intro
Welcome Step Dancers!
Discover the roots of modern Irish step dance with old-style step dance. This traditional style, distinct from sean-nós dance, will be familiar to experienced step dancers. In old-style step dance, each step is performed for eight bars, alternating between the right and left foot. In this course, we will focus on learning St. Patrick’s Day, a captivating set dance. Set dances are known for their unique rhythmic patterns, with varying bar counts that add an intriguing twist to the music. St. Patrick’s day has an 8 bar first part and a 14 bar second part.
Damhsa áthais sona ort! (Happy dancing to you!)
- Frist Step
- First Set
- Second Step
- Second set
- Finishing Step
Michael Tubridy’s Book A selection of Irish Traditional Step Dances – This whole book is available free of charge. The videos that accompany this book are also on youtube now. Michael created a notation system and had the sheet music as well as the dance notation and words for the steps written in the book.
week 1
Week 1
Frist Step
Shuffle Down Shuffle Down Shuffle Down Shuffle Down Shuffle hop treble hop back hop out hop out
hop down kick hop down shuffle down tip heel down shuffle hop treble hop back hop back 2 3 4
week 2
Week 2
Frist Set
Hop hop back tip down down tip down down shuffle down tip heel down tip down down tip down down
back down kick hop down shuffle down top heel down shuffle hop treble hop back
shuffle down tip heel down tip down down tip down down tip down down kick hop down
hop right left right shuffle down shuffle down shuffle hop treble hop back hop back 2 3 4
Practice tips
- Listen to the B part and sing, hum or speak the steps without dancing
- Using the Amazing Slowerdowner, YouTube or another app that slows music down and dance the B part only until you can dance it at the speed of the recording without mistakes. If you are using YouTube there are several recordings of the tune the tune. Quite a few with the bpm listed. The best one in terms of quality of playing is: Cover the Buckle.
- Drill just small parts of the dance that you are struggling with.
- Next step: download the whole tune (found in the intro tab) and dance the 1st sep and the 1st set together.
week 3
Week 3
2nd Step
week 4
Week 4
2nd Set
Finishing step