This will put a smile on your face

Check this dancing out. Some old style hornpipes from the Comhaltas branch in Japan.

Video Clip

-Maldon

Steps thus far

Beginners Class
1. Basic step (Lead around)
2. Stamp and stamp
3. Heel and toe
4. The Johnny
5. Cross step
6. Heels in a circle
7. Zig zag heels
8. Heels back
9. In and out
10. Grapevine

Advanced Class
11. Aer Aran #2
12. Aer Aran #3
13. Advance and retire

Skip back step

Connemara Set

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

Figure 2: Reels
a. Lead around / lead back
b. Swing
c. 1st top gent and opp. Lady dance around eachother for 8 bars and Swing
d. Tops Advance / retire twice, house, swing
e. 1st side gent, 2nd Top gent, 2nd side gent
f. All swing to finish

Figure 3: Reels
a. Join hands in a circle, advance / retire twice
b. Swing
c. 1st top couple Advance / Retire twice, swing
d. Tops Christmas
e. Top Ladies chain
f. Tops Swing
g. 1st sides
h. 2nd tops
i. 2nd sides
j. swing to Finnish

Figure 4: Polka
a. Join hands in a circle, advance / retire twice
b. Dance at home
c. Circle Advance / retire twice change partners
d. Dance at home, moving 1/4 to the right
e. Repeat until home

Class Notes Juy 21

Hi all,

I really enjoyed myself in class to today, thanks for coming out and dancing. I especially want to thank the musicians, Dawn and Joe for playing during the class.

All those of you who are new to class thanks for coming out. Just to let you know there is a blog for the class in case you want to look over some notes from other classes. I also wanted to reiterate that the very first step, one of the building blocks of sean-nós, is also one of the harder steps. It takes a bit of time for the step to feel natural, but once it does you’ll be flying as it is the basis for many of the future steps.

Bellow are the notes from the class.

-Maldon

Beginners Class Notes

Connemara Step

Hop(L), heel(R) step(R), heel(L) step(L), Stomp(R)
Hop(R), heel(L) step(L), heel(R) step(R), Stomp(L)

The clip bellow is of the Connemara basic step. It is from the Dance Sean-nos DVD.
Dancer: Maldon Meehan, Musician: Johnny O'Holloran.

Irish Sean-nos Dance Connemara Step

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Skip Back step (Máirtín Beag Ó Gríofa)

And(L) back(R) and(R) back (L)
Hop(L), heel(R) step(R), heel(L) step(L), Stomp(R)

Máirtín Beag Ó Gríofa was a beautiful dancer. Today in Ireland there is a competition held honor. The late Cóilín Sheáin Dharach, who I have mentioned in the past, is the only dancer to win the Máirtín Beag Ó Gríofa competition twice. If you ever have a chance to talk with a singer, dancer or musician from Connemara there’s a good chance they have a story or two about Máirtín. He was a great dancer and is remembered by many.

This particular step is dance quite often by sean-nós and set dancers. You’ll see it danced frequently in the Connemara set.

Intermediate class Notes

Advance and Retire #2 (Maldon Meehan)

step (L) heel(R) toe (R) and(R heel drop)
step (L) heel(R) toe (R) and(R heel drop)
step (L) heel(R) toe (R) and(R heel drop) step (L)
step (L) shuff(R heel)-le (R toe) and (L heel drop)
step (R) shuff(L heel)-le (L toe) and (R heel drop)
step (L) shuff(R heel)-le (R toe) and (L heel drop) step(R) step (L)

With this step you can leave a pause between the advance and retire or you can also ad another beat by stepping on your left foot again before you retire. You can also ad the lead in beat when you dance it twice in a row by stepping on your left foot again before you advance the second time.

Toe rhythmic step (Maldon Meehan)

1(R) 2(L) shuff(R)-le(R) and(R) step(L)
down(L) shuff(R)-le(R) and(R) step(L)
and(L) a(R) 1(R) a(L) 2(L)
shuff(R)-le(R) and(R) step(L)
down(L) shuff(R)-le(R) and(R) step(L)
(repeat again)

This step is danced entirely on your toes. A few years ago I went up to the Friday Harbor Irish Music Camp when Mick Mulkerrin and Mairéad Casey were teaching. At the camp Mick taught a really nice battering step (I’ll eventually teach you the step). The step was amazing, but I had trouble dancing it up to speed with music, so I created this step, which has a very similar rhythm. Today I will dance both steps, quite often I’ll use Mick’s step on the low part of a tune and the other step on the high part of the tune. They are quite nice steps together.

Hey, Graham and Melia, I remembered the step that you were asking about. It was an advance retire step, bellow are the notes. I will go over it with you the next time you're in class, just remind me.

Advance and Retire #1 (Maldon Meehan)

and(L) a(R heel) 1(R step) and(L) a(R heel) 2(R step)
and(L), heel(R) step(R), heel(L) step(L), Stomp(R)
and(R) heel(L) and(L) heel(R)
and(R), heel(L) step(L), heel(R) step(R), Stomp(L)

When I taught this step we also looked at making extra beats coming back. You can come back with (and, heel, and heel) as I have written above or you can dance (and a heel and a heel). To do this instead of putting your whole foot down put your toe first then the whole foot and you will get two beats.

Next class Sat. July 21st
Performance Works Northwest
4625 SE 67th Ave, Portland

Padraig O Dubhain steping it out

Here’s a clip that Alicia Guinn found of Patrick DeVaney (Padraig O Dubhain) from Carna stepping it out in London. The sound quality is really bad, but the dancing is nice. I actually turned off the volume and just watched him dance with out the sound.

Class notes July 14

Hi all,

It’s been a hot week. Fair play to all those who made it out to dance in this heat.

This week we mostly reviewed the steps from the last few weeks. We also split up in groups and the second group learned one more step. The notes for the step are bellow.

AER ARAN (Ronan Regan) Rhythmic Variation #2
(this version is a step I put together to vary the rhythm)
Heel tap(L) step (L) heel(R) step(R) Heel tap(L) step (L) heel(R) step(R) heel tap (L)
step(L) heel(R) step(R) heel(L) step(L) heel(R) step(R) stamp(L)
Step (L) heel(R) step(R) Stamp (L)

You may notice that it is a little easer to dance than last week’s version, if you get a chance play with putting the two steps together. The second part of this step is also a great ending step that can be added to almost any step. It’s also great for set dancing and the 2 bar ending batter for the Connemara set.

I have been asking around to see if any musicians would like start a session during the class and play for the dancers. I’m still in the process of trying to put it all together, but if you know anybody who would like to play during the class let them know or if you would like to bring your instruments down go for it. Anybody who played for a class would be able to take the second class for free.

Bonus points:
If anybody feels so inclined play around and make up a step. You can use any of the elements from any step we have learned thus far and combine them to make a new step or you can make up something entirely new.

There’s also talk of a field trip to get dance shoes. Any of those interested let me know and I can find the best time. We could go to a few of the good thrift stores as well as a dance store or two. I’ve been known to find dance shoes at the thrift store for less that $5.

-Maldon

July 7 Class notes

Hi all,

The class today was very productive we added 5 new steps to our routine. Here are the class notes from July 7th.

HEELS ZIG ZAG (8 BARS) (Rosin Ni Mhainnin)
Hop(L), Heel(R) step(R), Heel(L) step(L), (6 times) stamp (R)
(Repeat 4 times alternating left and right)

HEEL AND TOE BACK (Maldon Meehan)
Heel(R) and(R) toe(L) and (L)
Heel(R) and(R) toe(L) and (L)
Heel(R) and(R) toe(L) and (L)
Hop(L), heel(R) step(R), heel(L) step(L), Stomp(R)

Heel(L) and(L) toe(R) and (R)
Heel(L) and(L) toe(R) and (R)
Heel(L) and(L) toe(R) and (R)
Hop(R), heel(L) step(L), heel(R) step(R), Stomp(L)

STAMP AND STAMP (SAME FOOT IN / OUT) (Maldon Meehan)
Stamp in(R), hop(L), Stamp out(R)
Hop(L), heel(R) step(R), heel(L) step(L), Stomp(R)
Stamp in(L), hop(R), Stamp out(L)
Hop(R), heel(L) step(L), heel(R) step(R), Stomp(L)
(repeat right and left again)

GRAPVINE STEP (Paddy Nelyon)
1(L), 2(R), 3(L), 4(R), 5(L), 6(R), 7(L) Two basic (hop on L first)
and(L) 1(R), 2(L), 3(R), 4(L), 5(R), 6(L), 7(R) Two basic (hop on R first)

AER ARAN (Ronan Regan) this a variation of Ronan’s step
Heel tap(L) step (L) heel(R) step(R) Heel tap(L) step (L) heel(R) step(R) heel tap (L)
Step(L) heel(R) hold toe (R)
Step (L) heel(R) step (R) heel tap (L)
Step (L) heel(R) step (R) heel tap (L)
(Ronan choreographed this step on an airplane going to the Aran islands. It’s is inspired by the playing of Johnny O'Halloran)

Irish Sean-nós Dance

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