Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Footstorm
A new era of Irish dance is born! This show looks like the perfect combination of technically amazing Irish dancing, and creative entertainment. Based on the trailer it looks like an indulgent blend of Riverdance style grandeur and science fiction (yes, science fiction irish dance). I don't know what more I could ask for, and I hope to check it out when we're on tour in April. I will let you all know how it is!
Sunday, December 23, 2012
The Perfect Picture
A Irish dancer could go their entire lives without any great shots of them in action. Irish dance is hard to capture in pictures; action shots are hard to take because we move so fast; and the beauty of irish dance is usually in the movement. Sure, we have great legs, but slow, picture perfect moments are few and far between. Of course, professional photographers are mastering the art of capturing Irish dancers in action, but not all of us have the luxury of being constantly photographed by the professionals. So when a great shot comes along, one has to live it up.
This photo was taken at the Galway Bay Irish Music Festival, and it's a favorite picture of myself for many reasons:
1. Straight legs and on the toes! There are so many pictures of great Irish dancers just coming out of a leap, or moving from one thing to the next, where their legs are bent at weird angles, or their feet just weren't pointed yet, I was lucky to be caught at exactly the right moment.
2. Posture. A constant battle for many Irish dancers, keeping that "shoulders back, head high" posture can be a challenge.
3. (Perhaps most importantly) This picture captures me dancing in the way I want to be remembered dancing. I love performing; I love dancing for people who are moved by irish music and irish culture. I love it when people tell me our performance made their night or how it reminded them of their home, or how they wish they could be dancing. I look happy in this picture; I look alive, I look like I'm doing something I love and believe in. It's not that Irish dance doesn't always make me happy, but it doesn't always photograph this way.
Here's to more great photos, and great days of dancing ahead!
This photo was taken at the Galway Bay Irish Music Festival, and it's a favorite picture of myself for many reasons:
1. Straight legs and on the toes! There are so many pictures of great Irish dancers just coming out of a leap, or moving from one thing to the next, where their legs are bent at weird angles, or their feet just weren't pointed yet, I was lucky to be caught at exactly the right moment.
2. Posture. A constant battle for many Irish dancers, keeping that "shoulders back, head high" posture can be a challenge.
3. (Perhaps most importantly) This picture captures me dancing in the way I want to be remembered dancing. I love performing; I love dancing for people who are moved by irish music and irish culture. I love it when people tell me our performance made their night or how it reminded them of their home, or how they wish they could be dancing. I look happy in this picture; I look alive, I look like I'm doing something I love and believe in. It's not that Irish dance doesn't always make me happy, but it doesn't always photograph this way.
Here's to more great photos, and great days of dancing ahead!
Thursday, September 20, 2012
The important work we're doing
People see The Seattle Irish Dancers and are often instantly hooked. Irish dance is rhythmic, upbeat, and FUN. It looks accessible, people tend to feel like it's something they could do, or at least it looks like something they wish they could do. I can't even count the number of people who have come up to me after a show and said "I wish I could do what you're doing, you look like you're having so much fun!" I'm not denying the truth of this. Irish dancing is fun. It's not the ballet (though I would argue it's as hard, if not harder than ballet). It resonates with audiences because its accessible. No one wants to watch ballet dancers (or even contemporary dancers) perform with they relax and have a pint. Irish dancing is truly suitable for all audiences, and it's a great time, every time.
With all this fun involved, I sometimes forget the importance of what the Seattle Irish Dancers are doing (or hope to be doing, now and in the future). Not only are we doing something we absolutely love (who can deny that the world needs more people doing what they love?) but we are real life promoters of the importance of art in our lives. We are cultural ambassadors. We are literally keeping an art form alive every time we dance. Sometimes I think about this and get extremely overwhelmed. Then I think about the fact that I teach dance as well, and at some point hope to take my TCRG (the exam to be a qualified Irish Dance teacher). Every time I teach a dancer how to do a skip 2,3, I'm passing on a traditional movement. Yikes!
Traditional dance is especially important in American culture. American's (as a general rule) don't really know how to dance. I think we used to know (people came to America from all over the world, the rest of the world knows how to dance just because, yada yada) but we've lost it somewhere along the way. People are amazed at dancers; professional dancers have been raised up and hailed as phenomenons. I'm not saying professional dancing is not impressive, I'm just saying it's so impressive because so many of us have no concept of using our bodies to move in an expressive way. We are at a point in our culture where someone has to teach us to move. We feel that we have to go to a studio and pay money to learn how to do something that our bodies naturally want to do anyway. Don't get me wrong--no normal person's body automatically wants to do ballet. The same goes for Irish dancing, and jazz and modern etc. But a certain amount of body awareness is certainly engrained in us, we've just hidden it away under layers of embarrassment.
Because of this, I feel that the pressure's on. I feel like as the only performance based Irish Dance company in Seattle right now, we have some big shoes to fill. So far, we've been up to the challenge, but I never want to forget the real reasons we're doing this, we can't let the fun get in the way.
With all this fun involved, I sometimes forget the importance of what the Seattle Irish Dancers are doing (or hope to be doing, now and in the future). Not only are we doing something we absolutely love (who can deny that the world needs more people doing what they love?) but we are real life promoters of the importance of art in our lives. We are cultural ambassadors. We are literally keeping an art form alive every time we dance. Sometimes I think about this and get extremely overwhelmed. Then I think about the fact that I teach dance as well, and at some point hope to take my TCRG (the exam to be a qualified Irish Dance teacher). Every time I teach a dancer how to do a skip 2,3, I'm passing on a traditional movement. Yikes!
Traditional dance is especially important in American culture. American's (as a general rule) don't really know how to dance. I think we used to know (people came to America from all over the world, the rest of the world knows how to dance just because, yada yada) but we've lost it somewhere along the way. People are amazed at dancers; professional dancers have been raised up and hailed as phenomenons. I'm not saying professional dancing is not impressive, I'm just saying it's so impressive because so many of us have no concept of using our bodies to move in an expressive way. We are at a point in our culture where someone has to teach us to move. We feel that we have to go to a studio and pay money to learn how to do something that our bodies naturally want to do anyway. Don't get me wrong--no normal person's body automatically wants to do ballet. The same goes for Irish dancing, and jazz and modern etc. But a certain amount of body awareness is certainly engrained in us, we've just hidden it away under layers of embarrassment.
Because of this, I feel that the pressure's on. I feel like as the only performance based Irish Dance company in Seattle right now, we have some big shoes to fill. So far, we've been up to the challenge, but I never want to forget the real reasons we're doing this, we can't let the fun get in the way.
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