I'm not in Boston, and I dearly wish I was. My brainwave today was that I should have just gone to the Comhdhail worlds instead this year, just to see some dancing and also to watch it with a completely clean slate (not knowing any of the dancers), but it's too late for that now.
So while scouring the web for updates and pictures, I decided to see if I still "had it". I haven't touched the ceili book since Glasgow, or at least since I made a study guide for my friend in January, and while I don't need to do the written paper again I still need to know them all for the teaching. So I wrote them all out - just movement names, but for every dance in the book.
Not half bad. I basically got everything right apart from forgetting the existance of Sidestep and Heyes, and flipping the swings in An Rince Mor. I got the partners / ladies on left the wrong way round. Out of 30 dances, I'm taking that and running with it.
Determined to pass this thing next time.
And I can't wait til it's my dancers being photographed backstage. On stage. With medals. With trophies. With me by their side, the whole way.
Sunday, 24 March 2013
Thursday, 21 March 2013
Three Sea Captains met the King of the Fairies...
...and had a wee dance together.
I am 99% of the way there in terms of completing the traditional set dances!
I've actually lost count of the amount of times I've wound and rewound the DVD - I recorded a video of it onto my phone for easier rewinding and easy, 24/7 access to the steps. I've written and rewritten and colour coded and watched and watched, and I'm close. Three Seas I know, and I can almost dance. King I'm fairly sure I know, but haven't properly danced.
So I guess with that, my original aim is complete. I wanted to learn all of the Coimisiun ceilis and traditional sets because I felt I wasn't a complete dancer/fan/enthusiast/obsessive of the dance form without this knowledge. And now I have it. I know all the traditional dances that one could possibly rock up at a feis and dance. I'm quite pleased with that.
Three Seas
Tip and down treble-treble and a back tip and change
Out and kick out and kick out and brush heel and down
Back rock 23 back rock 23
Tip and down heel and down and back tip and change
Tip and down treble-treble and a back tip and change
Tip and down treble-treble and a back tip and change
Treble-treble and back treble-treble and back
Treble 1 treble 2 treble 1234
Tip out tip and back tip and change tip and down
Tip out tip and back tip and change tip and down
Tip and down hop back tip and cut to your heel
Tip and down, tip box 23 treble and a heel,
Back and down back and down brush and box234
Tip and down, heel treble and a back tip and change
Not quite as polished as Olive's lot but you get the general idea I hope.
King
Brush down kick heel-and-a-heel-and-a-heel-and-a-down
Kick treble and treble and treble and treble and
Up cut down and up cut onto your heel and treble and back
Brush down brush down kick cut down
Treble and a back 12 and point and back 12
Brush down kick treble and tre-ble and a kick and down
And brush and brush treble and 123
Brush treble and treble and twist 23
Hop 23 and over and onto your heel brush and treble and back
And brush kick treble-and-treble and kick and 123 down kick box 234
Down treble and back and treble and toe, stamp, treble and treble and
Tre-ble and a heel kick down brush cut down box 23 and 123
Treble and treble and down treble and back
And brush kick heel 234 and change, stamp, brush 2, 3, 4, and back treble and back brush treble up tre-ble and a back
This music seems extra fast to me so well done to them for keeping up! Watch the lady in the white top if, like me, you struggled with the bit after "hop 23 and over and onto your heel brush treble and back".
"And that's it! Let's look at the dancers..."
I am 99% of the way there in terms of completing the traditional set dances!
I've actually lost count of the amount of times I've wound and rewound the DVD - I recorded a video of it onto my phone for easier rewinding and easy, 24/7 access to the steps. I've written and rewritten and colour coded and watched and watched, and I'm close. Three Seas I know, and I can almost dance. King I'm fairly sure I know, but haven't properly danced.
So I guess with that, my original aim is complete. I wanted to learn all of the Coimisiun ceilis and traditional sets because I felt I wasn't a complete dancer/fan/enthusiast/obsessive of the dance form without this knowledge. And now I have it. I know all the traditional dances that one could possibly rock up at a feis and dance. I'm quite pleased with that.
Three Seas
Tip and down treble-treble and a back tip and change
Out and kick out and kick out and brush heel and down
Back rock 23 back rock 23
Tip and down heel and down and back tip and change
Tip and down treble-treble and a back tip and change
Tip and down treble-treble and a back tip and change
Treble-treble and back treble-treble and back
Treble 1 treble 2 treble 1234
Tip out tip and back tip and change tip and down
Tip out tip and back tip and change tip and down
Tip and down hop back tip and cut to your heel
Tip and down, tip box 23 treble and a heel,
Back and down back and down brush and box234
Tip and down, heel treble and a back tip and change
Not quite as polished as Olive's lot but you get the general idea I hope.
King
Brush down kick heel-and-a-heel-and-a-heel-and-a-down
Kick treble and treble and treble and treble and
Up cut down and up cut onto your heel and treble and back
Brush down brush down kick cut down
Treble and a back 12 and point and back 12
Brush down kick treble and tre-ble and a kick and down
And brush and brush treble and 123
Brush treble and treble and twist 23
Hop 23 and over and onto your heel brush and treble and back
And brush kick treble-and-treble and kick and 123 down kick box 234
Down treble and back and treble and toe, stamp, treble and treble and
Tre-ble and a heel kick down brush cut down box 23 and 123
Treble and treble and down treble and back
And brush kick heel 234 and change, stamp, brush 2, 3, 4, and back treble and back brush treble up tre-ble and a back
This music seems extra fast to me so well done to them for keeping up! Watch the lady in the white top if, like me, you struggled with the bit after "hop 23 and over and onto your heel brush treble and back".
"And that's it! Let's look at the dancers..."
Sunday, 17 March 2013
St Patrick's Day Eve
I had a funny old day today. I felt like I should do something TCRG related given the date, so I decided on trying to learn the King of the Fairies set. I got old faithful, the blue dancing notebook, out of my bag where it's lain untouched but still carried around daily, for months on end.
The book is neatly laid out into 4 sections. First - light dances. Second - heavy dances (ran out of paper in this section due to the weighting of the exam). Third - notes, to-do lists, various thoughts. Fourth - somewhere to write music quizzes.
For some reason the first thing I did was wonder if I could still name all the set tunes. Popped on the iPod, shuffle...named them all. 100%.
Second thing I did was flip to section three where, on the way home from my first failed attempt at the TCRG exam, I wrote my notes. I didn't want to forget anything so I wrote down everything that happened, how I felt, what went wrong, less of what went right, and predictions for my results. I must add that on the way home I was a couple of hours past my teaching exam which was the worst exam I've ever experienced. I predicted they'd give me 30% on solo teaching, that's how awful I felt about it. In the end I did plenty enough to not fail outright, I was close to passing, but reading it back was scary. I could remember my own terror, how I just couldn't process what they were telling me, how I wanted to walk out and cry. Or cry and walk out, whichever came first. It's so horrible. Happy St Patrick's Day to me.
I decided to close that book, open a fresh page and start to learn King of the Fairies. I actually watched back some of the other dances to see if she taught it so very fast as how she does in KoF. It's SO hard. I'm furiously trying to write, trying to work out which foot, then we cut to the dancers and they do it differently - I'm SO glad this is the last one to learn (finished Three Seas, by the way).
So I haven't had a particularly upbeat St Patrick's Day. I feel like I need to go and paint my nails green or something.
Oh, I'll get there. I'm just exhausted and angry at myself all over again for not practising lilting enough and not being confident enough and just being a complete deer. If you learn one thing from this blog, learn. to. lilt.
The book is neatly laid out into 4 sections. First - light dances. Second - heavy dances (ran out of paper in this section due to the weighting of the exam). Third - notes, to-do lists, various thoughts. Fourth - somewhere to write music quizzes.
For some reason the first thing I did was wonder if I could still name all the set tunes. Popped on the iPod, shuffle...named them all. 100%.
Second thing I did was flip to section three where, on the way home from my first failed attempt at the TCRG exam, I wrote my notes. I didn't want to forget anything so I wrote down everything that happened, how I felt, what went wrong, less of what went right, and predictions for my results. I must add that on the way home I was a couple of hours past my teaching exam which was the worst exam I've ever experienced. I predicted they'd give me 30% on solo teaching, that's how awful I felt about it. In the end I did plenty enough to not fail outright, I was close to passing, but reading it back was scary. I could remember my own terror, how I just couldn't process what they were telling me, how I wanted to walk out and cry. Or cry and walk out, whichever came first. It's so horrible. Happy St Patrick's Day to me.
I decided to close that book, open a fresh page and start to learn King of the Fairies. I actually watched back some of the other dances to see if she taught it so very fast as how she does in KoF. It's SO hard. I'm furiously trying to write, trying to work out which foot, then we cut to the dancers and they do it differently - I'm SO glad this is the last one to learn (finished Three Seas, by the way).
So I haven't had a particularly upbeat St Patrick's Day. I feel like I need to go and paint my nails green or something.
Oh, I'll get there. I'm just exhausted and angry at myself all over again for not practising lilting enough and not being confident enough and just being a complete deer. If you learn one thing from this blog, learn. to. lilt.
Monday, 11 March 2013
The most important things
Anyone who's ever attended a feis with a newbie will no doubt have been asked "what are the judges looking for?" What's the difference between first and second place? How could the same dancer have come first in the reel and tenth in the hornpipe? They're tough questions to answer as we don't have a standardised marking system and therefore can't speak for the individual judge on the day. Everyone's got their own hot buttons that will turn them off a dancer, and elements they have to see in order to award high marks. Now I know I'm not a teacher let alone an adjudicator, but these are the most important elements to me - roughly in order:
1. Foot placement
This is only the most important element to me if we work on the assumption that timing is a given. You simply must be on time with the music, otherwise you're not actually dancing.
Foot placement covers not only adequate turnout and crossing of the feet/legs, but also thinking about the positioning of the foot. Is it pointed all the way through the foot whenever it's off the floor, or is it flat or even flexed? Are the toes scrunched rather than properly pointed? Is the instep in the correct position, but the point not extended all the way to the tips of the toes? And then when the foot is on the floor, is it on a high tiptoe (not en pointe) at all times or does the heel drop closer and closer to the floor? Can the dancer sustain this height all the way through or does tiredness make the heels drop? Whenever a move calls for the foot to not be pointed, is it exaggerated enough to have the desired impact? (e.g. a pointe hold with the front foot flexed, a drum roll, a heel walk or spin...) Finally, are the feet positioned strongly and confidently? Does the dancer sickle, or lose control of a point before attaining the position, lending the impression of floppy ankles? Can they achieve turnout with both feet all the time, without the back or supporting foot straightening or turning in? Is their positioning unaffected by stamina - can they maintain good, strong positioning throughout?
2. Deportment
For me this covers absolutely every element of the body from the hips up. Hips and shoulders must always be level - not only right to left, but front to back. No leaning forward into a jump or kick, no sticking the bum out on turns or treble/footwork sequences, no dropping the leading shoulder into a turn or leading with your shoulder into a leap or kick. Lower arms controlled, but without tension. Neat fists, no waggling fingers. Head straight forward - no chins on chests, no tilting, no mouths wide open or saying/miming steps, no eyes down. Our deportment is absolutely unique in the dance world which is why it's so high up my list - it's characteristically Irish and therefore needs to be worked on and perfected very early on. It's my own opinion that the reason we don't use our arms is to show how in control of our bodies we are, to be able to move our feet at 50mph without so much of a quiver in our shoulders. Tense arms make the whole performance seem more laboured - excellent carriage makes everything look easy.
3. Extension
Not just height on kicks, clicks and leaps, but height with control and style as well. Straight knees, maintaining turnout and carriage, perfect lines from hip to knee to ankle to toe. Kicks that take an equal amount of time to come down as to go up - retracting the leg with control proves leg and core strength, rather than letting gravity do its work. Kicks that don't look "throw-y" - that are deliberate about their placement, rather than swinging it up and hoping for the best. And looking at the back leg on kicks and clicks as well - that needs a straight knee too, and that needs to maintain placement too. I always look for the back leg on hops and single-leg work - is it just hanging there or is it contributing to a neat, controlled look?
4. Style and precision
Style will always be individual preference but I believe strongly that dances aren't just a technical exercise, they're a performance. Dancers will similar technical qualities can be easily separated in the marks if one is enjoyable to watch and the other is simply "nice". It's hard to quantify but I like to see individual choreography tailored to a dancers' strengths, with clever bits that you can't wait to see on the left foot - or make you curse the hornpipe half-step when you can't see it again! Elements of elegance, athleticism, control and freedom combine in each person's mind to create their own preferred style, and I can't really explain what my preferred is. Perhaps it's when a dancer is so elegant that you know they're leaping as high as the athletic types, without immediately pegging them as athletic. When they're so light on their feet yet so fast that it seems impossible they can jump so high or treble so loud.
Precision to me goes hand in hand with style. You can have one without the other (I've seen dancers with breathtaking tricks and beautiful choreography, but straight feet) but to excel, you need both. Precision is everything from points 1-3, but moreso. Everything performed in a textbook way. Every individual movement - a leap, a rock, a treble, a cross key - could be extracted from the performance and used as an example of "this is how it's supposed to look". Every movement could make a perfect action shot to be plastered over tumblr with an inspiration quote.
Opinions of dancing are of course fluid, and perhaps this list will change over time. Perhaps one day I'll think carriage should be more important than crossing or I'll change my definition of what style means. Perhaps I'll start to prefer a different style - subconciously, no doubt.
Trying to come up with a list of your most important Irish dancer qualities just reminds you that results are very, very rarely "wrong", just a matter of personal choice. My favourite dancer not winning doesn't always mean they had an off day or that they went wrong or something else was up. It just means someone else's opinion was different to mine, and that's good. That's why competitions employ panels rather than one single adjudicator, and why they're not paid just to tie everyone.
It's frustrating as you can do everything right and still not win, but that's what makes competition and that's why people are attracted to competing. In tennis you could perfect your serve but come up against the perfect returner. Sprinters could have the perfect start but be overtaken by the perfect finisher. It's why people carry on when they've won everything there is to win. It's why we dance in the first place.
What are your most important things in Irish dance?
1. Foot placement
This is only the most important element to me if we work on the assumption that timing is a given. You simply must be on time with the music, otherwise you're not actually dancing.
Foot placement covers not only adequate turnout and crossing of the feet/legs, but also thinking about the positioning of the foot. Is it pointed all the way through the foot whenever it's off the floor, or is it flat or even flexed? Are the toes scrunched rather than properly pointed? Is the instep in the correct position, but the point not extended all the way to the tips of the toes? And then when the foot is on the floor, is it on a high tiptoe (not en pointe) at all times or does the heel drop closer and closer to the floor? Can the dancer sustain this height all the way through or does tiredness make the heels drop? Whenever a move calls for the foot to not be pointed, is it exaggerated enough to have the desired impact? (e.g. a pointe hold with the front foot flexed, a drum roll, a heel walk or spin...) Finally, are the feet positioned strongly and confidently? Does the dancer sickle, or lose control of a point before attaining the position, lending the impression of floppy ankles? Can they achieve turnout with both feet all the time, without the back or supporting foot straightening or turning in? Is their positioning unaffected by stamina - can they maintain good, strong positioning throughout?
2. Deportment
For me this covers absolutely every element of the body from the hips up. Hips and shoulders must always be level - not only right to left, but front to back. No leaning forward into a jump or kick, no sticking the bum out on turns or treble/footwork sequences, no dropping the leading shoulder into a turn or leading with your shoulder into a leap or kick. Lower arms controlled, but without tension. Neat fists, no waggling fingers. Head straight forward - no chins on chests, no tilting, no mouths wide open or saying/miming steps, no eyes down. Our deportment is absolutely unique in the dance world which is why it's so high up my list - it's characteristically Irish and therefore needs to be worked on and perfected very early on. It's my own opinion that the reason we don't use our arms is to show how in control of our bodies we are, to be able to move our feet at 50mph without so much of a quiver in our shoulders. Tense arms make the whole performance seem more laboured - excellent carriage makes everything look easy.
3. Extension
Not just height on kicks, clicks and leaps, but height with control and style as well. Straight knees, maintaining turnout and carriage, perfect lines from hip to knee to ankle to toe. Kicks that take an equal amount of time to come down as to go up - retracting the leg with control proves leg and core strength, rather than letting gravity do its work. Kicks that don't look "throw-y" - that are deliberate about their placement, rather than swinging it up and hoping for the best. And looking at the back leg on kicks and clicks as well - that needs a straight knee too, and that needs to maintain placement too. I always look for the back leg on hops and single-leg work - is it just hanging there or is it contributing to a neat, controlled look?
4. Style and precision
Style will always be individual preference but I believe strongly that dances aren't just a technical exercise, they're a performance. Dancers will similar technical qualities can be easily separated in the marks if one is enjoyable to watch and the other is simply "nice". It's hard to quantify but I like to see individual choreography tailored to a dancers' strengths, with clever bits that you can't wait to see on the left foot - or make you curse the hornpipe half-step when you can't see it again! Elements of elegance, athleticism, control and freedom combine in each person's mind to create their own preferred style, and I can't really explain what my preferred is. Perhaps it's when a dancer is so elegant that you know they're leaping as high as the athletic types, without immediately pegging them as athletic. When they're so light on their feet yet so fast that it seems impossible they can jump so high or treble so loud.
Precision to me goes hand in hand with style. You can have one without the other (I've seen dancers with breathtaking tricks and beautiful choreography, but straight feet) but to excel, you need both. Precision is everything from points 1-3, but moreso. Everything performed in a textbook way. Every individual movement - a leap, a rock, a treble, a cross key - could be extracted from the performance and used as an example of "this is how it's supposed to look". Every movement could make a perfect action shot to be plastered over tumblr with an inspiration quote.
Opinions of dancing are of course fluid, and perhaps this list will change over time. Perhaps one day I'll think carriage should be more important than crossing or I'll change my definition of what style means. Perhaps I'll start to prefer a different style - subconciously, no doubt.
Trying to come up with a list of your most important Irish dancer qualities just reminds you that results are very, very rarely "wrong", just a matter of personal choice. My favourite dancer not winning doesn't always mean they had an off day or that they went wrong or something else was up. It just means someone else's opinion was different to mine, and that's good. That's why competitions employ panels rather than one single adjudicator, and why they're not paid just to tie everyone.
It's frustrating as you can do everything right and still not win, but that's what makes competition and that's why people are attracted to competing. In tennis you could perfect your serve but come up against the perfect returner. Sprinters could have the perfect start but be overtaken by the perfect finisher. It's why people carry on when they've won everything there is to win. It's why we dance in the first place.
What are your most important things in Irish dance?
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