This is your set dancing hub for reference material and links to resource on the web.
dance instructions
Dance Pages
These are pages dedicated to each set with notes and video references.
Irish Set Dance Notes – I love the way this site describes the instructions and how the instructions are laid out. If a set is on this site I usually use it first as my reference.
Dance Minder – my friend Michael Harrison runs this site. It is a great recourse for dancing notes and music references.
courses, classes, video
Courses
Resources on this page dedicated to set dancing and battering for sets. Including entire courses, classes, practice videos and breakdown videos.
Pat Murphy, 1995, Toss the Feathers: Irish Set Dancing, Mercier Press: Dublin.
Pat Murphy, 2000, The Flowing Tide: More Irish Set Dancing, Mercier Press: Dublin.
Pat Murphy, 2009, Apples in Winter: Irish Set and Social Dancing, self published, Ireland.
music
Music Resources
Spotify Music Playlist – please save this playlist in your Spotify account. When ever possible I will add the music for each set on this playlist. A great resource for practicing or teaching the dances to your friends and family.
Youtube Set dance playlist – please save this playlist in your YouTube channel. I will work on adding each dance we learn to this playlist. Having them all in one place will make it easy for you to learn and remember the material we cover.
Combining Sean-nós steps, Clare battering and smooth dancing form to learn to dance in Ireland, or throughout the world wherever Irish music is played.
4pm-6pm every Saturday with a Live music céilí from 4pm-7pm on the last Saturday of the Month.
Waverly UCC, 3300 SE Woodward St., Portland, OR. $5-$10 Sliding scale lesson, $10 for the Céilí.
Welcome Set Dancers,
This is a companion course for our in-person class in Portland, Oregon. You can still follow along if you are in-person or learning online. I will offer tips and tricks for practicing at home by yourself.
You will discover creative ways to study set dancing even as a solo person. Many of you are at home on your own without a partner. It can be a challenge. But not as hard as you might think! I learned many of my set dancing and steps solo. In the process you can really hone your skills before having to work with a partner. I will also provide tips on how to practice without attending a ceili. Not to mention, some bonus tips and tricks for memorizing sets in isolation.
Kevin Burke once told me a story of a show where the dancers were two short of a set, so one of the musicians joined the group with a chair and danced the set with a chair as his partner. It’s a great story and I can’t do it justice. So, I must invite him as a guest to tell us the story himself. In the meanwhile, don’t be afraid to develop a temporary relationship with a nice looking piece of furniture.
Get your set dancing ready for the dance floor.
9/17
WEEK 1 | Class notes
Saturday, September 17, 2022
THE CLARE PLAIN SET
Our first week we had 12 people ranging from 6 months old to 79 years old. Here’s to keeping set dancing going for years to come! Lovely to see you all out and dancing. We covered footwork for traveling, advancing, dancing at home and housing. You will find a few video references for these movements. We also danced the Clare Plain Set. This dance is from County Clare. The while you will see dancers battering the foundation is the smooth gliding step we covered in class. These steps will be the foundation for all of the Clare dances.
Our second week we will learn the Clare Lancers. We will also review and cover set dancing technique and form. Our second class was a blast. Michael and Margret visited from California. Michael played flute for some of the figures.
This week we will learn the Connemara set and Jim Loewenherz will play for our class. It’s such a blessing to have live music while learning. One of the great things is that we can dance at the pace that we are learning and right away be in sink with the music and each other. Starting out we will dance this set smooth and eventually when you are ready you can add the battering step to the set. You will find the instructions as well as the video reference for the set. Also on this page is the Connemara step broken down and a practice video.
Here is the battering step for the Connemara Set. It is not necessary to have this step in the set, but if you want to work on it on your own I will have a session down the line where we include it in the set and we will work on traveling with the step. If you like the battering footwork keep working on this step on your own and focus on moving with the step. This will give you a leg up when we bring it into the whole set in later weeks.
Some dancers find the stamp and stamp step easer to travel with when first starting out. You can cover a greater distance on each stamp and stamp.
Rambling House Ceili – a page of all the dances we will dance as well as a YouTube playlist and a Spotify playlist. I have tried to include most of the dances that we have covered in class in the ceili. There will be a few new ceili dances that you might not have learned yet and we are missing the Clare Plain Set at the ceili (we will be sure to dance it next time at the Butterball in November 😊).
Connemara Set | Reels 160, Reels 192, Reels 184, Maggie in the Woods 96
Set Dancing Resource Page | An all in one resource page for set dancers. More resources added regularly.
Spotify Music Playlist – please save this playlist in your Spotify account. When ever possible I will add the music for each set on this playlist. A great resource for practicing or teaching the dances to your friends and family.
Youtube Set dance playlist – please save this playlist in your YouTube channel. I will work on adding each dance we learn to this playlist. Having them all in one place will make it easy for you to learn and remember the material we cover.
Irish Set Dance Notes – I love the way this site describes the instructions and how the instructions are laid out. If a set is on this site I usually use it first as my reference.
Dance Minder – my friend Michael Harrison runs this site. It is a great recourse for dancing notes and music references.
Endurance – 15-30 min (depending on the style/material)
Our Endurance sessions will vary in length depending on the style of dance and material. I will create a playlist of tunes/dances that we will dance at full tempo. You can follow along with the specific dance or you can just dance to the music with the steps you have. Think of this as a full rehearsal of material or session dancing. The idea is to build up your endurance as if you were on stage dancing a full performance.
Keep Her Lit sessions are back as well. These sessions are designed to help you keep your reputaru fresh and ready to do. We will be rehearsing complete dances from past courses. We will work on having clean transitions and perfecting a whole dance for performance or dancing in sessions.
Woodshedding is back! Woodshedding is a term musicians use when referring to practicing and working on specific parts of a tune. We will be doing this with our dancing.
The woodshedding sessions focus on one step or technique from class. We will drill material from class and work on tone, tenquice and speed. You can attend live or recorded. Each of these sessions will be good practice sessions to accompany your class. Over the years I have found that the biggest challenge for students is practicing. This is why I have decided to offer guided practice. My hope is to help you build the habit of practicing by offering accountability and videos to guide you. Over time as you build this habit you may find yourself creating your own practicing sessions and developing a daily habit of practice. But that is the future down the road, I will do all the work of planning a daily practice.
Here are all the steps that will accompany this course:
Connemara Reels – broken down videos of each step along with practice videos. Also included are past zooms covering this material. Videos ranging from 5 minutes to an hour.
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.
