Who knew?
One of my co-workers enlightened me on one of those "wow" nuances of Irish Step Dancing.
When the dancers are in a circle, they take turns doing a choreographed set of steps. My co-worker couldn't figure out when her turn was. Finally, one of the Catholic gals in the company educated her... the order is based on the directions... up, down, and across - the Catholic blessing, the Sign of the Cross.
What I love about all of this is that there are layers of meaning, and one doesn't have to go too deep to find them.
In my search for some kind of explanation of this "sign of the cross" history, I fell back to the picture of a guy I knew in high school who now dances in "Riverdance" Europe. Give it up for Nick Yenson. Yes, I realize there's the whole debate over whether "Riverdance" is reel-y Irish Dance, since there are so many other dances involved. I'd ask Nick that one.
3 comments:
TO: Nick
Quick question...
a co-worker mentioned that in Irish Step Dancing, the step-about sequence mimics the "Sign of the Cross"
Is this true? What's the terminology?
I've never heard of a 'step about' mimicking the sign of the cross. Unfortunately Irish dance is an orally/aurally transmitted dance form, so there's a huge discrepancy in the terminology. For example, the terms 'ralley,' 'batter,' 'shuffle,' and 'treble' all refer to the same movement; it just depends what terms your teacher uses. I always was taught that the term 'step about' meant a group of dancers lining up and each taking a turn to perform a step individually.
Your coworker might be referring to a common movement in céilí and set dancing where a group of eight form a cross and move around the centre like the spoke of a wheel. I've never been told that this is specifically meant to mimic the sign of the cross--it's a circular motion rather than an angular one. There is a céilí dance called the Cross Reel, but I don't know how it got its name. Yes, possibly in reference to the sign of the cross, but also possibly due to the long-documented tradition of dancing at the crossroads (people would meet at the intersection of roads and do sets and céilí dances).
Another problematic aspect of Irish dance is that it's an extremely romanticised tradition. There are a lot of nice little stories that float around and nobody actually knows if they're true or not; it's extremely difficult to verify such claims when the tradition wasn't documented regularly until the 20th century (and even then, only inconsistently). If you're looking for a good read on the history of Irish dance, check out Helen Brennan's The Story of Irish Dance.
Thanks! Educational. I would rather have a valuable lesson and learn something than throw something out there and have it remain inaccurate.
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