Last week, we wrapped up a fantastic summer intensive! In what was a somewhat ambitious plan, we got through two traditional solo set dances each week. We started with the Maggie Pickie and Priest and his Boots, then worked through Molyneaux’s Blackbird and St. Patrick’s Day. Then we did a beautiful version of the Humours of Bandon from Patrick O’Dea and An Súisín Bán from Cork, and we finished up with some more familiar sets, King of the Fairies and Garden of Daisies. Everyone has slightly different versions of traditional sets, so it was fun to compare and contrast!
My favorite part of the month, besides the dancing, was delving back into some light research on each of these dances. I love learning more about the histories and lineages of these dances, and, even more, I love finding little discrepancies among different sources. I’m always interested in how we tell the stories of our dances, and how those stories shape who we are and who we want to be as dancers. I made a booklet with details about the history, music, structure, and aesthetic/style of each of the dances we worked on (see a collage of some of the pages above!).
We also had a great start to our monthly sean nós jam sessions this summer! We had a sizable group of dancers each month, and it was a treat to dance to live music with each of our guest musicians—Marty Frye on flute, Sarah Collins on fiddle, and Jessica Zito on fiddle. The School of Musical Traditions is the perfect spot for these jams and we go out for a social hour afterward. These will continue every second Sunday through December. All are welcome!
Now it is time to think about fall, and class registration is now open! I hope you will join me for sean nós classes and/or step dance classes on Wednesdays. We are excited to have classes at The JaM Space, a beautiful new tap studio in Rockville, this fall.
