From: pollard@cucbs.chem.columbia.edu (Tom Pollard)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.celtic
Subject: Re: Celtic Dance questions
Date: 7 Oct 92 23:49:50 GMT
Organization: Center for Biomolecular Simulation, Department of Chemistry,
	Columbia University

Henry Corcoran <CORCORAN@NDSUVM1.BITNET> writes:

> I have noticed a few posts that refer to Celtic dance. I am interessted in
> this and have questions. The terms "caille, set, and traditional" were used.
> What type of dances are these, music steps etc? Also reels and jigs are dance
> music also. What kind of dance is typically done with this music?

> Any postings would be appreciated.
>				     Henry Corcoran
>				     Fargo, North Dakota

I don't know how meaningful it is to talk about 'Celtic' dance, because one
gets the impression that dance styles are fairly different in different
'Celtic' cultures (at least in Irish and Scottish cultures) and that many
of these dance styles are of fairly recent origin, with strong Continental
influences.  I know of three Irish dance styles, which are ceili ("kay-lee")
dancing, set dancing, and step dancing.  Ceili dancing and step dancing are
considered to be fairly old, but I haven't heard of any historical evidence
for them beyond two to three hundred years ago.  (This isn't to imply that
people weren't dancing before that, just that no one sat down and wrote about
it.)   Set dancing is fairly recent in origin, and can be traced directly
to the introduction of French quadrilles to Ireland by soldiers returning 
from the Napoleonic wars in the early 1800's.  All of these dances are 
performed to the same traditional Irish dance music (reels, jigs, slides, 
polkas, and hornpipes, which can be distinguished by their speed and time
signature :  polkas are played quickly in 2/4 time, reels a bit less quickly
in 4/4 or 2/4 time, jigs and slides are a bit slower, in 3/4 and 6/8 time,
respectively, and hornpipes are played at a moderate tempo in 4/4 time; slip 
jigs, in 9/8 time seem to be used only for step dancing.  

Step dancing is (in my limited experience) an essentially individual
dance style, nowadays performed only for exhibition.  Someone else
should probably undertake to describe it for you, but it is a lot like
tap dancing in thick wooden-soled shoes.  I've heard people claim that
tap dancing, in this country, grew out of the transmission of the step
dance style from Irish immigrants to Southern blacks, but I always
take those sorts of statements with a grain of salt...

The Irish word "ceili" just means a social gathering (according to the
dictionary, anyway), but in English usage it refers to an evening of
social dancing to traditional Irish music; there is usually at least
one ceili somewhere in New York every weekend between September and
May.  I understand that a Scottish "ceilidh" (sp?) is somewhat
different; maybe Craig will explain it to us.

Ceili dances and set dances are social dances.  The ceili dances, as I
mentioned, are considered more 'traditional'.They were written down
and codified in the early part of this century, and so are essentially
fixed.  They're all intended to be danced by couples, but the only
contact between individual dancers is to hold hands (except for
"swinging") - this is in contrast to set dances, which are performed
by couples in a waltz hold.  I know of 2-hand, 4-hand, 6-hand, 8-hand
and 16-hand ceili dances; some are performed with the dances starting
in a square, some are line dances; some are progressive, i.e., two
groups of dancers perform the dance once, then each passes on to
another group of dancers and perform the dance again, until every
group has danced with every other group.  They dances are unified by
the fact that they all use the same types of steps.  There are a
limited number of basic steps, all done on the toes.  Without taking
the time to describe them in any detail, the most basic are the side
step (or "7's and 3's"), the advance-and-retire step, the lead-around
step ("forward 3's"), the "swing", and the "house around".  For
instance, in one particular dance (the "Siege of Ennis"), two lines of
two couples face each other at the beginning.  They advance towards
each other and back to where they started (twice), all in the line
holding hands, then each line steps sideways for 2 bars, dances in
place for two bars, and then sidesteps back and dances in place again.
They advance and retire again, and then repeat the sidestep (etc.) in
the other direction.  Each dancer then swings with the dancer across
from themselves in the opposing line for 4 bars, then the lines
advance and retire once more, and then advance and pass through each
other, shoulder-to-shoulder, to the next line of dancers.  I'm sure
I've left something out in this description (we don't do it too often,
but it's relatively simpler to describe than most of the other dances)
but this should give you some idea of what goes on.  I get the
impression that Irish children are taught these dances in school, but
that they aren't widely danced by adults over there, based on the comments
of Irish visitors to ceilis here.

Set dances are social dances, always performed by four couples in a square.
There must be some relationship between set dancing and American square 
dancing, but I don't know what it is - maybe they just both derived from the
French quadrilles, except that old-style American country music is much closer 
to Irish-Scottish traditional music than to anything else I've heard.  In any 
case, set dances were regional social dances
-- 
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Tom Pollard				Department of Chemistry
pollard@cucbs.chem.columbia.edu		Columbia University
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