We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances,
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And is anxious in its sleep.
-WB Yeats, The Stolen Child

This article will deal with the evolution of Irish dance : Ireland has always been a land of conquests, invasions and migrations, so the culture and thus the traditional dances evolved at the same time as the people, but it kept it's folkloric aspect whatsoever.
The first thing that comes to mind when we mention "Irish" and "Dance" in the same sentence is mostly what we can see in films, when the characters go in crowded and smogy pubs and start dancing around when they're drunk, or having fun because those dances are mostly there to be danced together, singing loudly and jumping. The other aspect of Irish Dance is the one made famous by the two successful shows "Riverdance" and more recently "Lord of the Dance".
Those dances are less messy than the previous ones : a serious training is needed to accomplish them correctly, and they're made to be shown.

[ Here are links to some videos, for those of you who've never had the chance to watch those beautiful dances :
~> Lord of the Dance, with the main dancer Michael Flatley <~
~> RiverDance <~
I personally enjoy the story and dances of Lord of the Dance, but the music from RiverDance is absolutely beautiful. ]

It is always kind of difficult to find the true origins of a cultural fact, like for instance music and/or dance, as well as legends and myths : everyone has a different opinion, and most of the informations we can gather on the Internet are based on stories told, not written texts. Everything is oral, so real and very certain informations are difficult to find.
But the main information is that the first dances were those of the celtic druids, who prayed while dancing, to worship their gods, the sun and the oak tree. Later, the country was christianized. Songs and dances evolved, but stayed important in the Irish culture.
Three principal Irish dances are mentioned in sixteenth century writings : the Irish Hey, the Rinnce Fada (long dance) and the Trenchmore which was an adaptation of an old Irish peasant dance. Those dances were usually accompanied by bagpipes and harps which played entertaining and intense melodies.

The other important dances, or some of them, are mentionned here : Jigs, treble, the sets, and the hornpipe for the dances in solo, and as far as the group dances are concerned, I can mention the ceilis, the set dancing, the drama dancing, the figure team dancing and people also dance to English inspired dances. They're all different but basically they have the same goal : unite people without words and express emotions you can't describe in any other way.

*_*

~ Irish Dances ~

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