Social Aspects & Culture

Fellow bloggers! Happy Monday!

In today’s post I am going to talk about some social situations that helped form Irish Step Dancing as the unique dance that it is. Buckle up because there is a lot of information hidden behind this beautiful dance!

In 1929 the Irish Dancing Commission was founded in order to judge people that considered themselves Irish dancers. There were competitions in which dancers were judged based on a system called “100-mark system”. This system was constructed in a way that all the points that each dancer received were placed into 4 different sections evenly – the dancers had to pay close attention to 1) their timing 2) their deportment/style 3) construction of their steps and lastly 4) their execution.

As far as the social aspect goes, the Irish dancing masters were in charge of that. Dancing masters were individuals (most likely male since it was before the 1930’s – like I mentioned in my last post women dancers came around in the 1930’s) that went around Ireland from town to town teaching anyone who was interested or willing to learn the steps to Irish step dancing. Not only did they try and include anyone they could…but they would perform for them as well. They would dance in confined areas for as many people as could see in a town. It was looked at as a talent to dance in small spaces, it was even looked at as an addition to the dance; if you step danced in a large area it took away from the authenticity of the dance itself. This is where the concept of dancing on top of a table came from – according to Celtic Dance Webring, the best compliment you could give a dancer was that, “they could dance on stop of a plate”!

Stay tuned guys, only a few more posts until we have an even better understanding of this beautiful dance!

Lauren C

Rozakis, Laurie. "Research Methods." Google Books. Web. 13 Apr. 2015. <https://books.google.com/books?id=aSru7XVwFa0C&pg=PA147&lpg=PA147&dq=irish step dancing gender differences&source=bl&ots=XAhPwEnwQ1&sig=29Izss1AOrEzBRZamu1AneEKH9s&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1hIrVaHxB4LUggSHvoP4DA&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=irish step dancing gender differences&f=false>.

"What Is Irish Dance?" What Is Irish Dance? Celtic Dance Webring, 1 Jan. 2015. Web. 13 Apr. 2015. <http://www.albee.org/celticdance/irishdance.htm>.