Author: maldonm

Blog, Intermediate

3/15 MMD Weekly [Newsletter]

maldonm

Week Five: practice, practice, practice!

We fine tune the last 4 weeks of material. 

St. Patrick’s Day – Join me for Teatime at 9am, dance a jig for yourself, family or friends, attend a virtual or social distanced event. My plan is to visit The Edgefield, a lovely outdoor venue in Troutdale featuring a few local Irish musicians. 

Do you have a solid practice routine? If not, don’t panic!  

Simply start with five minutes, one step or one dance. Pick a time of day that works for you and decide where you will practice. Example: I will practice the Murray’s #2 for 5 minutes everyday before I have my lunch. This week there are no Keep Her Lits or Woodsheds. Experiment with using the past recordings for this term to keep your material lit. 

It was exactly a year ago that Oregon shut down and we began celebrating and visiting each other on zoom. At the time I was scheduled to play an informal session with all of my favorite people at the Candlelight, neighborhood Chinese-American karaoke dive bar here in Portland. The bartender was so looking forward to our event and was crushed when it was canceled. So, instead he bought 20lbs of corned beef and cooked it all for himself. 

This year I’m excited to be able to hear some live music on St. Patrick’s Day and to have someone else cook the corned beef! 

See you on the virtual dance floor!

Live Zooms | Week 4 [3/15 -3/19]

MonTueWedThurFri
Social9amTea Time Talk
Class12pmAb. BegImprovOld-StyleWaltz Clog
Class5pmBatteringSets & Calling
Class6pmBegInter
Advanced, Blog, Intermediate

3/8 MMD Weekly [Newsletter]

maldonm

Week Four: Creation!

Beginners, intermediates, advanced and our waltz cloggers will all be choreographing steps! Improvisation and choreography, scary words? I think not! Let’s demystify it all! 

Battering, calling and old-style step classes continue to work on historical & traditional material. 

This week the Keep Her Lit sessions will light Winter One on fire! We will revisit our Roisin jigs, the Sunday jigs set, Joe O’Donovan’s hornpipes and waltz clog. This is a great opportunity to drill all of the material at full tempo! Want to showcase a dance routine March 27th at the Rambling House – Spring Fling? Could be something you learned in class or do you have a party piece? Songs, stories, dance or tunes — bring it on! Spring theme costumes encouraged!

Please note there will be no tea time talk this week. 

I’m looking forward to a jam packed week of dancing with you. 

See you on the virtual dance floor!

-Maldon

Live Zooms | Week 4 [3/8 -3/12]

MonTueWedThurFri
Class12pmAb. BegImprovAdvancedOld-StyleWaltz Clog
Keep Her Lit2pmWinter 1 Waltz ClogWinter 1Rosin JigsWinter 1 Old-styleWinter 1Sunday Jigs
Woodshed3pmAdvancedOld-StyleBeg & InterWaltz Clog
Class5pmBatteringSets & Calling
Class6pmBegInter

All Times are Pacific Standard Time!

Monday, March 8

  • 12pm PST | 1pm MST | 2pm CST | 3pm EST on ZOOM Class Absolute Beginners: Reels! We will learn a few “tricks” and the Connemara step. 
  • 2pm PST | 3pm MST | 4pm CST | 5pm EST on ZOOM Keep Her Lit | Winter 1 Waltz Clog
  • 3pm PST | 4pm MST | 5pm CST | 6pm EST on ZOOM Woodshed |  Advanced: Rosemary’s step & Maldon’s step! 

Tuesday, March 9

  • 12pm PST | 1pm MST | 2pm CST | 3pm EST on ZOOM Class Improvisations: We will learn or review the Maldon after Mick step, working on improvisation and incorporating tricks.
  • 2pm PST | 3pm MST | 4pm CST | 5pm EST on ZOOM Keep Her Lit | Winter 1 Rosin Jigs
  • 3pm PST | 4pm MST | 5pm CST | 6pm EST on ZOOM Woodshed | Old-Style Murrary’s #2 Woodshed
  • 5pm PST | 6pm MST | 7pm CST | 8pm EST on ZOOM Class | Battering: We will learn or review Mick’s Advance & Retire step. 
  • 6pm PST | 7pm MST | 8pm CST | 9pm EST on ZOOM Class | Beginners: Feet & Voice. We will create a step to go with the toes verse and learn the sheets verse created in Thursday’s intermediate class. 

Wednesday, March 10

  • 12pm PST | 1pm MST | 2pm CST | 3pm EST on ZOOM Class Advanced: We will create more slide steps from our tricks, tools and vocab. By week 6 week will have a whole routine of our step creations to keep lit. 
  • 2pm PST | 3pm MST | 4pm CST | 5pm EST on ZOOM Keep Her Lit | Winter 1 Old-style
  • 3pm PST | 4pm MST | 5pm CST | 6pm EST on ZOOM Woodshed | Beginners & Intermediate: We will be practicing all of the Cunla steps.  

Thursday, March 11 

  • 12pm PST | 1pm MST | 2pm CST | 3pm EST on ZOOM Class | Old-Style This week we learn Kenefick #1.
  • 3pm PST | 4pm MST | 5pm CST | 6pm EST on ZOOM Woodshed | Waltz Clog: Practice toe click #1 & toe click #2 steps. Dance all the steps from the term thus far. 
  • 5pm PST | 6pm MST | 7pm CST | 8pm EST on ZOOM Class | Sets & Calling: Phil and Karen will call this week. Come along and dance together. All dancers welcome. Great chance to practice your steps. 
  • 6pm PST | 7pm MST | 8pm CST | 9pm EST on ZOOM Class | Intermediate Feet & Voice: the intermediates will create a step for the last verse the thighs and learn the toes verse. Beginners are welcome to come along for some extra practice. 

Friday, March 12

  • 12pm PST | 1pm MST | 2pm CST | 3pm EST on ZOOM Class | Waltz Clog We will add more waltz steps to our repertoire. We will work creating “your” waltz clog routine. 
  • 2pm PST | 3pm MST | 4pm CST | 5pm EST on ZOOM  Keep her Lit| Winter 1 Sunday Jigs