After being tagged - by my esteemed fellow bloggers Creature Comforts, Theresa J, Jewels and Knits, Moose, and In the Night Kitchen - to share seven facts about me, I'm finally facing the music with (sorry to break the rules) one fact about what I do when I'm not drawing, painting, crafting, designing or studying. So without further ado, an ode to Irish dance. It was a most enjoyable pastime, perfectly suited to my love of beauty, tradition and history. I put in nine years of lessons, practices, performances and competitions. (Yes, those are my feet!) I unfortunately had to quit upon going away to college, and have since tried to fill the void by taking up tap here at the university. However, at times I feel like a bit of an outsider in the mainstream dance world.
{About} Two types of shoes are worn - soft shoes (ghillies) and hard shoes (more akin to tap shoes). Soft shoe dances are graceful yet bouncy, incorporating leaps, hops and kicks, while hard shoe dances incoporate heel clicks, rallies or trebles (similar to a shuffle in tap), and stamps. If you're interested in learning more, Wikipedia sums up Irish stepdance in a succint yet detailed article. Finally and quite appropriately - Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Click Your Heels
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25 comments:
The rules are made to be broken.
Irish dance is certainly a lot of fun, shame you can't keep it up! Happy St. P's Day!
Neat!!
Thank you for stopping by blog!
Your blog is lovely! Bookmarked you in my favourites!
x
Sweet post! I used to do Irish Dancing a long long time ago but I've always wanted to get back into it! One day... one day...
p.s. i love your blog! it's so inspiring
Wonderful blog! I will add your blog to mines. Please do the same!
http://lskcrochet.blogspot.com/
Thanks!
Wonderful blog. Will stop in again soon ;)
I don't know much about irish dancing, but I love those shoes, they look so comfortable!
*i did norwegian dancing when i was in elementary shcool, but i'm irish.lol*
oh my! your blog is so completely beeautiful, i am so in awe! i think your illustrations and works are really gorgeous. would love to link you to my blog, if i may have the honour?
thanks so much, livy. it's up :)
and keep up the great good work. will be following your progress!
How appropriate for St. Patrick's Day! I have always adored Irish Step Dancing. I saw Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance several years ago when I was in Las Vegas, and was completely entranced! What a beautiful style of dancing!
Oh, I miss Irish dancing! I too did it for several years (about 8 years), and I was lucky enough to be able to keep it up at university and perform with a company for a while. I wish I could get back into it and take classes again, but I fall into that awkward catagory of '(young) adult, but not beginner'. Lovely to see another Irish dancing etsian! :)
Your blog is beautiful and so is this post! Lovely items also!
What fun to learn more about Irish dancing. I had no idea there were two types of shoes. And such great photos of them!
Your blog is simply beautiful! Thanks so much for stopping by mine!
Beautiful blog! I just love how it looks!
Oh I love doing high kicks irish dancing style :) Happy belated St Patricks day to you!
I love your blog! It's simple, pink & lovely.
~I have always wanted to take tap lessons.
Love your pretty pretty blog! I'm so jealous. ;)
Your blog is like a little treasure box of inspiring pictures and wonderful color combinations - just had to say!
Livy---because of your beautiful blog, I went and changed some of the colors and font styles in my blog. After seeing yours, I realized that mine was a bit too "harsh" looking. Thank you for inspiring me and showing me the way. I've looked at your back blogs. It's like looking at one of those expensive vintagey mags. Love it when you show us your sketches and then the final creation.
I love your blog so much. I'm adding you to my favorite blog list on my site. I'll be checking back in for inspiration. Cambria
Hi, Thanks for stopping by my blog. I'm so glad to have found you, your blog is just sooo pretty!
i love to irish dance and have been using a dvd to learn it it's great fun and i'm getting the hang of it i have jus't recently learned the heal click and am getting better i find it good if you use shoes and aim a little more for the back of the heel to help reach a click with the heels. *you tube can be a helpful resource of irish dance lessons*and the jean butler's irish dance master class.i look forwad to when i can take a class with people and perform on stage and would like to inspire others to aswell.(never give up)quote- *your goals are withi reach if you stay on track and endure to the end*
Your blog is brilliant and charming! I love to hear you are an Irish dancer! I am an Irish dancer and currently dance with a school in Denver. Once you're an Irish dancer, you're always an Irish dancer! Side note, did you design your dress? If so, do you have photographs?
Hey Neuf Francs - I didn't design a dress - I never invested in a solo dress and just wore my school dress until I stopped danced, which is unfortunate because it was kind of ugly - navy blue with celtic designs that were snakes (eww, I know). But I definitely saw some gorgeous dresses over the years. I always kind of wanted a simple one, without the stiff panels on the skirt, one that was flowy and old fashioned looking. There was this old picture of my teacher in our dance studio, from when she was young; in it she wears a really pretty, simple dress.
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