Anybody ever been to a session where they dance?

Whistle
1

I don’t mean performance dancing but the kind where people dance to jigs and reels like God intended.

The reason I ask is that I am writing a story (yes, I am a writer of fiction) where a character is being exposed to Irish culture for the first time. The father of a person he’s interested in owns an Irish pub (in Cleveland) where they have sessions on Friday nights and the customers dance, and so does she.

I have asked, and around here these days there are only music sessions without dancing, so I can’t go see for myself. I will be going to a couple of Irish festivals during the next month so maybe there will be dancing.

Anyway, my question is, what’s it like? Can you describe it for me? Do people dance as couples or as groups? Are there set steps to follow for certain songs or do people sort of free-form it? Do the men dance as much as the women or do the women do most of the dancing while the men watch? (Like with most dancing in bars.) As the music gets faster and faster do people drop out until there are only one or two of the best dancers left who can keep up?

I probably have more question, which I will think of as this thread grows (he says optimistically).

Thank you in advance.

2

Hi John- Yes, dancing at sessions happens…usually when the dancers and musicians know each other and there is enough room for sets.

3

Well, I danced at our session on Saturday, but it lasted only 5 seconds. A desciption? A sad sad affair accompanied by much booing. (ok, not much booing, but I know that they wanted to) :slight_smile:

4

It happens. Sometimes a few female musicians get up to dance to a tune or 2, usually in street shoes or even barefoot. Sometimes someone in the pub who’d had the training, or Irish dance students. Often very little room for movement, so they might trade off one dances the A & B part, then the next. The musicians keep a regular pace, not trying to run them off their feet.

5

Don’t know about the US, but in the green and musty isle, the style of dancing that is most likely to occur more or less spontaneously at a session is set dancing. I’ve seen it happen in Dublin in Hughes’s pub near the Four Courts, and the whole set dancing revival largely grew out of music and cultural summer school participants discovering it in its native habitat in the pubs in Clare.

If you enter “set dancing” as an exact phrase in a Google advanced search, you’ll get several sites that describe it.

6

There is spontaneous dancing at the sessions I play in…not a lot of it, but its there.

Being unfamiliar with Irish dancing (other than the cute kids in the embroidered dresses and the like), I can’t tell you what dances exactly they are, but frequently a couple of pairs of of ladies will get up and do a couples dance. At other sessions step dancers will sometimes spontaneously dance. Both of these are in bar settings.

and ever so often some of the step dancers (always the younger ones, never the adults) will ask specifically to dance, ask for a specific tempo and rhythm. When this happens typically we do AAA BB AA BB AA BB until they’re done.

7

Just happened last nite at Keegan’s. A man (not so usual around here; more likely it would be a teenage girl for some reason) was giving it a go. I have to hand it to the dancers; they seem to know what they’re doing, but I can’t figure it out, myself. This guy was a bit of a hazard, though. He nearly clocked the waitress a couple of times, relocated a chair with his butt, and the piper had to hastily save his bass drone more than once or risk a new configuration due to the lurching. Still, the punters loved it.

8

I’ve witnessed the same at a pub in Galway near the docks.

-David

9

I’ve seen both, usually it’s set dancing. If it’s set dancing it’s usually a four or eight hand set. When it’s step dancing it’s usually a friend who asks for a particular tune at a particular tempo & off we go. Step dancers also have a funny habit of ending in the middle of a tune. (6th bar of the first time through the a-part). I think it comes from the fact that many stepdancers care much more about themselves than the music, although I’ll surely be clobbered for such a comment. Set dancers seems to be more on the schtick.

10

If you’re talking about spontaneous set dancing and how it starts, here’s my experiences as a player.

1 - The bar will have a repuation for sets - Winkles in Kinvara, The Hill at Kylebrack, Munroe’s in Galway city.

2 - The players are lashing away at a few tunes when a bunch of people will assemble in the middle of the room, usually 8, sometimes 4 for a half set, men and women. They might even start a figure while you’re playing.

3 - The players and dancers will agree what set will be danced, sometimes just a shout from one of the dancers. In Galway it might be the Conemara or East Galway set, in Kerry it will be a set based on polkas and slides.

4 - The set starts. Usually four to six figures in a set - reels, reels, reels, jigs, hornpipes for example in that order. The sets are a particular pattern of steps and moves which all the dancers will know and the musicians will know roughly how long each figure will last - eg two reels, three or four time through, each figure is slightly different. Everybody ends each figure together usually not at the end of the tune as you would a session. After a short gap for a quick drink, the next figure starts. And so it goes.

The piss head who gets up and does his (or her) impersonation of a highland fling is not what’s wanted and is usually not appreciated by any of the musicians. Sets are are great experience for dancer, musician and spectator and really put the music into context.

Ken

11

Maybe I can help explain Irish dancing, being an irish dancer myself.

There tends to be 2 types of places where people dance:

Feis (pronounced fe-SH, like fish but with an “e”), is a compitition, normally done on weekends, and is highly organized. i.e. age catagories, and levels for dancing. Not just anyone can come to a feis and compete. Your teacher has to be reconized by the organization putting on the feis. At feis you normally complete in 7 solo dances (reel, light jig, slip jig, single jig, fast/slow hard jig, fast/slow hornpipe, tradition set). Then there is a seperate compitition for figure dances (group dances). This is when you dance with partners. A 2-hand would be a dance done with two people. Normally a boy and a girl, but often due to a lack of guys, it is almost more common to see two girls doing a 2-hand together. There are also 3-hands, 4-hands, 6-hands, 8-hands, and 16-hands.

But enough said about feis, on to the stuff you’ll probably need to know.

In my experience, you will find a lot more dancing at a ceilhi, which is basicly an irish party, than at a session in a pub. At least it will be probably more organized. Normally, at a Ceilhi there is someone teaching ceilhi dances, which are group dances. There are 3 ceilhi dances almost always taught, The Walls of Limerick, the Seige of Ennis, and the Haymaker’s Jig. There are more ceilhi dances then these but these tend to be the easiest and are a lot of fun.

The Walls of Limerick, and the Seige of Ennis are dances than could never end. The basic set up is 4 couples (each couple is two people) facing each other. Now these groups are all set up in a big line. Next everyone does the dance, but then each couple passes by the couple they were just dancing with to meet up with the next couple and the dance starts over. This is kind of hard to explain, but if you need that explained more let me know.

The Haymaker’s Jig is set up differently from the Walls of Limerick and the Seige of Ennis. I believe it is normally a group of 8 couples lined up with the boys on one side and the girls of the other side. So two lines facing each other. The dance is continus, and each time the dance is completed a new couple is at the head of the lines.

So that’s Ceilhi Dancing 101. But as well as ceilhi dancing, sometimes people will get up and do a solo dance. A common thing I have seen at my dance school’s ceilhi is all the dancers will line up in a big line and everyone will do a dance, one right after another. Sometimes if it is a big group of dancers, more than one dancer will dance at the same time, normally 2 or 3.

Okay, well I hope that helps. If you need more information check out http://www.ghilliestudio.com or http://www.irish-dancer.co.uk Both really good webpages on irish dancing. Or you could always PM me. :slight_smile: Good luck with your story!

Caryn

12

I know a pub where the session plays “sets” so folks can dance.
The dance teacher (a guy) is there and usually a 1/2 dozen people
that know how show up. If any one else wants to join in, they kind-of
shove them thru the motions of the various dances. There are always
a few high school girls who do a “grand-finale” type thing at the end.
The pub-goers love it! And it happens once a week, rain or shine.
Lolly

13

Wow, thanks everyone. This helps a lot.

14

Well, I’m here in the oven (Phoenix, Az.), and we often don’t have enough to do a set dance, but we have a lot of Irish Dance students that often get up and dance at our session.

Just on a buttinksi note ( :smiley: ), have you thought about incorporating “The Ballad of St. Annes Reel?” It’s along the lines you were describing.

Aodhan

15

I found it by googling. Thanks.

16

i DON’T HAVE THE TIME TO EVEN READ THIS WHOLE THREAD AT THE MINUTE BUT YES i DO PLAY AT A SESSION EVERY WEEK WHERE DANCERS DANCE A FEW SET AND HAVE BEEN SDOING SO FOR OVER FIVE YEARS OR SO.

17

Chill, Peter, you don’t need to shout! :laughing:
Too busy with Willie Week to spend time with us, are you? :wink:

~Larry

18

He’s been deafened by all those concert-pitch sets.

19

I knew it had to have something to do with Willie Week! :smiley:

~Larry

20

I am fingering strange keyboards at the minute as it were .