Hello Jim Martin!

Thanks for posting to this thread and thanks for providing that link on Irish set dancing.

For those who may still be on dial-up, I'm going to post an excerpt from one of that website's pages so you can get a 'flavor' of that site.

"The following article was written to explain set dancing to people who are unfamiliar with it and to encourage them to give it at try. It originally appeared in the newsletter Inside Ireland in February 2004 and in Hornpipe magazine in June 2005.

The Joy of Sets
Copyright © 2007 Bill Lynch

Traditional Irish dancing is well known around the world thanks to the success of Riverdance and other shows featuring amazing displays of solo step dancing. Mastering this type of dancing requires high levels of skill and fitness and many dedicated hours of practice. The best step dancers started learning as children, though many adults have taken it up in recent years. Their goal is to be judged the top dancer at a feis or competition and to perform on stage.
Quite different from step dancing is set dancing, which is the type of traditional social dancing done strictly for pleasure in rural communities in Ireland for a couple hundred years or more. 'Sets' came from quadrilles, the eighteenth and nineteenth century court dances of France which spread across Europe. Irish peasants learned the quadrilles from British landlords and soldiers and took them home to their cottages where they became the uniquely Irish sets when traditional music and steps were applied to them.

Four couples arrange themselves in a square to dance—the term 'set' refers both to the eight people in formation and to the dance itself. When the music begins they dance a variety of intricate moves and steps. One set can last from ten minutes to half an hour. The dancing is divided into separate sections called figures—when a figure is finished the music stops and the dancers remain in place waiting for it to resume. A set usually has from three to six figures, each one different but always danced in the same sequence. After the last figure the dancers thank one another and leave the floor.

Traditionally the sets weren't formally taught—children were brought to the floor at house dances by their parents or siblings and learned by repetition. Usually people knew and danced only one set, which might be different from what their neighbours danced just a few miles away. There was no need for a caller as the set was always the same and everyone knew it.

Some of the colourful set dancing terminology for the moves—round the house (dance around the set), face the hob (line up facing the front), dance at home (dance in your own position)—reflects their origin in farmhouses. Other common moves are the wheelbarrow (three facing one), little or big Christmas (four or eight spin together like a top) and ladies chain (ladies go around the opposite gent and back).

The figures of sets can be danced to several different types of music—reels, jigs, polkas, hornpipes, slides, even waltzes—and there are usually different steps for each. Reels are popular with dancers in County Clare, where experienced dancers do the sets with elaborate battering steps, beating out a rhythm on the floor with their feet as complicated as anything a drummer would do with his sticks. Down south in Cork, Kerry and surrounding counties they like all types of music in their sets, but lively polkas are most common. In other parts of Ireland the sets combine several different types of music.

While experienced dancers have the skill to perform amazing steps, dancers of all abilities can enjoy dancing sets together. The most basic step, the 'threes', is enough to get through most sets, and with practice dancers can add endless variety. There are up steps, down steps, side steps, doubles, trebles, sevens, swings, gallops, shuffles, kicks and many others, sometimes with separate variations for each type of music. Generally steps are danced in small movements close to the floor, often in a kind of gliding motion without even lifting the feet. This is why most set dancers prefer shoes with leather soles—it's harder to glide along the floor in rubber soles.

Sets enjoyed a long popularity in the countryside where they were danced at house parties, weddings, patterns or stations (when Mass was celebrated at home), wakes and outdoors at crossroads and on platforms. House dances became restricted after 1935 when a law was passed to regulate them and collect tax on admissions. The dancing moved into dance halls, but by the sixties and seventies modern music and dancing had replaced sets nearly everywhere.

...


Ceilis, or more properly céilithe, are live music dances taking place in ballrooms, halls and pubs everywhere in Ireland. On any given Friday, Saturday and Sunday there will be a choice of ceilis across the country. Admission is about €8 for three or four hours of dancing, including a tea break with sandwiches and cake. They usually run from 10pm to 1.30am on Friday and Saturday and from 3 to 6pm on Sunday afternoon. Some places are lucky enough to have mid-week ceilis taking place every week—look out for them in Kilfenora, Waterford, Ballyvourney and Killarney. Most set dancing is run by local clubs on a non-profit basis.

Often there are bigger events taking place over a full weekend from Friday to Sunday. These will have three or more ceilis, plus workshops taught by well known teachers for experienced dancers wishing to learn more sets and footwork. Some weekends are small and local, while others attract hundreds of dancers from across Ireland and abroad.

...

Set dancing has spread around the world, and you can attend classes, ceilis and workshops in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, USA, Canada, Australia and Japan. Wherever you are, the big challenge is knowing when and where to go. For the past eight years, Set Dancing News, a magazine and web site devoted to the subject, has helped inform set dancers of events everywhere they're known to take place. Hundreds of classes, ceilis and workshops are listed, so there's a good chance of finding something at home or convenient to your travels. Every event listed in it is open to all and you're sure to get a good welcome.

...

There's another type of Irish social dancing called ceili dancing with an entirely different repertoire of dances and steps. Some of them, such as the High-Cauled Cap, are danced in the same square formation; others like the Walls of Limerick and Haymakers Jig are danced in lines. While ceili dancing is common in America, Northern Ireland and Britain, it is unusual in southern Ireland, though you will sometimes find the dances mixed in with sets at some ceilis.

From my eleven years of set dancing experience, I'd have to say that it's the most pleasurable activity I've ever engaged in. The inspirational music, the energetic moves and most of all the generous and friendly people make it something unique and special. You don't have to be young, talented and athletic. Experts, beginners, children and seniors can all dance together in the same set and get the same amount of fun from it. A good night's dancing can give you a high that lasts for days. You won't have experienced joy like this since your childhood. Try it—you'll like it! "
-Bill Lynch, Kilfenora, Co Clare, originally from Wilmington, Delaware