Irish Dancing

 by Eva Burkinshaw

Irish Dancing is a popular form of dance that originated in Ireland. It is an incredibly important part of Irish Culture, along with Gaelic football and Hurling. Its incredibly fast movements, the stunning costumes and breath-taking choreography make it one of the most eye-catching forms of dance.

The Dance became internationally famous because of the worldwide success of Riverdance, which started in 1995. Riverdance is a theatrical show which mainly features Irish Dancing and Music- it was watched by over 25 million people and continues to be extremely popular today. 

It is known to have been created by Celts and Druids, who lived in Ireland before it became more of an international populated country. Irish Dancing was, at the time, similar to other types of folk dancing around Europe that were popular in the era. It was often backed up with lots of music and singing and took place at lots of important celebrations such as religious events and weddings. The Irish term ‘feis’ means festival and feis were often held by communities to showcase that town's art, culture, music and of course dancing. 

It wasn’t until the 18th century however when Irish Dancing became more like what it is today, people started learning set routines from a Dance ‘Master.’ This is where group dances originally started. The best dancer from each group was shown off as a soloist. These soloists were often rivals and they would dance against each other, which you could argue is where the competitions started. Irish Dance competitions are now known as feis. The Irish Dance Commission was established in 1930 and this is when it really started to take off. 

Irish Dancing is known for its amazing outfits. There are 2 different types of shoes that you would wear depending on the type of dance you choose. Heavy shoes have bits of fibreglass in the tip and heel of the shoe to create a percussion effect when you hit the ground. Soft shoes are lace up ones. Male dancers wear a different version of the soft shoe. They are called reel shoes and have a hard heel that makes less noise than the heavy shoe. For competitions they tend to wear dark coloured trousers with a white button up top and a tie. Girls wear specially made dresses that sit above the knee. Each dance school tends to have a different ‘set’ dress that you can wear. They will usually have a Celtic inspired design in the middle. Most people wear a wig or a bun wig which have ringlets or curls as this is more traditional. Some may fake tan or wear makeup- however this is not possible for girls under 11 years old. In non competition environments you will most likely see the dancers in black, plain dresses with more straight hair. 

The music that is played usually includes a harp or fiddle or just singing. There are 3 main types of routines in Irish Dancing; set dancing, step routines or céilí routines. They are all quite formal types of dancing and usually include very fast and precise movements of the feet.The most well known is the céilí routines as these are done in larger groups.

The Irish Dancing commission set up the world championships in 1970  and are still held annually to this day. They are held in different parts of the world each year and feature over 6000 contestants from over 30 different countries. 

 The most popular form of Irish dance is Riverdance. This is a theatrical show which features a lot of Irish dancing, music and costumes. It was 25 years old in 2020 and  I  was lucky enough to see the 25th anniversary show in the Guildhall all back in 2021. Riverdance made its  debut in the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest; it was then just an interval act featuring Michael Flatley and Jean Butler. It was so popular that it then put on a show in Dublin in November 1994 which sold over 120000 tickets. It then toured all around the world From 1994 to 2011 they took a final farewell tour. There are still lots of spin-off of Riverdance all around the world and other smaller towards as well of Irish dancing.