I’m glad they came to the ceili as they filled in a set for us!
Tag: irish
Set dance classes at Trinity Hall Sep/Oct
Another round of Trinity Hall classes are coming up in September.
Here’s the plan.
Where: Trinity Hall
When: 7-9:30pm
Sep 3rd, 17th
Oct 1st, 15th
Nov 5th (delayed one week!)
What:
We’ll start off with basics/review at 7 for the common steps/movements used in the more popular set dances (advance and retire, sevens, basic battering to be used later, etc). If you haven’t danced a set in a while (or ever) or if you would like a review (or just want any excuse to get up and move around) this is for you. The others might want to show up during this period just to settle in before we start the first set.
We’ll break for a short while about 7:45-ish and move on to working on the current round of sets. If you’ve come for the beginner portion, stay for the rest! There’s usually enough experienced people that we can (gently) drag you through the movements.
We went through The Merchant Set and The Connemara Reel during the last session so we’ll rip through those on the 3rd and follow those in later sessions with the Corofin Plain and Camp Set. Depending on how things go we may add more sets to the list and/or spend some extra time on footwork.
Except for the beginning and ending time, the schedule will be somewhat fluid depending on the experience of the attendees and how quickly we progress.
Who: While there’s no particular age or height limit, this is more of an adult or young-adult kind of class in that it works best with people of similar height and attentiveness. If you aren’t sure, just ask!
Cost: Whatever you can afford or think the class is worth, we’ll have a tip jar at the entrance to the dance area.
Q. What should I bring?
A desire to get up and move about. Shoes that are comfortable and allow you to slide easily (but not too slippery!) on a tile floor.
Friends and family!
Q. What should I do to prepare?
Feel free to take a look at the notes linked above though this isn’t required.
We’d also like to know who’s planning on coming so please respond with an “I’ll be there and I’m bringing X people!”
if you can commit to the entire set of classes that would be best.
Preparing for a cold day
Got the espresso machine fired up and drinks warming our insides.
Susan’s started making Irish soda bread.
And the comfy chairs are ready for a knitting session.
With Sophie ready to bark at anyone who comes too close.
An afternoon of slothfulness ready to begin.
Later… The soda bread is ready.
Irish soda bread on a Welsh bread board.
Haymakers
With a group in town for the O’Flaherty Youth Camp.
Whee!
Dance picture updates
For a number of reasons, we’ve been tardy in putting up pictures from recent dancing events. Well, here they are:
The next dance is on April 7th at the Sammons Center. Come on out and join the fun!
Interesting Things: Ceili Dancing
From the November 20, 2011 Trinity Hall Ceili
Interesting things – Trinity Hall ceili 4/17/11
We had slightly more than enough people for a set and a few ceili dances and great music by John Burleson, Michelle Feldman and ??? (we didn’t get his name!)
We did the North Kerry set, Haymakers Jig, Siege of Carrick, Rakes of Mallow, 4-hand and 6-hand. Great music, great fun!
Click on either image for the full gallery and join us next month!
Interesting things – Comhaltas 2011 Sunday
We were able to start a bit later this morning it being Sunday and all. This was good since bed didn’t rise up and smite us until quite early in the morning.
Padraig started off with the Valentia Right and Left, a fairly simple but fun set.
Unfortunately the workshop was cut short as Padraig and Roisin had to make an earlier than expected flight back to Ireland.
Next up though was the farewell ceili. Nearly four hours of solid dancing.
Even though most people had departed by the last set there was still something around 6-8 sets on the floor!
It was a wonderful weekend full of great music and dance and I look forward to the next convention organized by Tom and Company!
There are more pictures in the Comhaltas 2011 gallery, some videos on my YouTube channel and if you like you can see my twitter posts done live from the convention. I’ll be doing more tagging and linking of things very soon.
Here are links for the doings on Saturday and Friday
Interesting things – Comhaltas 2011 Saturday
I have no idea what time we got to bed Friday night but I have notes showing we started the plain set about 12:30am.
We got up early for breakfast and started the day with Susan teaching a ceili workshop including Harvest Time Jig, Fairy Reel, Rakes of Mallow, Haste to the Wedding and Siege of Carrick. There was a good sized crowd and smiles all around.
Next up was a Sean Nos workshop by Emma O’Sullivan. She did a wonderful job. Her dancing was clean, instructions were clear and easy to follow and we ended up with a number of easy but good looking steps to add to our dance toolbox.
Here’s Emma after the workshop, demonstrating the step one-on-one.
The rest of the day was reserved for set dancing.
Continue reading Interesting things – Comhaltas 2011 Saturday
Interesting things – Comhaltas 2011 Friday
It was our first day of the 2011 North American Comhaltas convention and it was grand.
For everyone else it was the second day and for many of the orginizers I think it was something like the 3045th day. I’m sure they’ll be wistfully sad/happy when the convention is over.
We arrived safely (thank you Southwest), was given a short tour by Tom Macken and sent up to the Control Room to get Susan’s official "I work here" shirts. They didn’t have shirts for the roadies.
After wandering about for a bit and checking out a few vendors and the lobby schedule
We went up to the room to unpack.