Basics of Set Dance Battering

My little lesson contribution to the Step Collective’s online catalogue of dance lessons 🙃
This lesson is a look at three basic ways to advance and retire for set dance battering. I hope you enjoy and check out the other lessons available at www.stepcollective.com!
Music by Morga

[@mariannelandrier708]

Thank you for sharing what you know! I'm interested in Irish Set Dancing and ready to practice.. Have a nice day, ✨☘️

[@allowedtotalk8910]

Enjoying this dancing. I dance in my kitchen.

[@rosaleenbourke3202]

Excellent Siobhan!

[@josephinegleeson1867]

You are so easy to watch

[@MegaStephySteph]

Thanks!

[@GeorgeFluteA]

Absolutely brilliant

[@JRW20001]

I Love it

[@seamusinmusic]

Would be great for you to do a house around batter step tutorial Thanks a million

[@christyle9058]

love it

[@IrishMama99]

What shoes are you wearing.. that’s my biggest issue is finding a shoe with the correct percussion

[@kevinmurtagh3434]

She has another video on shoes

[@theotherbrian3079]

Thanks for the good video. But can you solve a puzzle for me please? I’ve been learning English solo step dancing with wooden soled clogs. Apart from some Morris dancing that uses such clogs, we don’t have the Irish tradition of "battering" while dancing. The only UK folk dance I know that steps (with leather shoes) is the rarely used very old "Shetland Reel" in Scotland. This uses a 3 couple set in line formation with stepping while not moving, including a back/forward shuffle step like Appalacian clogging. Anyway, to me all folk dances that use a fixed number of couples in various formations (line, square, triangular or whatever) are called set dances - because the couples are in arranged sets. Q1. So, what do the Irish mean by a set dance? It seems to be restricted to dances with battering. Q2. Why don’t you call Sean nós step dancing battering as well? The purpose of making clicks or taps is the same. I admit that there is a difference: In freestyle step dance, any steps can be used, It’s only the sound that matters, it just has to match the music. Hope you can enlighten me.

[@karencski711]

Hello, perhaps you already got the answer to this, but in case not, I will offer my answer based on 25 years of doing and teaching Irish Set Dancing in the US. The Set Dancing referred to here are that suite of dances for 4 couples (or rarely 2, called a Half Set), arranged in a square, that are descended from quadrilles that arose in France in the 1700s and became extremely popular in Europe over the next century and a half. The dances spread to most colonised countries and evolved. In Ireland, they became Set Dancing. Personally, I don't know of any place else where they evolved to have this complicated footwork, other than in Ireland. The Scottish dance you mention, which is also danced in Canada, is the closest I have seen. Irish step dancers also have a form of solo dance with a prescribed "set piece" done to a prescribed tune that they will call "a set dance." This is not related to the style shown here (except that they are both traditional Irish dancing). I just mention it because many people get confused by that. Some people do call solo stepping "battering". As far as I have heard, it used to have many names (or no name at all other than "dancing"). The moniker "sean nós dance" was first applied around 1976, in Connemara, and there is still contention over what different regional styles should be called. In Clare, the footwork is inextricably intertwined with their set dancing tradition. But while many sets are "battered", and that is what everyone now calls it in the context of set dancing, someone doing solo dancing with those same steps might say they are doing sean nós, or Clare style sean nós, or Clare battering stlye sean nós, or Clare battering, or even freestyle. There is not a single universally-accepted term for this type of dancing.

[@glasgowbrian1469]

​@@karencski711 Thanks Karen, that’s filled in more pieces of the dancing jigsaw for me! Thanks for explaining the different meanings of “set”, and the use of “battering” which sounded to me like a fight with the floor. There is so much to learn about the evolution of traditional dancing, even today - it’s fascinating. My main confusion is the different terms used by different nations. Even the Americans use "clog dancing" (English step dancing in wooden clogs) to describe tap dance! But I approve of the modern use of the Scottish term Ceilidh dancing for lively English country dancing which I like, as it includes dances from anywhere including Irish variations of a few. As for me, due to a dodgy knee at the age of 79 I’ve now hung up the British wooden clogs that I used for solo step dancing, and now use leather soled shoes. I’m even trying it French style, sitting down! All that matters to me is matching the rhythm of the music in freestyle fashion. Best wishes to you. p.s. If you want a good laugh, search KZbin for "Danny Bhoy's hilarious description of a Scottish Ceilidh dance”. It describes the Orcadian Strip The Willow, from Orkney”, one of my favourite dances.

[@judymanning2538]

🍀🍀

[@JRW20001]

Hi

[@carrietaylor6658]

The sound doesn't match ur feet

[@sueellenraisch8926]

It is extremely hard to follow. You need to turn around with your back to the camera. PLEASE!!!