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2021 Lark Camp Notes

maldonm

intro

This page is for your reference as Lark Camp dancers learning Sean-nós dancing with Maldon Meehan. As we cover material each day, I will post notes and references for each day. This way you can read the information at your own pace or even take some of it with you on a tablet if necessary! I will be teaching material from the Sean-nos Dance jigs course linked here. Feel free to get a head start and check out some of the material we will be covering.

day 1

Lark Camp Day 1

I am so happy you chose to take Irish sean-nós dance. The first day we covered the basic posture of sean-nós dance and vocabulary. I think of dancing like I think of language. You need letters and words to make up a sentence. You memorize phrases and idioms and evenly you began to put your own sentences together and over time you can have entire conversations. Be kind to yourself as you learn this new language and practice movement until you have command of the step. Over time you will be taking with your feet and having conversations with musicians and dancers alike. Practice and memorize them all until they’re second nature. Soon enough you’ll find yourself taking those steps without even thinking twice.

On day one we learned building blocks, I sometimes call these “tricks” or “vocabulary”:

Day 1 Vocabulary:

  • tap step (2 sounds)
  • heel step (2 sounds)
  • toe behind step (2 sounds)
  • full foot stamp (2 sounds)
  • heel drops (lifting your heel and dropping it while leaving your toe on the floor) (4 sounds)
  • Shuffle-le (2 sounds)

Next we learned “words”, referred to as steps or rhythmic phrases:

For each step we had a demo of the step, the step broken down and the step practiced at 60, 80, 100, 120bpm. As you continue, when you reach the max tempo you are able to dance the step, switch to the vocabulary or tricks to keep in time with the music. Over time you will be able to practice at faster tempos. Take your time there’s no hurry, you will have access to all of these recording to keep your practice up.

There are a few questions:

  • How to stay in one spot and not travel – shift your weight from side to side allowing you to use the active foot and shift back to the other side. This will keep you in place rather than traveling.
  • Shoes: Where do I get shoes? We can talk about this all day long! But here’s a few recourse to get you started on the shoe rabbit trail. My blog post on the wonderful world of shoes: Shoes, Shoes, Shoes! You can also check this Tea Time Talk on shoes if you want to hear more: Dance Shoes & Wooden Taps.
  • Who was the musician? Fiddle player Betsy Branch provided the recordings for our workshop. You can find practice tracks for your use here.

day 2

Lark Camp Day 2

day 3

Lark Camp Day 3

day 4

Lark Camp Day 4

day 5

Lark Camp Day 5

Published by maldonm