Tuesday June 7, 2022 – St. Patrick’s day, the whole thing.
Patti asked about style and we worked on getting the cross over in the hop backs as well as keeping the rock nice and tight. For myself I’m working on doing a full hop rather than a lazy (sean-nós) heel drop.
We also talked about dancers who have great old-style form and style. Jackie O’Riely, Kieran Jordan, Céline Tubridy, Michael Tubridy and Pádraig McEneany. Here are a few reference videos for style. I have put a few videos for style reference. I will keep looking for nice examples.
Tuesday June 7, 2022 – Maggie Pickie, Priest in his Boots and St. Patrick’s day. We danced all three dances twice in a row. It was 14 minutes of straight dancing. Sadly it didn’t get recorded. We will continue to work on endurance and adding more time as the weeks go on. It endurance the goal is to keep going and to prepare for a performance and situation where you will be dancing back to back dances in a show. Don’t worry about being perfect. As you dance and finish note what went well in your endurance session and what needs work. We are all coming out of 2 years on not performing so be kind to where your level is now and work on improving it. I keep a practice journal where I take notes of what was amazing and rocked and what needs improvement. The woodsheds and keep her lit sessions are where you prefect parts of a particular dance and get it slowly up to speed. Just keep at it and you will get better and better. When I have followed this practice session on a regular basis in the past I have been supper ready for a show. When I have not followed it quite often I get on stage and the band is playing much faster than I have been practicing or the show is longer than I have been practicing in a row and there are always surprised. The endurance sessions help you with as much before hand as they can.
June 16, 2022 – Maggie, Priest in his Boots, St. Patrick’s Day and Old-style hornpipes.