Celebrating St. Patrick's Day:
Irish Dancing

Irish dance has experienced a growing popularity in recent years. Here are some directions for the basic steps in Irish dance, as well as a list of benefits in participating in this art form.

Fancy Irish Footwork:
(from http://www.nonvi.com/sm/footwork.html)

Irish dancing has three basic steps: threes, sevens, and jig steps. Threes are used to dance in place, to move forward, and to move backward. To dance threes, you dance right-left-right, left-right-left. Your feet should land in about the same spot on the ground. You want to lift your knees as you dance your threes--this gives it the characteristic Irish look.

Sevens are used to move sideways. To dance sevens moving to the right: start with your right foot in front and your left foot behind. Bring your right foot up near your left knee and hop on your left foot. This is "1". Jump onto your right foot, placing it in front and to the right of your left foot. This is "2". Cross your left foot behind your right and hop onto it--this is "3". Move your right foot (keeping it in front) to your right and hop onto it--"4". Continue this way up to seven. This takes the same amount of time as dancing two threes. Dancing sevens to the left is the same, only you reverse right and left. When dancing sevens, the direction you are going is the foot which is in front. This front foot remains in front--you never bring it behind. Usually, you dance two threes at the end of a seven. Sometimes you will dance a jig step at the end of a seven. There are several jig steps, but I am only going to cover one of them. This step is known as the rise and grind. This is the right side version of the rise and grind. Put your weight on your left foot and lift your right foot off the ground. Hop on your left foot once. Hop on your left foot again, bringing your right foot back behind your left foot and then shift your weight onto your right foot, leaving your left foot in the air. We use the phrase "hop, hop back" for these three movements. The next movement is a hop on your right foot. Then you alternate feet, left-right-left-right. The phrase for this whole movement is: "hop, hop back, hop 1-2-3-4." To do the step on the left foot, reverse the left and right directions. A jig step takes as long as two threes. According to http://www.irishdancing.net/ the benefits of Irish Dance include:

Increased Physical Skills
Developing body control and coordination, great exercise.

Increased Mental Skills
Listening, following directions, increasing attention span, memorizing steps.

A Healthy Competitive Spirit
Increasing the child's desire to do well and to the best of his/her ability.

Self-Esteem
Increasing the child's confidence, developing "stage presence" when they participate in recitals and competitions.

Lasting Friendships
Not only with classmates, but through performing and competing, meeting children from all parts of the city, state, and country.

Promoting Irish Culture
A revival of Irish identity and tradition began in the 1960s. While a young dancer may not comprehend this particular benefit while training, this revival continues!

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