A year on...

It's my blog's first birthday today. That also means I've been studying for this exam for roughly one year. So where was I twelve months ago? I was here. I'd got two ceilis - Walls and Rakes - and one traditional set under my belt. Where am I today? Well, I nearly died - so not particularly far given the time that's elapsed. I've learned all the ceilis, although it took me about 7 months to do so. I've done a fair few past papers and I think I've passed them all. I'm pretty certain that I'd pass if I took the written exam for real today. Music included - that's ticking over. I now know three of the four trad sets, and apparently knowing Job is good prep for learning Garden, so I'm certain I'll know all four of them very soon.

Back then, I was taking a weekly class where we mostly did middle-level soft shoe steps and the odd ceili. That class folded over the summer, and I didn't dance again (due to illness and after effects) until I started my own class in January. That's a big thing for me - I started my own class. I'm fed up with it because people aren't committing, but we persevere. These things take a while to build up. Soon after the class started, I began work on my solo steps, for the practical dancing section. I thought I could fall back on the steps I'd danced the last time I competed, but they were woefully out of date and, as the years had taken their toll, were completely unsuitable.

I've choreographed myself a new reel and heavy jig step; just one of each. I struggle with practical choreography and tend to complete a step in my head before attempting to dance it, which doesn't always work. But, I do have a full complement of beginner dances to teach in my classes, and in the exam should I need to. I'm branching out into primary level steps now too.

The one thing I haven't touched, is the open sets. NINE. The mere thought of it is exhausting. There's no point in me tackling sets before I even have a full jig and hornpipe so it will be a while longer yet. Luckily I have good friends who are willing to share their choreography with me so the burden isn't quite so great, but I'm still hugely daunted by this and if anything puts me off, it's going to be the sets.

I'm struggling with injury at the moment - both my Achilles are really angry with me. I've got freeze gel and tubigrip up to my knees on both legs, and last Thursday after class I could barely walk. I can't do anything except just keep going and hoping they won't get worse.

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Last week I set myself some challenges for the week which I'll review now:

Wednesday - review new slip jig step, test out heavy jig step. Video record if possible. DONE! The slip jig step works a treat and R is getting to grips with it. The jig step needs polishing as I was off time on about the 6th-7th bars, but it's a pretty step.

Thursday - attempt Job set. Done on Friday instead, but I figured it out and I feel I know it sufficiently well enough to call it "complete". Obviously I will continue to polish.

Sunday - review Job set, attempt hornpipe. Not quite! I did the hornpipe on Saturday. Even so! That's the last beginner dance complete.

Monday - get to class early to work on bicycles, Job, jig and hornpipe. This was the first time I'd danced Job in shoes and it's getting there. I'm just such a child - whenever I actually make one of the heel clicks, I get so excited that I forget to actually continue dancing! Needs tidying. The jig is nearly there too, on the right foot at least. I've tightened up the timing so it's not so ragged, but I think I'm going to take out a travelling move and replace with some rhythm so that I don't knock myself off time. I then spent ages drilling back trebles and things on my MUCH weaker left foot and saw a slight bit of progress. I started on bicycles using the "two chairs" method. That will take a long long while to get, and I need to improve my core strength a great deal in order to get myself up in the air. The one thing I didn't do was work on the beginner hornpipe.

So where does that leave me for this week?

Tonight - nothing, I really should rest my legs. Perhaps I'll try some choreography in my head as I have the office to myself all day. Oh, I know what I'll do. Some core strength/Pilates exercises.
Wednesday - I can't arrive early or stay after Wednesday classes as the caretaker locks the hall before and afterwards, so this one will always be tricky and completely dependent on who turns up to class. Hopefully I'll be able to review Job and jig.
Thursday - review Job and jig, if I can walk.
Weekend - come up with a half step to complete my primary slip jig. If possible get the shoes on and just drill things on my left foot - back trebles, toe-over-toes, the stamp combination. Continue with strength exercises - core as well as foot and ankle.

I'm leaving Garden until I can be taught in person again so hopefully towards the end of the month. I can't really work on bicycles anywhere but the Monday class as I don't have access to any chairs, can you believe! We genuinely don't have any suitable chairs in our house. I'm continuing writing out all the hard ceilis and should finish sometime this week. Other than that all I can do is what I do every day - scour YouTube for clips and soak in as much dancing as possible for inspiration.

Apologies for the essay-style update. I really can't believe I've been on this road for a whole year.

Challenges

Oh, I crack myself up. I wrote myself a list of four challenges last week and, to date, have achieved exactly none of them. I keep doing different things instead!

Here's what I wanted to do:
- Finish Job (yes, I'm still on that. No, I haven't tried)
- Learn Garden
- Learn to do a bicycle (I'm going to need to know how to do at least one difficult movement in case I get champs in the teaching section)
- Choreograph a beginner hornpipe

Here's what I actually did:
- Choreographed two steps of a primary slip jig (it's actually very pretty!)
- Completed two music quizzes (both passes but a couple of woeful mistakes. How do you confuse Ace and Deuce with Planxty Drury? Not Davis, Drury?!)
- Choreographed a new heavy jig step

So I guess productive, and at least I'm doing practical work more often now, but if I don't stick to my homework then there are certain things I will put off for ever and ever!

Monday class was cancelled which gave the legs and internal organs a much needed rest. Wednesday class is on as normal tomorrow so I can test out this new heavy jig step which can't be neglected even though it's not on my original list. So the plan for the next week is (incorporating overtime - real life needs to stop getting in my way):

Wednesday - review new slip jig step and heavy jig step. Video record if possible.
Thursday - attempt Job set
Sunday - review Job set, attempt hornpipe
Monday - get to class early to work on bicycles, Job, jig and hornpipe.

Is that enough? Probably not. I'm also trying to write out (well, type) all the tougher ceilis. Mainly the ones with figures, and a couple of others like Lannigan's and Gates, otherwise I'm going to run out of past papers well before my actual exam.

I WILL update on my progress this time next week! If I don't, spam me with comments.

Warm-up

My, was I aching today. I had only one dancer last night, R, who is a star and hasn't missed a single lesson. She wants to be pushed a bit harder; in her own words, "I don't just want to do the steps, I want to do them properly." So with only one dancer (who wanted to work hard), I then had to work hard too, and coincidentally enough I'd arrived at the venue a full hour early to get some solo practice in as well. Oops.

I ran through my traditionals and the rhythm wasn't so bad. I actually am quite thankful for them as I can feel it will help with my open sets and general heavy dancing, so I refuse to complain about any of them any more. I then tried to fix my old jig lead, which was done in the days when you could go right-right and also includes a ridiculous three full clicks on each foot. Six! It's a killer and some of them need to go, but my brain wasn't working so I moved on to reel and have come up with a new step for me to do at the exam. It's not what you'd expect today's champions to be doing in their light round - maybe a prelim dancer. I hope it will be enough, and maybe when I'm fitter I'll push myself to something more difficult.

To link this whole post together (was aching today/need to get fitter) - I could do with some advice, please. What does your warm-up routine consist of? I usually just go straight into things dancing at half-effort and work my way up. I know I should definitely be doing ankle and arch exercises as these are the areas that play me up most, and I know my class need to do a full warm-up as well. With me branching into two classes a week, it's only going to get tougher on the old legs. I'm just kind of not sure what to do?

Back in the day we would start off by walking briskly round the room, getting a bit faster and swinging our arms to loosen the upper body, then break into a bit of a jog with some star jumps thrown in, back to a brisk walk with some arm exercises (bicep curls, shoulder presses etc with no weights), then finish with the light jig or baby reel. Following that it'd be some non-specific leg stretches which I don't think we were doing correctly having seen gym trainers do them differently.

So...what's new in warming up? Any advice?

Exam news

Woe is me. Just took a wee visit to Ryan Carroll's blog and all future TCRG candidates will need to know seven traditional sets instead of the current four. Sob! But, I have the DVD and they are all nice dances. We'd need them as teachers anyway and it'll be nice to be able to offer more than one trad set in jig time. But, the fact that the meeting was held this weekend just gone, means that you should all start getting your results fairly soon. Best of luck!!!

***EDIT - apparently the original blog post (linked to above) was incorrect as it has now been reposted. We still only need to know the four traditional sets, but any version of them will be accepted as there are a number of different versions***

Before I go, an answer to last week's quiz question. As correctly guessed by one of our anonymous readers, the odd movement out was See-Saw as all the other movements listed included a clap or claps. Thanks for playing!

Final piece of news...I'm starting my Wednesday night classes from this week. OMG.

Pop Quiz I

Time for a quiz! Match the movement to the dance in which it appears:


Ooohhhh, you didn't think it'd be that easy, did you? That's only the starter question. The real question is this: Which is the odd movement out and why? I'll give you a few days before I post the answer. No prizes for guessing, save for bragging rights and a sense of self-satisfaction :)

Figure of Eight and Rings of Three

Determined to lift myself out of my downbeat-ness, I decided to go over the troublesome figure. Death by repetition. I've worked out where I was going wrong, and in doing so I've reminded myself that this is actually the ONLY figure I ever have problems with when doing practise exams. Here's why: I forget that the rings go BOTH ways before letting the lady or gent out. Sidestep and threes, sidestep and threes, letting them out on the second lot of threes. Because I was insistent that the figure takes 24 instead of 32 bars to do once, I was trying to get away with letting the "spare" dancer in/out after only one lot of sevens and threes, First Ring/Second Ring style in Haste to the Wedding. No, wrong, bad, slap.

1) Top couple advance. Top gent retires while top lady performs a figure of eight, passing around opposite lady then opposite gent. Both ladies advance to form a ring of three with the top gent. = 8

2) Ring performs sidestep and threes to the right and back - opposite gent does likewise in place. On the last two threes, top couple form an arch and opposite lady passes under to take the original place of top lady, and opposite gent joins the ring. = 8

3) Ring performs sidestep and threes to the left and back - opposite lady does likewise in top couple's places. On the last two threes, top couple again form the arch and let opposite gent under to take the original place of leading gent. = 8

4) All have a swing around back to place. = 8

5) As at 1, with opposite couple advancing and opposite lady performing the figure of eight around lady then gent. = 8

6) As at 2, ring allowing top lady out to position of opposite lady, top gent in. = 8

7) As at 3, allowing top gent out to position of opposite gent. = 8

8) Swiiiiing. = 8

...and you're done. 32 bars to complete once, not 24. Ring goes both ways. I had this mere weeks ago - let's hope everybody turns up next week so I can finally put this one to bed.

Ten down...

...a million to go. I've been running my class for ten weeks now :-O

I'm a bit disappointed because the numbers haven't picked up. I keep getting calls and emails from people who say they'll come, but then they never do. Starting to wonder if they're prank calls! The girls I do have are really enthusiastic and pick things up very quickly so we're steaming ahead, and last night I started pulling them up on a few technique issues and working them a bit harder. Working myself a bit harder too, even put my shoes on for St Patrick's Day, and old injuries are flaring. I'm too broken for this.

I'm also frustrated because we had a new girl who'd danced before, making four including me, so we went over the Four-Hand Reel a few times. And I've taught this before but still the first figure was just not happening.

Perhaps I'm not as confident on the ceilis as I thought I was. What I call the "little" ceilis (progressives) are ok, and I'm ok on the body of most of the harder dances, but am I going to be ok with figures? I feel like I would be if I had the opportunity to practise them but I need at least four more people to join the class and stick with it before that can happen.

I'm just having a downbeat day I guess. For why? I have't even booked myself on an exam yet. I just want it done, I want to get going, and there's so much crap in the way of that.

Very downbeat.

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig

Here are some suitable clips for St Patrick's Day...hope everyone had a good one!







Erin go bragh!

Job of Journeywork

Attempting my third traditional set this week. I was lucky enough to have someone to teach me the step which compared to learning St Pat's and Blackbird from videos was SO VERY EASY. Honestly, if you ever have the choice been videos and a real person, choose the real person every time. There's just no comparison. I have the step committed to memory:

& brush & brush treble in front, hop-treble treble and a back 23 brush treble and a back, hop-treble treble and a back 23 and brush treble and back treble and back 2345 heel heel down step treble and back brush treble-treble and a back.

And now I've found a slowed-down instruction of the set which I hope will be the next bext thing to personal tuition! I especially like the little shriek during one of the rocks :)



So that's my project for this week. I do of course have Olive as well.

Class went well this week although it was just the three of us. It's been just the three of us for some time now which is disappointing. But, they're both really enthusiastic and we steamed through all the beginner dances, polished the primary reel including learning a brand new second step, and then continued to work on St Patrick's Day. I've made up a heavy jig lead and second step to go with my existing first step (which I've changed to be a first instead of a lead) and they actually WORK!

Still no further along with my own dancing/open set dances, and haven't touched a practice paper since last month. Not to worry. I still only have £30 saved towards this exam and hence haven't applied. No rush, I'm telling myself.

This Saturday we have an Irish band playing at the local and they've asked if I can bring a few dancers. I've roped a few guys in - should be a good craic.

Sixteen-Hand Reel

Another one that I learned ages ago but never got around to typing out. I'm going to test myself and do this solely from memory first, because it's the last book dance I learned so I haven't done as much in the way of revision as I've done for some of the others.

Lead Round
As always.

Body
Sides
Partners sidestep past each other and finish with two threes, then return to place as before. 8.

Hands Round
Leading and opposite tops, and leading and opposite sides, each form a ring of four with the couple to their right and dance sidestep and threes to the left and back. 8.

Sides
As above. 8.

Hand Round
As above, but forming the ring with the couple on their left. 8.

Half Chain
Partners take right hands and turn in place. Gents chain with left hand to lady on their right, ladies with left hand to gents on their left, and all continue chaining until they meet their partner in the opposite postition. Gents take partners two hands and lead round back to original position in the direction the gent was dancing (i.e. anticlockwise). 16.

Link Arms
Gents of leading and opposite tops and leading and opposite sides advance to gent on their right, link right arms and dance around clockwise. Give left hand to lady on right and turn in place, returning to partner and turning her with right hand. Partners take two hands and swing a complete circle around couple with whom they danced the second Hands Round (couple on left). 16.

First Figure - Advance & Retire
As always. Leading & opposite tops first, then leading and opposite sides, then second tops, then second sides. 16x4=64.

The clip starts at Advance and Retire and then continues into the body...



Second Figure - Right Hand to Opposite Lady
Gents of leading and opposite tops advance to opposite lady and give right hand to turn in place. Return to partner and turn in place with left hand. Gents take right hands in centre and turn in place, give left hand to opposite lady and turn in place, then give right hand to partner and turn in place. Couples swing around each other to finish. Repeated in the same order as above. 24x4=96.

Third Figure - Arch Arms
Leading and opposite tops take hands and turn into centre. Leading tops raise right arms to form an arch under which opposite lady passes. Lower hands, half turn, raise hands to form an arch under which opposite gent passes. All retake both hands and turn out to opposite position. Turn back into centre, this time opposite tops forming the arch for top lady to pass under, turn as before, reform arch for top gent to pass under, and swing back to original position. 16x4=64

Finish
As in Eight-Hand Reel; advance, retire, rings and swing. 40.

Total...536 bars.

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Apart from incorrectly saying that the couples swing around each other to finish Arch Arms, I actually got all of that right! :-O