{"id":1365,"date":"2021-03-10T19:40:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T19:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dancedispatches.com\/blog\/online-irish-dance-lesson-heidi-hakseth\/"},"modified":"2023-12-26T17:48:12","modified_gmt":"2023-12-26T17:48:12","slug":"online-irish-dance-lesson-heidi-hakseth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dancedispatches.com\/blog\/online-irish-dance-lesson-heidi-hakseth\/","title":{"rendered":"Online Irish Dance Lesson with Heidi Hakseth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In today\u2019s mainstream society, Irish dance is almost still synonymous with images of Riverdance, which hit the scene in 1995. But it\u2019s safe to say that historically, the majority of Irish dancing scarcely resembled the popular on-stage spectacle (and the subsequent flashy choreography of Michael Flatley in his gruesome Celtic Tiger <\/em>show<\/a>). <\/em>Quick-footed Irish dance is a cultural artform that has survived eras of repression, and we learned about multiple expressions of this dance in the Dance Dispatches Social Club<\/a> online Irish dance lesson with Heidi Hakseth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Heidi Hakseth leads a group of adults in an Irish dance class at Express Yourself Madison dance school.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Adult Dance Instructor, Heidi Hakseth of Dance with Heidi<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Dance instructor, Heidi Hakseth, learned Irish dancing as a young adult \u2013 after catching a glimpse of the dances whilst listening to Irish music in a Twin Cities bar. She has kept up dancing Irish dance ever since, and she regularly teaches adult Irish dance lessons. (This is especially wonderful because many Irish dance schools do not offer Irish dance classes for adults.) Today, Heidi shares both her knowledge of soft shoe dances and hard shoe dances with students \u2013 when she\u2019s not leading ballet, tap and jazz classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Side note: Heidi and I taught at the same local studio in Madison, WI (shout out: Dance Fabulous) for a short amount of time, but before I met her, I watched her Irish dance seminar for the UW-Madison Dance Department<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Dance Fabulous instructors pose with Lindsey B of the Beat Freakz after her workshops… (And a decade later, I still occasionally rock a side ponytail.)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Digital Irish Dance Class<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Historical Irish Dancing & Current Trends <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Throughout our digital introduction to Irish dance workshop, Heidi covered multiple dance styles beneath the larger umbrella of Irish dance. She glossed over some of the time signatures (jigs: 6\/8, reels: 4\/4, hornpipes: 4\/4 beneath a syncopated rhythm) and differentiated the group dances (set dances and ceilis). She also explained that in the past, dancers solely knew the dances from their region. However, nowadays, many dancers like to build up their choreography library by learning variations from other regions, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heidi also demystified some of the current Irish dance competition fashion trends. For instance, Irish dance hard shoes once had wood bottoms \u2013 and had nails pounded into the bottom, like flamenco shoes. But now, the \u2018standard\u2019 Irish hard shoes have large fiberglass bottoms because they\u2019re lightweight \u2013 and loud, which helps to attract the judges\u2019 attention during a crowded competition heat. Likewise, the dresses evolved to catch attention, which is why you\u2019ll spot such a myriad of neon colors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Irish dance competitions, you’ll see that bouncy curled hair has become phased out in favor of synthetic, tight-curled wigs, which are now sometimes worn in a \u2018double decker\u2019 wig-on-wig style! And to complete the iconic look, many dancers will also tan their legs (but just their legs, as opposed to competitive ballroom dancers, who tend to bronze their entire body).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Adult Irish dance instructor, Heidi Hakseth, poses with her Mad Craic Irish Dance students at Madison’s annual Art Fair on the Square.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sean-n\u00f3s vs. Irish Step Dancing<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Heidi structured the class, so that we could embody and compare the funky old-style Sean-n\u00f3s groove with the polished present-day Irish step dancing style. We strung together a short sequence of moves, feeling the soulful backbone of the dance before tweaking it to more closely represent the style that the Irish Dance Commission promotes. And it turns out<\/em> that Irish dance integrated the style of turned-out feet from ballet (pun!) \u2013 and they nabbed the upright carriage European court dances from traveling dance masters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Irish dance styles are still practiced today. However, the style perpetuated first by the Gaelic League and now the Irish Dance Commission, remains prevalent. Their teachers become certified according to this one specific method, and they pay dues to maintain their professional Irish dance street credit. (This is similar to some ballet schools, by the way.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there are some dancers that are interested in reviving the Sean-n\u00f3s Irish dance style, and other dancers that want to learn historic choreographies that are not currently eligible in Irish dancing competitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tap dancers will feel comfortable learning Irish dance because there are steps and combinations that have similar foot motions \u2013 some using the heel, some using the ball of the foot. At a beginner level, you can break down many steps into combinations with steps, hops, shuffles and flaps (often pronounced \u2018fa-lap\u2019). But anyone who loves dance and movement will enjoy the strong connection the music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irish dancing in unison, especially in hard shoes, kindles such a positive feeling of community. So, I highly recommend you give it a try \u2013 whether you can head to the studio or learn Irish dance online!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"An
Heidi Hakseth demonstrates a Brush Dance (broom dance) at Madison’s Overture Center for the Arts.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Online Irish Dance Class Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Physical intensity:<\/strong> 3 \/ 5 \u2013 but only because the dancing was spaced out between discussion points and mini-demonstrations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most challenging moment:<\/strong> trying to assume the cool, laidback Sean-n\u00f3s (or “old style”) step dance style \u2013 since I really enjoy the lighter, competition style<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best moment:<\/strong> dancing with the music \u2013 it was so uplifting, even if I was off-count\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three words to describe class:<\/strong> Jovial, rhythmic, elucidating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Heidi ran an exclusive adult Irish dance workshop, just for the ladies in our online dance social club<\/a>, you can learn from her, too. Check out her website, Dance with Heidi<\/a>, for more. Her Madison-based troupe performs as Mad Craic Irish Dance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In today\u2019s mainstream society, Irish dance is almost still synonymous with images of Riverdance, which hit the scene in 1995. But it\u2019s safe to say that historically, the majority of Irish dancing scarcely resembled the popular on-stage spectacle (and the subsequent flashy choreography of Michael Flatley in his gruesome Celtic Tiger show). Quick-footed Irish dance […]\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[85,181,182],"class_list":["post-1365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-class","tag-europe","tag-ireland","tag-irish-dancing"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.dancedispatches.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/EYM-Hard-Shoe-Class.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dancedispatches.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dancedispatches.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dancedispatches.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dancedispatches.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dancedispatches.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1365"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dancedispatches.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1370,"href":"https:\/\/www.dancedispatches.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365\/revisions\/1370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dancedispatches.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dancedispatches.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dancedispatches.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dancedispatches.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}