Figure 1.--.

All costumes are worn with either hard shoes or soft shoes depending on the dance being performed. The hard shoes have metal heels attached for the sound effects made popular with River Dance. For the soft shoe dances, ballet shoes are used. The issue of hard shoes and excessive pounding or "battering" as the dancers call it has become an increasingly controversial issue in Irish dancing.

Soft Shoes

Despite the current association of Irish dance with hard shoes and the sounfs created by hard toes and heels on the floor boards, in fact many Irish dance routiens are done with soft shoes. The black ballet shoes is normally worn by both boys and girls.

Hard Shoes

As a result of River Dance, it is the hard shoe that is now most associated with Irish dance.

Flexible Shoes

A beginner in Irish dance will eventually have to purchase a pair of hard shoes. They may not know the difference between "regular" and "flexi" style of shoes as mentioned in the sellers' offers. Many experienced dancers suggest that beginners probably want "regular" to start. Flexis are for going up on your toes, something no beginner should be doing. Many teachers especially discourage young children doing toe walks. Plus, flexis are more expensive. The best bet, of course, is to ask the teacher, but in general, you start off with regulars until you're ready to begin doing toe walks.

Another teacher reports, "The only shoes I would recommend that you stay away from are "super-flexis," because they won't offer you the same support as a shoe with a thicker sole. I know that in Rutherford's, the difference between regular shoes and flexis is very slight; one has a metal shank and one does not, but other than that the shoes are pretty similar." An important factor is age and whether the dancer's feet are still bgrowing. A dancing teacher reports, "I recommend for my adults that they purchase Rutherford flexi-soles. They are more expensive, but they will last, and the heel is less concave than Innishfree and Halmor heels, which makes clicks easier to get right from the start. Plus, the option to eventually do work up on your toes is there. If you do decide to go with the Rutherfords, the fastest place to get them is through Irish Treasures, which keeps them in stock. We recommend the shoe with a single seam in the back (fewer blisters) and stitching underneath."

Hard Shoe Types

One American dancer reports that for set dancing, "I purchased a pair of shoes from the Talbot Street Dance Center in Dublin. They are a lace-up oxford style with a one-inch heel plus a quarter-inch hard cap (fiberglass?). Imagine your hard shoes with no ankle strap (and therefore not as low-cut), no toe tap, and a quieter heel. They cost 30 Irish pounds (punt? what is it?), or $40 plus about $10 for shipping. Way cheaper than you'd pay here. I'm finding that the heels may be too high for battering steps, so I may go back to my Stevens Stompers. This is a clogging shoe available at many square dance shops in the US, or from the makers at http://www.stevens-clogging.com. They have a low wooden heel that has a nice sound. With either shoe, I find that my heels make more noise than my toes. I think this makes my steps sound too syncopated. When I had my Stompers re-soled, I asked for a heavy man's sole so they would be more balanced, but my double-toe shuffles still sound more like a wimpy "swish-swish" than a resounding "tap-tap. I hope the other listers will chime in with their shoe views. .... I've certainly seen lots of dancers in sneakers, men's dress shoes, and summer sandals. At a place like Irishfest, it's kind of a bother to change shoes every time you wander into the dance tent, but it's nice to have a good leather-soled shoe for classes." - Karen

Battering

One Irish dancer is disturbed by thecincreasing popularity of loud banging the hard shoe on the dancing boards.

I have observed this growth and evolution of this continual hopping style of dance, even with continual battering by some dancers, over the more than decade and half that I've been doing Irish set dancing. This style seems to be basically spontaneous among todays dancers as I also don't know anyone who actually teaches it. If anyone on the list has actually been taught this style please tell us of the process. I'd love to hear how it was taught.

I don't think it really ever was or is taught to today's dancers. Instead this seems to me to be simply a style that agrees with the faster, more hyperactive urban (or urbanized) lifestyle. People do it because they enjoy it, having picked it up merely from watching others, and these same people are the current revival of set dancing. Whether or not someone personally likes the style or not (and I don't for myself) I think we must acknowledge its existence as a style of dancing, not just bad dancing in itself. Of course I will hasten to add that anyone who kicks another or runs into another is dancing badly no matter what style they're using. That's a different matter from style.

I first was aware of an early form of this style in 1985. I saw a group doing the Caledonian at the One Mile Inn outside Ennis. They were a competition set and they all danced exactly the same with the early lighter version of the hopping (no battering with it). At the Willie Clancy Summer School that year a video tape was made during the school. It was titled "Willie Week". Have any of you seen it? The only dancing shown in the tape was by some becostumed children doing the Caledonian in a very competion style and form, i.e. 1) the girls backed into the center and danced forward out, 2) the couples 'danced at home' mostly pivoting around as Chris described above, and 3) they did the hopping style, no battering. Their dancing was not demented or frenetic, but very controlled as would be expected of a disciplined competion group.

A couple of years later I was back at Willie Clancy week taking the class from Martin and Bridie Byrnes and other Clare dancers. They were teaching the Clare style of dancing for their sets, but quite a few in the class, mostly Dubliners I believe but maybe some others also, were doing the continual hopping style. One of the teachers, Pat Moroney, upon seeing this, pointed to them and said, "Now we'll have none of that East Coast Style here." Of course that didn't stop them; it was their style, and they didn't seem to really want to learn or do the old Clare style.

So while the origins of the continual hopping style seem to be from a competition style that some one or group created to impress the adjudicators, I don't know exactly when (likely in the late 1970s or early '80s) or by whom. If anyone has any more specific info on this I'd love to hear it. Despite this origin it seems to have been taken on by urban dance revivers everywhere to such an extent that its origin is irrelevant to its current popularity. Also I think that the sets danced today in most places, with the style in which most (I think) people dance them, should no longer be refered to as 'country sets', but now as 'urban sets', because they're just different from the old sets and style, whether Clare style, Cork/Kerry style, or other regional styles.

I really enjoy the smooth old style in Clare dancing. Dancing through a Clare set with someone who does the same style is one of the most intense enjoyments in life. I can still enjoy dancing with a hopper, so long as the hopping is not too wild, but it's just not the same. This problem with the clash of styles, sometimes serious as Chris indicates, is not new. I remember Joe O'Donovan back in mid '80s sometime noting that you may have to dance a bit more loosely and with a looser hold if your dancing with a hopper. I wonder if those who do the hopping style feel the same way about dancing with those of us who like to dance the smoother way. Sla/n anois, Michael

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Created: March 16, 2000
Last updated: March 16, 2000