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Canada's booming Irish dance culture

FRIEDA KLOTZ

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Monday, July 6, 2009, 4:07 PM

Updated Thursday, July 23, 2009, 5:46 PM

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Read more: Gloria Brady, Dance, Entertainment, Irish Dance, Performing Arts, Ireland, Canada, Competitive Dance, Toronto, Nashville

Mixed under 13 team from the Mattierin School in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada at the North American Irish Dance Championships 2009

For IrishCentral's full coverage of this year's North American Irish Dance Champs, CLICK HERE

Canadians are everywhere at Nashville for the North American Irish Dance Championships.

Between the solo dancers, the groups, the adult dancers and youngsters - a huge proportion of them come from America's northern neighbor.

Irish step-dance is flourishing in Canada. Gloria Brady, a teacher at the Brady Academy in Edmonton in Alberta, Canada, says that this is quite a new development.

In the early 80s, she says, there were no North American championships (the first one was held in New Jersey in 1981).

Instead, Brady and her family would go straight from Canada to the Worlds in Ireland. “I was the first western Canadian girl to recall and place at the worlds,” says Brady. “And my brother was the first boy.”

“We were the no-name kids,” she continues, “but we did well.”

They can't have been no-name for long. For the next six years, Brady placed in the top 10 Irish dancers in the world.

Many feiseanna now have their home in Canada, and in 2007 the North American Championships were held in Ottawa.

The gradual growth of Canadian Irish dancing is due, Brady says, to emigration. She was born in Dublin, Ireland, and her family came over in the 60s. Her father was a plumber.

“In Western Canada and Toronto there was plenty of work at that time. So there’s a huge Irish community in Toronto; and a huge one in Newfoundland."

Brady’s parents returned to Ireland briefly, before deciding two years later, that Canada was their home – and bringing their family of seven children with them.

Irish dancers often say that they value the cultural links it gives them to Ireland, but for Gloria Brady, dancing helped forge a real practical connection to her place of birth.

Her parents would never have returned regularly to Ireland if it weren’t for dancing. When she and her brother made the Worlds, they would always go along with them to Ireland.

“The Irish dancing was awesome because we got over to Ireland every year,” Brady explains. “And mom and dad got to go back with us.”

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Irish dance can broadly be divided into social dance and performance dances. Irish social dances can be divided further into ceili and set dancing. Irish ceili dances are danced by formations (ceili) of couples of 2 to 8 people. Irish social dance is a living tradition, and variations in particular dances are found across the Irish dance community; in some places, dances are deliberately modified and new dances are choreographed. Irish performance dancie is traditionally referred to as stepdance. Irish stepdance, popularized in 1994 by the world-famous show "Riverdance," is notable for its rapid leg movements, body and arms being kept largely stationary. Most competitive stepdances are solo dances, though many stepdancers also perform and compete using ceili dances. The solo stepdance is generally characterized by a controlled but not rigid upper body, straight arms, and quick, precise movements of the feet. The traditions of Irish dance probably grew in close association with Irish traditional music. Originating in Pre-Christian Ireland, Irish dance was later influenced by dance forms from Europe. Travelling Irish dance masters taught all over Ireland, as late as the early 1900s. As the Irish peoples migrated to other hills, they have taken sean-nos dancing with them. This form of Irish dance then has influenced various other forms of traditional solo dance extant in those other lands — such as American traditional informal freeform solo folk dancing. Old-style step dancing (a tradition related to, yet distinct from, sean-nos dancing) evolved in the late 18th and early 19th century from the dancing of traveling Irish dance masters. The Irish dance masters slowly formalized and transformed both solo and social dances. Modern masters of old-style step dancing style can trace the lineage of their steps directly back to 18th century dancers. The Irish dance masters refined and codified indigenous Irish dance traditions. Rules emerged about proper upper body, arm, and foot placement. Also, dancers were instructed to dance a step twice — once with the left foot and once with the right. Old-style step dancers dance with arms loosely (but not rigidly) at their sides. They dance in a limited space. There is an emphasis on making percussive sound with the toes. Irish social, or ceili dances vary widely throughout Ireland and the rest of the world. A céilí dance may be performed with as few as two people and as many as eight. Ceili dances may also be danced with an unlimited number of couples in a long line or proceeding around in a circle (such as in "The Walls of Limerick", "The Waves of Tory", or "Bonfire Dance". Ceili dances are often fast and complex. In a social setting, a céilí dance may be "called" — that is, the upcoming steps are announced during the dance for the benefit of newcomers. The term ceili dance was invented in the late 19th century by the Gaelic League Ceili as a noun instead of an adjective. A ceili is a social gathering featuring Irish music and dance. Ceili dancing is a specific type of Irish dance. Some will only have céilí dancing, some will only have set dancing, and some will have a mixture. In various parts of Ireland on St. Stephen's Day, December 26th, Wrenboys (mummers) celebrate Wren Day (also pronounced as the Wran) by dressing up in straw masks and colorful clothing and parading through towns and villages accompanied by traditional ceili music bands.

Canada's booming Irish dance culture

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