Hornpipe Magazine Irish Dance Abstracts Vol. 9.

Volume 9, Issue 3

Profile: Breffni School of Irish Dance
By Erin Reilly

One day, at age 10, my sister, mother and I were at a dance class in Elizabeth, New Jersey. My sister was learning steps up on the stage with one of the Peter Smith School of Irish Dancing teachers, Michael O’Hara. Michael was a kind yet disciplined Irish dancing teacher whom everyone liked. I guess my mother caught me watching the lesson with Michael. Suddenly, my mother grabbed my hand and brought me up to Michael. I was embarrassed at first, but Michael focused on teaching me the steps, not on how uncomfortable I was. Once I realized that no one was fussing over me, I began to enjoy the lesson.

This was my first real dancing lesson. After this lesson I entered into the competitive world of Irish dancing full-force. I always look back on that day and wonder; “If it wasn’t Michael that was teaching me, would I have ever really gotten involved?” I don’t have the answer to that question, but I know for certain that Michael’s way of teaching helped ease my transition to learn dancing.

Today, Michael O’Hara is the Southern Region Irish Dancing Director. He lives in Miami with his wife and spends his free time teaching dancers in the Miami region. He was a great teacher when he was a part of the Peter Smith School and today, he stands as one of the most influential Irish dancing teachers in the Southern Region.

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Volume 9, Issue 3

Do You Have What It Takes to be a Feis Mom?
By Zebadiah Beauregard | zandb.blogspot.com

The following criteria were developed a few years back by various “practitioners” in the field for use as a “self assessment” (Kind of like a Celtic Cosmo Girl Test).

How many of these apply to you?

You think waiting in line for ten minutes to use the restroom at the local mall is a “piece of cake.”
You have ever wondered what “normal families” did on weekends?
You have ever taught a class on the “Irish Points” system.
All your trips to visit distant relatives just happen to coincide with a local Feis.
You have checked airfares to Shannon “just in case”.

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Volume 9, Issue 3

The Trouble with Sisters
By Sidney Christman

Everyone knows that although siblings can be a lot of fun, they can also be annoying. You have to share your stuff with them, you have to play with them, and no matter how annoying they get, you have to be nice to them. Unfortunately, most of us aren’t always kind to our siblings, and so having brothers and sisters can be challenging. Add dance to all of that, and things can become even harder.

I started dancing in 1997 when I was six. Although I loved it from the start, I didn’t compete at a feis for the first two years that I danced because I was too nervous. When I was eight, I finally went to my first feis and won a few medals, that’s when I fell in love with competing! Right away I started to put more energy into dancing and practicing, but it still took me a long time to move from one level to the next. Finally, when I was Under 12, I got my firsts in Preliminary Championship, and moved into Open Championships the following year.

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Volume 9, Issue 3

As I See It: Certified Teachers Preserve Tradition
By Russell J. Beaton adcrg

Those of us involved with Irish dancing make a big deal of the fact that teachers of Irish dancer must be officially certified. They must pass the certification examination offered by An Coimisiun le Rinci Gaelacha before they are considered suitable as teachers of Irish dance. To many Americans, more familiar with the way teachers of other dance forms operate (tap, jazz, ballet, etc.), there is a question about all this. Why do Irish dance teachers have to be certified? What difference does having this certification make to anyone?

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Volume 9, Issue 2

Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne 2007

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Volume 9, Issue 2

Dancer to dancer
Motivation: How do you keep it going?
By Sidney Christman

It’s a fact. Dancing is hard, and the only way to get better is to work. It would be lovely if working was easy, and you could just breeze through your dances without getting even slightly tired. Unfortunately, for most of us, this doesn’t happen. Dance practice is hard work. When I’m in the middle of practice and begin to get tired and start breathing heavily, it’s hard to push myself “to the max” and keep going. It takes a lot of will power, and something that I believe, in dancing, is essential: motivation.

“Why is motivation essential?” you might ask. Well, the principle is simple, but can affect your dancing on many levels. Think back to your younger years, when your parents set up a scavenger hunt for you and your friends. Your parents hid clues and hints to lead you to a treasure or treat, and you and your friends quickly searched the area to be the first to find it. This is a simple case of motivation. The work to find the treasure was hard, yes, but you wanted the treat, and were motivated enough by the reward to search for anything that would help you find it first. The treasure was your motivation to work hard.

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Volume 9, Issue 2

First Time On Stage
Donagh Corcoran, MA., Dip Phil., ADCRG

Can you remember your first time on a dancing stage or floor in a feis? If not can you recall the earliest parts of your life as an Irish Dancer? Look at any beginners line in a Feis and you will see somewhere within the group a replay of what you were like.

You will certainly see the introvert and the extrovert. The introvert will be very conscious of being in a strange place. This young person will easily have his/her concentration affected by others. This dancer will be nervous and feel uneasy looking down at a sea of faces that are watching. Lights may also appear to be very bright especially if this dancer is on a high stage or platform. Having a number pinned on your clothes may at first be exciting but when you notice others have numbers too you may feel it is different. Boys may appear to be more serious than the girls.

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Volume 9, Issue 2

Improve Dance With Exercise
By Russell J. Beaton adcrg

A number of years ago, many teachers of Irish Dance in the US heard an important lecture and had a demonstration by Mary Beth Griffith, Teasgicoir Choimisiuin Le Rinci Gaelacha (TCRG ) of the Griffith Academy in Connecticut. For many of us, it was the first time that we had experienced the topic. Mary Beth demonstrated a series of exercises, warm-up stretches, and drills that she urged all of us to include in our classes with our dancers. Most of us were polite and thanked Mary Beth, but, to be honest, we were not necessarily won over. After all, she was showing us a variety of techniques associated with ballet, or perhaps athletics and sports. Irish dancers really did not need these sorts of things, did they?

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Volume 9, Issue 2

Idance School of Irish Dancing

At the very eastern edge of the North American continent, just north east of Maine, sitting on edge of the grand banks is St. John’s, the oldest city in Canada. Newfoundland is more than three times the size of maritime provinces, New Brunswick, Price Edward Island and Nova Scotia. If it were one of the United States, it would rank fourth in size behind Alaska, Texas and California. Situated between a warm gulf stream to the south and the Labrador current to the north, it is known as “iceberg alley.”

While Viking, Lief Erikkson, is credited as the first European settler, Newfoundland was home to the Beothuk Indians. European settlement attracted the interest of diverse cultural interests, including Basque, Portuguese, Scottish, French, English and Irish.

All these groups left an indelible print on the cultural and ethnic influences that make up Newfoundland and Labrador, but none more than the Irish.

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Volume 9, Issue 1

2007 Oireachtas Rince na hÉireann results

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Volume 9, Issue 1

Dancer To Dancer
By Erin Reilly

Fifteen years goes by pretty fast. At the age of six, I became involved in Irish dancing with lots of starts and stops in the lessons. A true and steady commitment for me didn’t really start until my 11th year. Until then, I’d sit in a small blue chair in the back of my twin sister’s dancing class, pretending to read a book and declaring my disdain for Irish dancing to everyone asking why I wasn’t up there with her.

Secretly, I wished I was. It was so much easier to hide behind a Goosebumps book (remember those?) then to get out on the floor and make a mistake and listen to the good natured yelling. I still have that nagging sense that I have to do everything perfectly the first time but that’s another issue.

When I finally got the courage five years later, there were three little girls who helped me out. They taught me steps in their spare time, they hung out with me outside of class, and most importantly, they never let me quit no matter how hard I tried – they were my twin Meghan and my friends Noreen Hughes and Brianna Kostecka. We used to call ourselves “the swans” after our school logo derived from “The Children of Lir” but at that age, we were more like little chicks.

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Volume 9, Issue 1

Mission for Meghan
By Katie Hamilton

In September of 2005, Championship Irish dancer Meghan Henry was diagnosed with a Wilm’s Tumor in her kidney, signaling the beginning of her brave fight against cancer. Meghan’s battle is far from over; however, she is not fighting alone. The Irish dance community has rallied around this seventeen-year-old dancer, demonstrating the power of prayer, hope and support that others can bring.

“She is such a beautiful, honest girl that, if she didn’t get sick, you would say, this is a teenager who has seen everything going on around her and decided to stay on a good and healthy track,” said Meghan’s aunt, Diane Budz.

Throughout treatments and tests, Meghan, a dancer with the Trinity Academy based in the Chicago-land area, continued attending practices and focusing on staying in shape.

“Dancing was my life,” said Meghan. “Sometimes I go to dance and get sick but I try my best to keep up with everyone. Some days I can’t. It helps me, to exercise and see my friends.”

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Volume 9, Issue 1

Profile: Irish Dance and Peter Smith

Everything about Peter Smith seems remarkably simple.

Why did he dedicate his life to Irish dance?

“Not only do I feel it is the only dance in this world, but I am sure of it.”

Which dance is his favorite?

“All of them. And that’s the truth.”

In his South Amboy, N.J. studio, Smith’s students dance – and dance and dance, round after round after round. They practice their hard shoe steps three students at a time, the entire class rotating, while Smith sits at the head of the hall. There are no warm-ups, no stretches, no cool-downs. It’s all dance, all the time.

From his humble demeanor to his class structure, Smith keeps it simple. Don’t be misled. His simplistic thinking has proven innovative in the world of Irish dance. Where he sees a need, he meets it – and that is precisely how Smith became one of the foremost leaders of Irish dance in North America and beyond.

Meet Peter Smith: current president of An Coimisiún le Rincí Gaelacha, past president of the Irish Dance Teachers Association of North America (I.D.T.A.N.A.), founder of the Southern Region, director of the Peter Smith School of Irish Dance, adjudicator, mentor…the list goes on.

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Volume 9, Issue 1

AS I SEE IT:
How Do You Practice Your Dancing?
By Russell J. Beaton adcrg

Just about every day in Irish dance classes across the world, students are told by their conscientious teachers to practice before the next class. Week after week, these reminders are announced, the students nod dutifully to show that they will indeed practice, and the class ends.

Now, two questions occur to me. First, are dancers really practicing? Second, and perhaps more important, what are the dancers practicing? Let’s just assume that the answer to the first question is “Yes”, even though there may be some doubt! I would rather focus, for the moment, on the second question.

When I was a beginning dancer in Boston, I made sure that I practiced each new step so that could perform it at the next class. At the same time, however, I also made sure to run through my older steps, so that I did not take the chance of forgetting them. I was fortunate that my dance teacher, Mary Costello Madden, TCRG, made sure that in every class we danced a variety of steps, not just the new material taught in the last few classes. She had the right expectation that her dancers must be able to perform a full range of steps in each of the dances (reel, jig, etc.). This was a big help whenever we danced out; we could quickly put together dance routines where groups of dancers could easily find steps they could dance comfortably without hesitation