Classes, Irish Set Dancing, Past Classes

2024 Sept | Set Dance | Advance & Retires

intro

Entire Playlist

week 1

Willie Keane’s Advance & Retire Step

  • Level 1 – with a pause
  • Level 2 – with a heel
  • Level 3 – orginal with 4 heels
  • Version 4 – orginal with 3 heels
  • Willie Keane Page – videos of Willie dancing

Woodshed – Left Side

week 2

Absolute Beginners, Advanced, Advanced Beginners, Beginners, Classes, Intermediate, Irish Sean-nós Dance, Past Classes

2024 Sean-nós & Sets | Polkas

intro

week 1

Beginner

Intermediate

  • Double time
    • shuff-le backs
    • hips

Advanced

  • Double time
    • shuff-le backs wiht single time
    • hips with single time

week 2

Beginner

  • Chose any or all steps from last term and dance it to a polka.
  • Explore Roisin’s jig steps.
  • Abolute begginners class or vocabulary steps and try them to polkas. Search this on the site.
  • Beginner Jig course

Intermediate

  • Chose any or all steps from last term and dance it to a polka.
  • Chose any reel, jig or slide step and dancing it to a polka. Jigs and slides replace the 1234 sound with a reel rhythm or a 123 sound ilke the 123 step from week 1.

week 3


week 4

Dancing the Tune!

Biddy Martin’s

Playlist for kid’s class with polka songs and steps

week 5

Improvisation!

There is no right or wrong here today. Improvisation is about play and playing with your steps and the music. Mistakes are not mistakes, keep going and exploring.


week 6

Step Creation!

Beginner

  • 123’s – insert a movement

Intermediate

  • Advance & Retire step – insert a movement

Advanced

  • Double time reel step (shit step) – insert a movement

Insert a movement – insert a movement or a pattern into the original step. You might have to remove an equal amount of bars to make the step square or you can choose to leave them in and have a step that goes across the bars of music or something that you square off eventually.

  • Insert: the Swung side step
  • Direction: Create something that works for moving in a leadaround pattern.
    • Play with another direction.
  • Rearrange the Step: Move the parts of the step around to create a new pattern.
  • Rearrange the rhythm – rearrange the step to create a different rhythm.

Full variation & creation list document


week 7

Putting it all together!

Beginner

Intermediate

Advanced


Set Dance steps – Mapped, Half Mapped and Unmapped

You can also apply all of what we have learned over the last 6 weeks to your set dancing. Here’s the Cashel set if you would like to apply this to your set dancing.

Cashel Set – You could map what advance & retire step you might use for the Cashel set. There are other polka sets as well that you could do this with.

Mapped out

Here are a few mapped out options for you to explore.

Roisin Steps to Polkas – Mapped out

  • Stamp & Stamp
  • Heel & Stab
  • Cross Step
  • Circle Step
  • Zig Zag
  • Side Step (3)
  • Single Side step
  • Heel Toe Heel

Polka steps – Mapped out

  • 123’s (with or without heel or tap extra beats)
  • 1 & 2 & 123 (with or without heel or tap extra beats)
  • Side step (with or without heel or tap extra beats)
  • Mick’s Advance & Retire Step
  • Kick Up step
  • Any trick in polka time with 123’s as the timming step

Half Mapped

Alternate between happed and unmapped. Chose one step to keep going back to or map out a routine and leave everyother 8 bars open.

Unmapped

Unmapped. You can take everything you have learned and dance unmapped. Your steps can be unmapped but if you want some guide rails try picking a few improvisational tricks and dance with them in mind. In class we only danced one at a time as an exercise. The skys the limit. Pick as few or as many as you want to play with. Full variation & creation list document

week 8

Putting it all together!

Beginner

Intermediate

Advanced


Continue to work on your routines mapped or unmapped.

tunes

Music page – Membership music page. Here you will find many of the tunes on this site in one place. Each tune has a page with resources and downloads. Some tunes have a breakdown of the tune in a spreadsheet that you can use for writing and mapping out steps. If there is a tune that is not done yet and you would like to use it please let me know and I will create a breakdown for you. Over time my hope is to have a breakdown for each tune on the site to make it easy for you to create routines and choreography.

Polka Music Page

Here are a few tunes to get you started.

Classes, Past Classes

Class | Irish Set Dancing

intro

Irish Set Dance

Discover the Joy of Irish Set Dancing! Whether you’re a novice or an experienced dancer, these classes are designed for everyone. Step-by-step instruction makes dancing accessible and enjoyable for all skill levels.

What You’ll Learn:

  • Foundational Footwork: Start with essential steps and percussive “battering” moves unique to Irish Set dancing.
  • Partner Techniques: Breakdown of footwork for leads and follows for movements such as house, dance at home and battering while housing. With or without a partner. 
  • Set Dancing: Put it all together and explore set recourse and calling and memoization tips to get you ready for the dance floor.

classes

Online Class Playlist

clare steps

Clare Steps Playlist

sets

connemara

Connemara Steps

members only

music

Practice Music

Maldon’s Spotify Profile – I have many playlists that you can save to your own account or save the link. The are organized by tune, by set dance and by ceili nights. The tune playlists are great if you are practinging your steps and want a playlist of tunes.

Maldon’s YouTube Profile – I have many playlists here as well. They are organized by sets, tunes, dances and more. Save them to your own youtube account for easy reference or save the link. Youtube you can slow down the video if you want to practice at a slower speed.

Download tunes for practicing at home.

Reels