Laundry dancing

Yesterday was the last Irish dancing short course of the semester and we ended on a creative note–the class collaborated on making up a new, unique ceili dance. Every student contributed an idea or even a full figure, we pieced it together, and ended up with a very energetic and very visually awesome dance! Most importantly, the process involved a lot of laughter
I realized that, strangely, each of the figures was like doing laundry–soak cycle, rinse cycle, wringing out the clothes/swishing them around, the spin cycle, and finally hanging them up to dry. How is this possible in an Irish dance? Well, it’s all the side steps (rinsing), the spins and swings and turns (wringing out/swishing), the ultra-fast spinning group circle, and finally the line-up at the end.

The Laundry Dance

I was very pleased with the product and very proud of my students. Now I’m considering submitting the choreography to An Coimisiún le Rincí Gaelacha (Irish Dance Commision) to add to the official Ár Rince Foirne
Well, you can at least count on us performing it somewhere in Charlottesville this St. Patrick’s Day.