Sean-nós & Set Dance with Maldon
Specializing in easy to follow step by step instruction for all levels
Hello dancers,
Welcome to Irish Set Dancing at PCC. We will focus the next 4 classes on the dancing from County Clare, Ireland.
Dance List
11.20.2026 – 3rd Friday ceili John Whelan (held at 3300 SE Woodword Street)
I decided to record my dance practice this month, partly for my own benefit so I can look back, but also to share how I practice and how I’m trying to develop that practice.
Some of it will be learning steps, choreographing, learning to work with a metronome, or just plain dancing to tunes and albums. Whatever comes up in my practice this month!
Some of it may be of interest to you, and you might find something helpful for your own dancing. Mostly, I want to share the process. It’s not all perfect. There’s experimenting, trying things out, getting stuck, playing, and creating. That’s all part of the practice.
Kitty Lie Over is such an amazing album. I’ve listened to it hundreds, if not thousands, of times.
I’m working on developing my own dance practice and making it more internal—creating material for myself to perform, practice, enjoy, and play with, alongside the material I create for teaching.
I’ve decided to work my way through each tune on this album, creating steps, little chunks of dancing, and hopefully complete, mapped-out sequences that follow the tunes.
Sticking with a mapped-out step is a weakness in my dancing, and something I want to work on. I’d like to practice a sequence enough that I can dance it comfortably up to speed, then bring my natural inclination to improvise into and around it.
I also want to bring in vocabulary and steps I don’t always use, giving them enough time and attention that they become more natural in my dancing and start showing up more often in my improvisations.
And I get to spend more time dancing to music I love.
Student guide | Fridays, September 25–October 16, 2026 | 6:30–8:20 PM
Over four Fridays, we will explore three sets from Cork and Kerry, then meet at the Third Friday Céilí to dance with live music. We will learn a few movements, put them into dances, and review familiar moves as they appear again. Come to enjoy the dancing. There is no need to study or practice between classes. Also each week if you would like to dance the set of the week to live music we will be dancing it at Steeplejack on Hawthornes Tuesdays at 6:30pm.
We will learn the figures that fit our time and our group. The lists below are references for anyone who wants to look back or explore further; you do not have to memorize them.
On each weekly page you will find video references and under the resource page you will find video and music playlists as well as more set dancing resouces.
Missing a class or forgetting a move is no problem. We will review as we dance. I have your back!
County Kerry · We began with the polka step, moving in place and around the set, then practiced the swing, house around, and square the house. We found our places in the set and brought those movements into Televara. The set includes jigs, slides, and a reel.
The movements below listed in the order they appear in the dance. A move is listed when it first appears, so recurring moves are not repeated.
From County Cork
Instructions and music reference
This week we’ll build on the polka step and partner movements from our first class, introducing Borlin’s quarterhouse and bringing the skills into the set.
Find the rhythm with the polka step, dancing in place and traveling. Briefly revisit the swing, house around, square the house, and home positions as needed.
Introducing the quarterhouse: jump kick. Practice slowly with a partner, then try it with music. Offer a gentler heel-drop option for the jump.
Practice the crossed-hand lead around and follows chain. Bring the movements into half sets or full sets, reviewing familiar skills where they occur.
Begin with Figure 1 — Follows Chain, walking through the movements and then dancing with music.
Continue one figure at a time as the group is ready:
The hornpipe figure is optional.
If there is time: Revisit a familiar figure from the Televara Set.
Dance reference: https://setdanceteacher.ie/borlin.htm
Waverly United Church, 3300 SE Woodward, Porltand, Or. No expeirence needed.
7-10pm
Dance List
Places to dance Sets in Portland
Hello dancers,
For the next 8 Wednesday evenings
The goal of this course is not to collect as many steps as possible.
The goal is to be able to dance.
Some of my favorite dancers have only a handful of steps. What makes their dancing compelling is not how many steps they know. It is how they use what they have, how they listen, and how they play with the music.
This week we begin with three pieces of vocabulary: 3 Shuffles, 2 Shuffles, and 4 Heels.
Intermediates you will have grapevine step & triplets.
These are building blocks, not a routine you have to reproduce.
One movement is enough to begin. A handful of movements can make a lot of dancing.
And one step is enough to begin.
Intermedates
Practice does not have to be long, formal, or happen on a dance floor. Thirty seconds counts. One small piece counts. Coming back to it counts.
This week, beginners learn Cross Step and revisit 3 Shuffles, 2 Shuffles, and 4 Heels. Intermediates learn a cross step with extra beats and build on Grapevine and triplets, exploring direction, both sides, and connections to familiar movements.
Our focus is on making the movements more comfortable and finding our way from one to another.
I once found myself practicing a tiny piece of a dance step in the cheese aisle at the grocery store. It helped change the way I thought about practice.
You can practice while the kettle boils, while waiting for something, or during a little pause in your day. You don’t always need music or a whole step.
This week we’ll use a word I say often: woodshed.
To woodshed something means to take out one small piece, slow it down, repeat it, listen to it, and then put it back into the larger movement.
When something feels tangled, ask:
Where is my weight? Where does it need to be?
Notice which foot is available for the next movement. Sometimes changing a step to a tap—or a tap to a step—opens up a connection.
Make the weight change obvious at first. You can make it smaller as it becomes familiar.
Choose two movements. Dance the first into the second, then reverse the order.
For beginners, try Cross Step and one movement from Week 1. Intermediates can try Grapevine and something already in their feet.
If the connection feels sticky, practice just the end of the first movement and the beginning of the second. Then put them back together and try with music.
These are experiments. You don’t have to memorize a particular sequence.
Choose one comfortable movement as your Home Base. This is the step that is easies for you and that you can come back between playing with these steps. My dance teacher Mick calles this is banner step.
Put on a jig. Begin with your home base step and bring in another movement when you’re ready.
If you get lost, return to home base. Listen. Choose again.
You don’t have to use everything you know every time you dance.
Choose one thing that helps today:
This is a menu, not a checklist.
What felt more comfortable this week? Where could a tiny moment of practice fit into your day?
Different people learn in different ways. You may need to see something, hear it, copy it, stop watching it, slow it down, repeat it, understand the weight, or feel the whole thing first.
You may even need a different approach for different movements.
This week we add 8 Shuffles and begin treating our practice tools as a Learning Menu.
A restaurant menu gives you choices. It is not a checklist.
You would not go into a restaurant, look at the menu, and think: “I have to eat all of this.” You couldn’t. You’d make yourself unwell!
Our Learning Menu works the same way. Choose one thing that sounds useful. Try it. If it helps, stay with it. If it doesn’t, choose something else.
Don’t eat the whole menu.
https://maldonmeehan.com/there-isnt-one-right-way-to-learn/
Listen to the sound first, without music.
Then ask a new question: can the same or similar sound be made with a different movement?
Intermediates – run on and madness
What do my feet DO? What do my feet SOUND like?
Experiment with step, tap, shuffle, or weight change. Then return to The Black Rogue.
If you are stuck, you do not always need to try the same thing harder. Change your approach.
You do not have to use my menu. You might say the rhythm, write something down, use your hands, sleep on it, or invent another way that works for you.
Instead of “I can’t do this,” ask: “What else could I try?”
Leaving something alone is not the same as giving up.
Giving up says: “I can’t do this.”
Leaving it alone says: “My feet don’t have this yet. I’ll come back.”
Use exactly the same concepts with more vocabulary: Step-Heel-Step, hips, Run On with Pause, triplets, weight changes, direction, and anything already in your feet.
Progression: Hear it → make it → repeat it → change it → remember what you did.
Music note: Tatter Jack Walsh — 80 / 100.
Intermediate additions: Explore making Tip Step with Click two-sided; deliberately choose whether to repeat or change sides. Try a drum in different jig rhythms.
Tonight’s reminder: “You’re already dancing. Three movements are enough.”
This is a midpoint observation, not a report card.
Minimum practice: dance three times this week and choose one focus.
Years ago, I was teaching a mixed-level sean-nós dance class at the Milwaukee Summer School.
I gave the intermediate and advanced dancers a step to work on and went to help the beginners. A little while later, I looked across the room. Everyone in the intermediate group was standing still. Not dancing. Just standing there.
Something had clearly gone wrong.
When I went back, I discovered the problem: me.
I had started by teaching the step correctly, then somewhere in the middle I had gone in a completely different direction.
They had already spent so much time working on it that I did not want to say, “Sorry! Forget everything I just taught you.” So I didn’t.
We kept going. I took the place where I had gone wrong and found a way to finish the step from there.
The mistake became a dance step.
What emerged was part of Rónán Regan’s lovely Aer Arann step and part of the unexpected direction I had taken. I still dance it. We call it the Milwaukee Step.
When we are learning, it is easy to think a mistake means: Stop. Go back. Start again.
But when you are dancing, the music is still going.
If something unexpected happens, try to keep dancing. Maybe you add an extra shuffle, land on another foot, change direction or rhythm, insert something, or forget what comes next.
Ask: What did my feet do?
Then, if you can: Repeat the mistake.
Do it again. What happens when you make the same movement on purpose? Can you repeat it a third time? Can you find your way back to something familiar?
The first time may have been an accident. The second time is an experiment.
Somewhere along the way, the “mistake” might become part of your dancing.
Intermediates – Mick Advance & Retire as a jig
Once Tip Both Sides is comfortable, do not assume there is only one way to dance it.
Pick one idea. If something unexpected happens, ask What Did My Feet Do? Try to repeat it.
Sometimes your feet do something you did not plan. Your first reaction might be: Oops. That was wrong.
This week, ask a different question: What did my feet do?
Put on a jig and dance. If something unexpected happens, try not to stop. Keep listening. Go Home if you need to. We now have enough vocabulary and steps to dance to any jig. I have designed these steps specifically to help you improvise and play. Each step or chunk ends with a tap or a step, which alows you to transition to the other foot or stay on the same foot. As you play with dancing this is one of the most helpful tools the ablity to do anything next based on a step or a tap. It creates so much freedom.
The first time may have been an accident. The second time is an experiment. By the third time, you might be making a choice.
Try making mistakes on purpose.
Start with something you know and mess with it.
Collect the mistakes.
How many ways can something go “wrong” while you still keep dancing?
Some will be awkward. Some will make you laugh. Some will not work. Every once in a while you may think: Wait. I like that.
I make “mistakes” every time I dance. That is partly because I am making choices while I dance. I am listening, responding, and trying things.
Mistakes can be evidence that you’re trying something new.
Choose one mistake that made you curious. Ask: What can I do with this?
First, find it again. Then change one thing.
Don’t eat the whole menu.
Try changing emphasis without necessarily changing the movement.
Try putting something in the middle of two familiar movements: a shuffle, tip, heel, step, tap, or pause. See if you can find your way out.
Try the other side. Notice what changes in weight, transition, or what you want to do next.
Then stop experimenting and dance. Do not try to demonstrate everything you found.
You don’t always need more vocabulary. Sometimes you can do more with the vocabulary you already have.
Put on a jig. No exercise to complete. No required vocabulary.
Start when you are ready. Make choices. If you make a “mistake,” keep going. Go Home if you need to.
Collect a mistake if something catches your attention, but do not turn the whole dance into analysis.
Reflection: What mistake did you collect? Could you repeat it? Did it become an experiment? Did you keep anything? Did you reject anything? What happened when you kept dancing instead of restarting?
Intermediate: same concept, richer vocabulary. Deliberately manipulate beat, direction, emphasis, weight, endings, and transitions.
Teaching is the final stage of learning. Learn one, do one, teach one. Teach your step to someone else. This will help you clarify the step and help you figure out exactly what is going on with the step.
Instructions
Tolka Polka
When I attended my first céilí, I did not know what I was doing.
I went in the wrong direction. I couldn’t keep track of the patterns. I counted everything in threes and sevens. I even asked:
“If the music is in eights, why are we counting in threes and sevens?”
But I danced anyway.
That doesn’t mean I wasn’t nervous, anxious or scared. I was.
But I didn’t wait until I understood it all. I learned by joining in, listening to the music, making mistakes and coming back.
As an adult learner, I often think I need to know more before I begin. As a teacher, I know that you don’t need to know anything before you begin.
But the céilí wasn’t where my dancing began.
I began in a class.
The class felt less intimidating than the céilí. There was a teacher to explain what we were doing, time to repeat the movements and a smaller group where I could slowly get to know people.
The class gave me a way into the larger dancing community. It helped me feel more comfortable and gave me the confidence to keep showing up—even when I was nervous.
The teacher had my back.
Fall is my favorite time of year. It is the beginning of something new—and, since I was 15 years old, it has marked the beginning of the dancing season.
The monthly dances started up again, filled with wonderful music and energy. In fact, the céilí last Friday felt like the dances from years ago. A large part of that was the 20 or so Lewis & Clark students who joined us for a field trip.
As we all danced together, I thought back to my own early days. At 15, I thought the college students at the céilí were so much older than I was. I was excited to dance with them, but I was also shy and intimidated.
Dancing—and having a community where I could connect with people—helped me move through that shyness. Before long, I was out on the floor dancing with them.
Last Friday, one week away from turning 51, those Lewis & Clark students looked so young to me. I was excited to dance with them and hoped that someone on that floor might catch the dancing and music bug, just as I did all those years ago.
Fall also marks the beginning of the weekly class season, and this week kicks off the season. There is something for everyone—in person, online and in different Portland neighborhoods.
You don’t need to arrive at a beginning class already knowing how to dance.
You don’t need natural rhythm, special shoes or the confidence to get everything right.
You only need enough curiosity to begin.
Knowing comes later. Confidence comes later. First, you simply step onto the floor.
Fall 2026 classes begin this week, and you are invited to join us:
◈ Tuesday: Introduction to Irish Dance Traditions at PCC Rock Creek
◈ Wednesday: Online Beginning Sean-nós
◈ Wednesday: Online Intermediate Sean-nós
◈ Wednesday: In-Person Beginning Sean-nós
◈ Friday: Irish Set Dancing—Cork & Kerry at PCC Southeast
If you have been waiting until you feel more prepared, this is your invitation to come exactly as you are. We will begin at the beginning and build from there, one step at a time.
No one will be turned away from my classes for lack of funds.
When I was learning, I volunteered and was given many opportunities to dance and participate when I could not afford them. I am more than happy to offer that same opportunity to you.
If you want to dance but the cost is a barrier, please reach out to me. We will remove that barrier together.
Make this the week you begin your dance journey.
Come exactly as you are.
There is a place for you in the dance. We are ready to welcome you, take your hand and step onto the floor together.
◈ Tuesday, Sep 22, 2026 — Introduction to Irish Dance Traditions
PCC Rock Creek • 10:00–11:00 AM
Explore set dancing, céilí dances, kitchen dances, sean-nós and old-style step dancing. All levels are welcome.
Dances:
Old-style step dance
Céilí dances: Harvest, Siege of Carrick, Siege of Ennis or Haymakers
Kitchen dance: Two-Hand Hornpipe
Sean-nós: reels
Set dance: Claddagh Set
◈ Tuesday, Sep 22, 2026 — Tuesday Céilí at Steeplejack
Steeplejack Union on Hawthorne • 6:30–8:30 PM
Music by Emily Dineen & Preston Howard Wilde
Calling: Maldon Meehan & Phil Meehan
No partner or previous experience needed. All dances will be taught and called.
Dances: Corofin Plain, Inis Oírr, Ballyvourney and Cashel
If time: Connemara
◈ Wednesday, Sep 23, 2026 — Fall Sean-nós Classes Begin
Beginning Sean-nós Jigs — Online
4:00–5:00 PM Pacific
Intermediate Sean-nós Jigs — Online
6:00–7:00 PM Pacific
Beginning Sean-nós Jigs — In Person, Portland
7:00–8:00 PM Pacific
◈ Friday, Sep 25, 2026 — Irish Set Dancing: Cork & Kerry
PCC Southeast • 6:30–8:20 PM
Learn foundational dances and techniques from the Cork and Kerry traditions. All levels are welcome, and no partner is required.
Dances: Televara Set, Borlin Set and West Kerry Set
◈ Saturday, Sep 26, 2026 — Amber & Maldon’s 51st Birthday Céilí
Together, we are 102!
6:00–10:00 PM
Columbia Ecovillage Condominium
4647 NE Killingsworth Street, Portland
Bring a dish to share, instruments, dance shoes, games and yourself.
Street parking only. Please do not use the guest parking inside the complex.
◈ Tuesday, Sep 29, 2026 — Tuesday Céilí at Steeplejack
6:30–8:30 PM
Music by Alison Baker with Theresa Baker
Dances: Ballyvourney, Moycullen, Kilfenora Plain and Clare Lancers
If time: Connemara
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Until next Monday…
Keep listening.
Keep dancing.
Keep the music alive.
Maldon
Zoom Recording
Resourses
Article about Shoes, Shoes, Shoes
Spotify page – music playlists.
Youtube page – music and dance playlists, plus instructional videos for learning on your own.
In 2008, I was teaching a mixed-level sean-nós dance class at the Milwaukee Summer School.
I divided the class into two groups.
I taught the intermediate and advanced dancers a step to work on, then walked over to help the beginners.
A little while later, I looked across the room.
The intermediate and advanced dancers were all standing still.
Not dancing.
Just standing there.
I knew something had gone wrong.
I wandered back over and began answering questions. As we worked through the step together, I realized what had happened.
I had started by teaching the step correctly.
Then, somewhere in the middle, I had gone in a completely different direction.
The dancers had already spent so much time working on it that I didn’t want to say, “Sorry! Forget all of that. Let’s start again.”
So I didn’t.
Instead, I kept going.
I worked with the mistake and found a way to finish the step from there.
What emerged was a combination of Rónán Regan’s lovely Aer Arann step and the unexpected direction I had taken in the middle. My mistake created offbeat rhythms and shifted the beat in interesting ways.
It became a lovely step of its own.
We named it the Milwaukee Step.
The following year, I showed it to Rónán. By then, it had changed so much that the original step was difficult to recognize.
It was a little like a game of telephone—only played with our feet.
I still dance and teach both steps today.
Mistakes don’t always need to be erased.
The mistake wasn’t the end of the step.
It became the beginning of a new one.
The next time your feet go somewhere unexpected, pause before correcting them.
Listen to what happened.
There might be something interesting inside it.
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I’d love to hear from you.
Have you ever made a mistake that became something better than what you originally planned?
Simply hit reply.
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Watch Rónán dance the Aer Arann step—the original step that took an unexpected turn in Milwaukee.
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Wednesday, September 9
6:00 PM PT • 7:00 PM MT • 8:00 PM CT • 9:00 PM ET
Join me on Zoom for a guided old-style step and sean-nós dance session. I’ll provide the playlist, and we’ll dance together.
You can dance your own steps or try material you have learned in class. This is a safe place to practice your steps with music.
Keep ’er lit and dance full-out, enjoy the tunes and see what comes out of your feet, or dance one step for the entire session. It is entirely up to you.
This is a chance to bring your steps up to dance speed, play with the music, and see what happens.
Class information, recordings, and practice resources
Monday • Wednesday • Friday
8:30 AM PT • 9:30 AM MT • 10:30 AM CT • 11:30 AM ET • 4:30 PM Ireland
Come practice, ask questions, or simply enjoy practicing alongside others.
Tuesday, September 8
6:30 PM
Music: Django Amerson
Callers: Maldon, Phil, and perhaps more
Dance List
Friday, September 11
Salem, Oregon
Fall classes begin the week of September 21
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Until next Monday…
Keep listening.
Keep dancing.
Keep the music alive.
— Maldon
I’m a One-Step Gal
One of my favorite things to do with my students is take a workshop alongside them.
I tell them all the time that I am not a quick learner. I wasn’t naturally good at dancing when I started, and new material still doesn’t come naturally to me.
That can sound like lip service until they see me learning in a workshop.
I love looking around the room and seeing my students understand the steps faster than I do. Meanwhile, I’m the one thinking, “Could we go a little slower, please?”
Maybe some of them are thinking the same thing. Maybe everyone in the room is thinking it. Or is it just me?
I am a one-step gal.
At a certain point, I become full. My brain and body have taken in as much new information as they can hold. Adding another step will not help. I need to stop, take what I have, and spend some time with it.
That doesn’t always happen during the workshop. It happens later, when I can slow the step down and woodshed it.
I find the smallest part I can repeat. I work on that piece until it begins to feel comfortable. Then I add the next piece. Little by little, I put the step back together and give it time to settle into my body.
If I don’t spend that time with the material, I don’t remember it. It doesn’t become something I continue to use in my dancing.
The workshop introduces me to the step.
The woodshedding is where I actually learn it.
When I meet up with my students again, I may be the person who remembers the material—not because I learned it most quickly, but because I stayed with it long enough to make it my own.
It is easy to look around a workshop and think:
“Everyone is learning this faster than I am. I must not be good at it.”
But how quickly you pick something up does not determine how well you can eventually learn it.
Some of us need time. We need repetition, play, and space to let the movement settle in our bodies.
The people you admire are not necessarily people who understood everything immediately or possessed some special “natural talent.” They may simply be people who stayed with the material long enough to make it their own.
You don’t have to learn quickly.
Give yourself time to learn deeply.
This week, choose one small piece of a step—not the entire step—and spend five minutes with it.
Slow it down. Repeat it. Let yourself play with it without worrying about how it looks or how fast it is.
Five minutes may not feel like much, but it is enough time to begin building a relationship with that movement.
You don’t need to keep up with anyone else. You don’t need to collect every step or understand everything immediately.
Bring your curiosity, choose one step, and give yourself permission to learn it in your own time.
I’d love to hear from you.
When you see someone learning faster than you, what do you tell yourself?
Simply hit reply.
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Wednesday, September 2
6:00 PM PT • 7:00 PM MT • 8:00 PM CT • 9:00 PM ET
Join me on Zoom for a guided old-style step and sean-nós dance session. I’ll provide the playlist, and we’ll dance together.
You can dance your own steps or try material you have learned in class. This is a safe place to practice your steps with music.
Keep ’er lit and dance full-out, enjoy the tunes and see what comes out of your feet, or dance one step for the entire session. It is entirely up to you.
This is a chance to bring your steps up to dance speed, play with the music, and see what happens.
Class information, recordings, and practice resources
Monday • Wednesday • Friday
8:30 AM PT • 9:30 AM MT • 10:30 AM CT • 11:30 AM ET • 4:30 PM Ireland
Come practice, ask questions, or simply enjoy practicing alongside others.
Tuesday, September 1
6:30 PM
Music: Bob Soper
Callers: Maldon, Phil, Alison, and perhaps more
Dance List
Fall classes begin the week of September 21
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Until next Monday…
Keep listening.
Keep dancing.
Keep the music alive.
— Maldon