Sean-nós dance revival reveals different side of Irish dance - VIDEOS

Sean-nós Irish dancers

Irish dance has become almost synonymous with Riverdance -- the long line of dancers all tapping in unison, arms tightly pinned at their sides, pointed toes kicking high into the sky -- but that particular style of Irish dance is by no means the only form in existence today.

Sean-nós, or “old style,” dancing varies widely in style throughout Ireland, but its generally accepted characteristics -- arms loose, feet low to the ground, focus on percussive beats battered out by leather-soled shoes -- predate the more competitive, rigid style of step dancing popularized by Riverdance and documentary film “Jig.”

Back in 1929, the Gaelic League encouraged the development of the Irish Dancing Commission (An Coimisiun le Rinci Gaelacha, or CLRG), an organization devoted to preserving Irish dance and developing standard rules for competition. Prior to the formation of the commission, Irish dance was quite diverse, and it reflected regional differences. With the popularity of commission-sanctioned style on the rise, fringe dance forms faded -- but not entirely.

“It was once danced all over Ireland, but, like the Irish language, it only survived in the Gaeltacht regions as we know them today,” sean-nós dance champion and teacher Edwina Guckian explained. “Over the past 10 years, I've seen it grow in popularity at an enormous rate.”



Sean-nós and competitive style Irish step dancing both benefitted from the Riverdance boom, which reinvigorated Ireland’s -- and the world’s -- interest in Celtic culture in the 1990s and 2000s, but the two distinct branches of Irish dance continued to evolve separately, creating a rift in what is considered “traditional” Irish dance.

“I was accused of making it up,” sean-nós singer and dancer Brían Ó hAirt said, “by [dance] teachers.”



Ó hAirt and other sean-nós dancers are often misunderstood because they dance in a way that appears less formal than competitive Irish dancing, but he’s careful to educate those who dismiss one type of Irish dance as less legitimate than another.

“Irish dance is not just one thing; it’s many things,” said Ó hAirt, a member of touring band Bua, who also holds a master’s degree in music performance from the University of Limerick.

Even Manhattan-based sean-nós dancer and teacher Siobhán Butler admits that she once described sean-nós as “lame” because of its apparent simplicity, but that was before she fully understood it.

“My first impression was that it’s a really dumbed down version of step dancing,” said Butler, a step dancer since childhood who now teaches and performs sean-nos in New York City. “Years later, I would come back to this dance form.”



Butler and other sean-nós dancers agree that the most important element for shows and competition is the relationship between dancer and music -- it’s one.

“Growing up as a step dancer, you dance to the music. There was no tight relationship that I experienced,” said Butler, who later studied various forms of Irish dance under the tutelage of Boston-based dancer and teacher Kieran Jordan. In sean-nós, “music and dancing are intertwined,” she added.

Unlike CLRG-sanctioned dancing that is meticulously choreographed for shows and competition, sean-nós dancing is generally improvised, as the dancer plays off the live music.

A musician before a dancer, Ó hAirt said he had an ear for the music, so the percussive nature of sean-nós just made sense to him. Though he does consider himself a sean-nos dancer, Ó hAirt is careful not to define sean-nós because it is inherently an improvised form that varies widely throughout Ireland and the world -- just the act of giving it a name immediately serves as a way to generalize a collection of different dance forms. Sean-nós, he said, should be reflective of its place of origin, yet it should be improvisational.

“I can teach you the steps, but until you dance like the people of that region," Ó hAirt said, it's difficult to determine a dance style's authenticity.

"You can do the same step in different ways depending on what the musician is doing," Werner Ceusters, a Flemish sean-nós dance instructor living and teaching in Buffalo, N.Y., said. "Some dances lend themselves to the music, but in sean-nós, there is no frame."

Ceusters teaches what he calls Limerick-style sean-nos. Unlike the more recognized sean-nós dance style from the Connemara region of Ireland, Ceusters said that he practices a form of sean-nós that is a bit closer to what competitive step dancers do with their feet (higher on toes, fixed floor patterns), but Limerick style still puts emphasis on a more loosely-held upper body and improvisation according to the music.



Differences aside, all forms of "traditional" Irish dance (competitive step dancing, sean-nós, old-style step dancing, set dancing, ceili, brush dance, etc.) share common threads of history and culture passed on through generations.

Regardless of how the forms have evolved, the similarities are undeniable, and the history of Celtic culture has been preserved  -- even in some some way -- through Irish dancing and music.

Riverdance fiddler has a hip-hop side - VIDEOS

Riverdance musicians aren't all about traditional tunes all the time. Just take a look at Riverdance fiddler Pat Mangan's YouTube page, and you'll soon see what I mean.

Rihanna, Usher, Swizz Beatz, Calvin Harris, Antoine Dodson -- those aren't names often referenced around the trad music scene, but they are definitely artists and popular culture icons who have influenced Mangan, a 27-year-old Brooklyn native.



Mangan, who made his Riverdance debut on Broadway at the young age of 16, has been soaking up sounds his whole life, having been raised in the New York borough and surrounded by the constant cadence of the city.

"Even just walking down the street," Mangan said, "there's music coming out of cars and open doors. And there are so many amazing opportunities to hear live music -- the best of the best are always in New York."

So for Mangan, a two-time all-Ireland fiddle champion who began playing acoustic violin in kindergarten, the combining of classics with urban influences just seemed natural, innate.

"I'm very much into the real old style music, and at the same time, I don’t see a conflict in breaking off and experimenting in something very different," he said, adding that whatever music he creates "will have a bit of that Irish in it."

Lucky for Mangan, he's not alone in his folk-meets-modern mindset. He regularly performs with Hammerstep -- Irish show dancers who mash up step dancing with other forms of urban street dance and hip-hop choreography -- doubling as both electric violin player and DJ in the music-and-dance stage shows.



"They're on some next level," Mangan said of the Hammerstep dancers, remembering their recent St. Patrick's Day performance at London's Trafalgar Square where they entertained an audience of approximately 18,000.

He's also constantly surrounded by other creative types while touring with Riverdance, and he gets to travel the world, affording him a unique opportunity to learn about the world's cultures and various forms of music.

With Riverdance wrapping up stateside, Mangan's focusing on a different way to expand his international visibility. He's taken to YouTube to post everything from live performances to studio sessions to professional-grade music videos. His latest upload, "Strings for the Street," is both audibly and aesthetically enticing. The backdrop is Mangan's native Brooklyn, a colorful street setting for a musical mix.



He said, much like the TapTronic dancers expressed in a recent IrishCentral article, that he really just wanted to create a video reflection of himself to float around to interested parties.

"I’m hoping that things will organically continue down this path," Mangan said. But he admitted that he wouldn't mind having someone like Jay-Z watch it and maybe want to collaborate on something. (Hey, we have any members of Shawn Carter's entourage reading Irish Central?)

Mangan is currently on tour with Riverdance in New Zealand, but he plans to perform live in the states upon his return to America. His music -- loads of Irish dance tunes, by the way! -- is also available for streaming and purchase online. And, of course, you can check him out on YouTube.

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Gothard Sisters revisit Irish dance roots for new CD - VIDEOS

Gothard  sisters

Traditional Irish dance music has somewhat of a different meaning for Greta, Solana and Willow Gothard. For these sisters, "traditional" refers to not only classic tunes preserved throughout history, but it also reflects the family traditions the Seattle-based siblings have developed in their years performing together.

Part of that family tradition involves innovating musically -- combining music and dance influences from different genres -- which the trio continues to do with each album they record.

The three sisters are classically trained musicians and decorated Irish dancers with a stage show and a collection of six recorded albums to their name. "Story Girl," the Gothard Sisters' sixth CD released earlier this month, mixes well-known Celtic songs and original tracks written and arranged by one or more of the sisters. And, as eldest sister Greta, 24, pointed out, the group has drawn heavily from its Irish dance influences, making this latest album is the most "danceable" yet.

Tracks like "The Sailor and the Mermaid," a jig-reel hybrid written by Greta and Willow; Greta's "Celebration Reel"; "Midsummer Jigs"; and "The Three Coins" are especially dancer-friendly. Any Irish dancer's ears will quickly perk up upon recognizing the hard shoe percussive rhythms in "The Three Coins," a lively reel tune written by middle sister Willow, 22.

Even the music video for "The Three Coins" displays the siblings' breezy Irish step dance style, performed hillside in cowboy boots.



What the Gothard Sisters manage to achieve in just 12 tracks is a harmonious blend of traditional Celtic with hints of Americana. There's a country-western earthiness that gives the songs a lively, approachable, down-home sound. And 16-year-old sister Solana's angelic vocals add a youthful life to otherwise somber traditional ballads or laments such as "Scarborough Fair" and "Fields of Athenry."

For the Irish dancer, "Story Girl" is a refreshing alternative to a predictable feis CD -- and it offers a few tracks that would lend themselves nicely to stage performances and casual dance-outs.

But "Story Girl" isn't just for the step dancers. It's a collection of melodious tracks from a wide spectrum of Celtic cultures with a lively modern American twist that would delight any fan of classical, Celtic or country music.

Listen to samples from the CD on iTunes, or order it on the official Gothard Sisters website.

Beoga's "How to Tune a Fish" released worldwide this week

Part of the allure of Irish dance is the strong sense of cultural tradition -- the idea that our sets and ceili dances have been passed on for generations, and we dance to the same tunes as our ancestors. But, man, those tunes get a little tired after a while. With that said, we like to liven things up on occasion with fresh, fun, lively music. And for that, many Irish dancers turn to the musical stylings of Beoga!

Beoga -- gaelic for “lively” -- is a favorite band among Irish dancers because its members have a knack for meshing traditional jigs, reels, hornpipes and slip jigs with modern influences. This week, dancers and trad music fans alike rejoice: the band’s brand new album “How to Tune a Fish” was released worldwide and is available for purchase online, and it’s sure to get toes tapping, hands clapping and -- dare I say -- hips swaying?

“One of the tracks has sort of a hip hop beat, believe it or not,” multi-instrumentalist Seán Óg Graham said of the last song on the album.

For Beoga fans, this sort of statement doesn’t come as a surprise. The band -- comprising Graham (mentioned above), accordionist Damian McKee, pianist Liam Bradley, bodhrán master Eamon Murray and vocalist-fiddler Niamh Dunne -- has a reputation for adding a little something exciting to each album, a nod to different musical eras and modern pop music.


You might even hear a little Michael Jackson in the new album -- really! “We’ve taken some of his riffs and put them next to what Seán Óg’s composed,” Dunne said, explaining that the band had additional freedoms while recording “How to Tune a Fish” because of unlimited recording time and studio space.

“I inherited a house last year and basically turned the whole thing into a recording studio,” Graham said. “We had the chance to do it all ourselves.” For a couple months, band members took to different rooms to record, with Murray even laying down some drum tracks in the bathroom.

Dunne, who expressed a love for vaudeville music, said that she had the opportunity to throw a Tin Pan Alley spin on some of the tracks. There’s also a undeniable Americana sound to “Home Cookin’,” which borrows a country twang that lends itself nicely to traditional Irish album, seeing as country music is rooted deeply in Celtic music traditions.

“Overall, this is probably my favorite album. The pieces that were chosen all sit nicely together,” Dunne said. “We hope people would like it.”

Listen to samples from “How to Tune a Fish” below, and buy the complete album on the band's website or iTunes. Like the modern sound but looking for more traditional dance tracks? Check out some of the Irish dance albums by Beoga band members McKee and Bradley, two beloved musicians in the feis circuit.

How to tune a fish (clips) by beoga

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