Category: Irish Sean-nós Dance

I designed this course because my students in Portland had been telling me that they felt comfortable improvising with reels, but were struggling with jigs, despite having many jig steps under their belts. So I started to think about why they are able to improv with one, but not the other. I ended up creating this course and routine to help them move with ease between a variety of jig patterns. 

The routine was designed with only 6 movements. Each of the steps are made up of those 6 patterns in various combinations. Because the routine only uses 6 movements, one of the challenges my students faced was remembering which pattern to dance as they are very similar. The amazing result of learning this entire routine is that each of the students were then able to dance jigs utilizing any of the movements in any order they like. 

We perform this piece in Portland Oregon primarily as an acapella number and occasionally with music. It works well as a solo piece or as a group piece. There are a few videos of both at the end of this course. 

If you perform or teach this piece I would love to hear how it went or even see a video of you rocking it. Also I’d love to hear how this course helps with your improvisations. I welcome any feedback on this course, the videos, lesson or performance. 

Below is a list of the steps included in this course.

a1	3 Shuffles, 2 Shuffles, 4 Heels	8
a1	3 Shuffles, 2 Shuffles, 4 Heels	8
b1	Cross Step	8
b1	Run on Step with a Pause	8
a2	Tip Step with Click	8
a2	Run on Step with no Pause	8
b2	Tip Step Both Sides	8
b2	Side Step (to left)	8
a3	Side Step (to right)	8
a3	Hop Step	8
b3	Run on in a Circle (to right)	8
b3	Run on in a Circle (to left)	8
a4	3 Tip Step	8
a4	Run on with a Pause	8
b4	Tip Step with Click	8
b4	Finishing Step	8

All Steps for the Course

All the Zooms for the Course