Stepdancing - how much is Irish?

Subject: RE: Stepdancing - how much is Irish?
From: meself
Date: 18 Nov 17 - 03:21 PM

Here's another (Willie Fraser): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ_2OTQphmo&index=240&list=PL2B140A87D3310B23

Subject: RE: Stepdancing - how much is Irish?
From: meself
Date: 18 Nov 17 - 03:11 PM

Okay, I'll try this one last time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmTIVbL8dGw&index=39&list=PL2B140A87D3310B23

Subject: RE: Stepdancing - how much is Irish?
From: meself
Date: 18 Nov 17 - 03:09 PM

Sorry - here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmTIVbL8dGw&index=39&list=PL2B140A87D3310B23

Subject: RE: Stepdancing - how much is Irish?
From: meself
Date: 18 Nov 17 - 03:08 PM

Thanks, Jim! That's the kind of dancing I could watch for hours. It reminds me of the way some of the old-timers would stepdance in Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island. For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmTIVbL8dGw&index=39&list=PL2B140A87D3310B23

I suspect that Bobelix is right - that this sort of thing was widespread in the not terribly distant past. It would probably be next to impossible to find one place of origin for it ........

Subject: RE: Stepdancing - how much is Irish?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 18 Nov 17 - 02:39 PM

Display dancing in this county (Clare) is referred to as 'battering' - basically virtuoso solo dancing by men
Only a few exponents now - this is one of our LOCALS
Jim Carroll

Subject: Stepdancing - how much is Irish?
From: Bobelix
Date: 18 Nov 17 - 12:22 PM

OK, there's the Riverdance type stuff and there's sean-nos, and sure, they're Irish. However, I'm seeing videos on YouTube of Appalachian, Cape Breton, and Acadian step-dancing, and there's always the same person making the comment that it's all been pinched from the Irish.

Did Irish dance-masters flock in huge numbers to French, Scots, and Ulster-Scots colonial territory just to make sure they were all dancing from the same page?

Does anyone know the truth?

My feeling is that there's a common folk root going back a L O N G time - given English clog-dancing and Welsh step-dancing, and it's just that the Irish have a great publicity agent that the rest of us should hire. ;)