when she was 6 years old.