Wall of Inspiration

We've set up a wall of inspiration in the office, with pieces of work that inspire us along with the reasons why. I wasn't allowed to put anything dance-related on there unfortunately so I'll post them here instead. All images picked from tumblr, where I have recently become a lurker.

1)

When I got my results, I DID want to give up. Admittedly I'd misunderstood the results and thought I had to retake the entire exam, but in the first flush of disappointment I didn't want to go again. I didn't want to feel that disappointment twice. Then I realised if I didn't try again, I'd just feel that disappointment for the rest of my life. So I'm carrying on.

2)

I have come miles. When I started I'd never choreographed a single set dance, let alone 9. I'd never choreographed a hornpipe! I couldn't do half the moves I can do now. Needless to say, I didn't know a single ceili in full. I didn't know a single traditional set dance. Now I know 30 ceilis inside out, and I know 6.5 traditional set dances. I have come a long, long way.

3)

Well, I don't hate every minute of training. I actually don't hate that many minutes of dance training. I hate cross-training, every second of it let alone every minute, and I hate every second of nerves leading up to these exams. I was a wreck. But I still passed two of them, and got within a whisker of passing the others. Suffer now and live the rest of my life as a TCRG.

4)

I am terrible for this. Obviously the image itself is about running so it probably means weather conditions, but I do wait for things to be perfect before I put my mind to practising or cross-training. I need to have had a good, productive and unstressful day at work. I need to have eaten well. I need to have had enough sleep and drunk enough water. I need this, I need that. The right socks even. Instead I just need to get up and do it because I know how much better I feel when I have.

5)

And this one. This is huge. It pretty much is a miracle that I actually set out on this journey after years of thinking I could never do it, that I wouldn't be able to learn everything, that I could never improve my dancing, that I could never lilt or even remember a single tune, that I'd never remember that little blue book. And when I did finally decide to do it, I had no support whatsoever. No teacher, no mentor. I've picked those up along the way, once I'd already had the courage to start. So when I do get my four letters, it won't be a miracle that I passed. The miracle's already happened.

Time

I just can't fit it all in. I can't keep up with a demanding job where I'm frequently doing overtime, trying to stay fit for this exam, and actually prepare for the exam all at once. I feel sick with the amount of stuff I've got going on from work, personal admin, TCRG, a life...

There is just no time. This weekend I stopped, put my laptop away, and did some revision and dancing. Work will keep. Then I come into work and have loads more dished out, it never ends. It's six months away I know, but it's June already. I took the last one eight months ago, eight! That's flown by, so will the next six.

So rant out of the way and trying to keep stress to a minimum -

I've become quite acceptable at lilting. This is a good way to feel like I'm doing something towards the exam as it requires no equipment and can be done at the same time as something else, like showering. I honestly recommend lilting ceilis and traditional sets in the shower.

I've made up another hornpipe step as I didn't think the ones I had would cut it now that the solo section specifies 'advanced' material. This, plus the one I made up the other week, are much better. And very me! I do think I'm developing some sort of style.

And the five ceilis that I had to write out, I did fine. I didn't write them out book-style, just making sure I had all the details correct for teaching, and that was fine.

So for this fortnight (I just don't have time to do 5 goals in one week):

1 - Dance 4 times and work out besides.
2 - Continue ceili lilting.
3 - Continue trad set lilting.
4 -  A new heavy jig set - undecided which yet.
5 - Write out 5 further ceilis: 16 Hand Reel, Rince Fada, Antrim Reel, Trip to the Cottage, Bonfire Dance.

But in the meantime I'm probably going to go and cry in a corner or something.

My dancing week

My week looks like this:

• Go to dancing on Monday (done) and have another practice in the week as well.
• Lilt all the ceili tunes out loud without prompting, and start trying to say the steps at the same time as singing. (started, Humours)
• Practise lilting the trad set tunes in case I need to teach them
• Work on hornpipe set dances (I've already made up a cracking little solo step) - decide what's staying and going and come up with fixes if needed.
• Pick five ceilis at random to write out without the book (having a friend pick them for me)

I've got the rest of the week plus the long weekend. Do-able!

Edit to add the five ceilis picked by my pal:

1. Harvest-Time Jig
2. St Patricks Day
3. An Rince Mor
4. Waves of Tory
5. Gates of Derry

Three Sea Captains

I uploaded some grabs of the Olive dvd for the TCRG Voy Board so I thought I'd post them here too. I think this one could be my favourite:





I'd seriously recommend buying these DVDs. I got mine from Antonio Pacelli - along with the ceili DVDs, these have been a lifesaver.

Hornpipes. Help.

I think the only thing I'm really concentrating on at the moment is the hornpipe. The blasted hornpipe.

In my first life as a competitive dancer, I'd been working my way through the grades with jig for months before we started working on a hornpipe. I remember going to one feis with a knee injury and just wanting to get it out of the way, so I only danced the primary 'pipe and trophy, for the first time, and won both. Can't remember the steps. I think that was my last feis in Life One.

In Life Two I learnt a hornpipe for grades, then started competing in open and was jig/hornpipe set. Can't remember any of those steps. I then had a second hornpipe set when I progressed a little - can remember a few of the combinations from it, but not enough that I'd be able to dance it.

I'd NEVER choreographed hornpipe before attempting the TCRG exam.

I have NO repertoire when it comes to hornpipes at all. I have no back catalogue of steps to draw on, no little treble combinations that you can slip in here and there to up the difficulty or change the rhythm like I do in the jig.

Hornpipe is my nemesis dance. I love watching it, but when it comes to choreographing something more difficult than prelim level I just strop and think this music is not suitable for Irish dancing!!!

I'm trying SO hard on this. I've done so much choreography over the last few days, only to realise it just doesn't work in practice like it does in my head. I've made a few breakthroughs by learning a few of the aforementioned combinations, but when choreographing I just can't break out from my bitty style - nothing flows. It's like here's this combination, then I'll stamp or pause, now here's another combination, stamp, here's another, stamp, clicky sequence, stamp, done. It needs to come together more cohesively.

Anybody got any inspiring hornpipe videos from YouTube they can share? Sets, steps, step-abouts, any level. Give me ALL the hornpipes!

Four out of five.

Weekend was fairly productive.

1 - gently run my traditional sets - done! Kicked myself in the shin two bars into St Patrick's Day and set off a nice little bruise, but it was an ok session apart from that. St Pat's itself was fine, not my favourite trad set. I feel like I sink too much in the four trebles. In the Blackbird I tangled my feet in the step (tried to go 'and brush and brush treble and back 23' when of course there's no 'back') but started again and it was fine. Garden I really struggled with especially in the step, but I got myself back on it. I probably haven't danced it since my exam so it's always going to be rusty. Jockey was ok considering it's still quite new to me and I've practised it a grand total of about four time. Three Seas similar - need to work out which foot I'm on in the boxes. Job I actually did correctly all the way through at the first time of asking for the first time in my ENTIRE life. And King, although I only did the step, was ok. More on this....

2 - review King, because it's not sticking in my brain - in progress. I've done a video clip on my phone so that I don't have to always put the dvd on to review, but it's still a source of confusion in places. Must try to actually dance it now.

3 - attempt some hornpipe choreography - well, yes. I've got 8 bars that look really nice in my head and would be good for both dancing and teaching, but my feet won't move fast enough because in my infinite genius I put in a move I can't do. Yet.

4 - work on the new sequence I've learnt recently - forgot about this one.

5 - identify areas for study, ceili-wise - yes, done. Basically I thought through every single dance and wrote a list of things I wasn't sure about - like "which was does the ring go in dance x" or "which side do the gents cross in movement y". I then used the book to answer all my own questions which was quite a useful exercise.

As there's less free time during the working week, I am going to give myself another five tasks but this time I've got five days rather than two. Here we go for w/c 29th April:

1 - go to dancing tonight and practice on a further occasion (definitely heavies, probably trads)
2 - continue to review King
3 - review the ceilis of the first dvd (easier than going in book order as you don't have to keep changing the disc)
4 - hornpipe choreography (I'm scrapping a couple of sets and starting again)
5 - work on the new jig sequence I learnt recently (carried over from the weekend)

Weekend plan

Last month of the weekend, absolutely brassic, can't go out or do anything - this can mean only one thing. TCRG weekend!

My plan...let's see how this goes.

1 - gently run my traditional sets
2 - review King, because it's not sticking in my brain
3 - attempt some hornpipe choreography
4 - work on the new sequence I've learnt recently
5 - identify areas for study, ceili-wise. I've already started a list of areas I'm not sure of, and music is always on the list too.

I've been told a five-point list is manageable so ideally on Monday I shall report back.

Ideally.

Fighting off Worlds cravings...

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.

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..."

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.