History of Irish Dancing: Irish dancing masters

The influence of old Irish dancing masters on Irish dancing.

The biggest influence on Irish dancing was the dancing masters who appeared on the social scene in Ireland in the second half of the eighteenth century. He was the person who shaped the future of Irish dance by introducing refinement and discipline in the group dances and cultivating and developing the footwork of the solo dances.

With the coming of the dancing master, Irish dancing reaches the height of its perfection in the solo or step dances. Arthur Young noted that dancing was very popular amongst people. He wrote: ‘All the poor people, both men and women, learn to dance and are exceedingly fond of the amusement.’ Dancing masters throughout the country staying from nine days to six weeks in one location. A piper or fiddler always accompanied them.

The dancing master was a somewhat whimsical figure, pretentious in dress and affecting grandiloquence not sustained by his schooling. He wore a Caroline hat, swallow-tailed coat, tight knee breeches, white stockings and turn-pumps, and carried a cane with a silver head and silk tassel. Dressed in the fashion we can presume that the dancing master was of higher standing than the fiddler or piper; he was a person to be treated with respect by all in the local community and especially his pupils. He considered himself a gentleman and behaved like one.

His coming to a community was an occasion of great delight. On arrival the dancing master would arrange with a farmer for the loan of a building or barn to use as his base for teaching dance and also often stayed with the farmer if he had space in the house or barn. In return, he would give free lessons to the children of the farmer. Sometimes if the farmer had no room the pupils would take turns in taking the master home for the night.

The first steps the pupils were taught were the rising step of the jig and the side step of the reel. There are references to dancing masters having to resort to fixing sugar and straw to their pupils’ feet to enable them to distinguish the left foot from the right! Jingles were used to impart the rhythm of the step, for example: ‘Rise upon sugar, sit upon straw.’

The dancing master was also engaged to teach deportment and other forms of court dances to the children of well-to-do. Many dancing masters were also teachers of fencing, and fencing schools were often as common as dancing schools.

According to Arthur Young the fee charged was sixpence. IN Watford around 1816 pupils had to pay the master a ‘thirteen’ (there were thirteen Irish pence in a British shilling) and pay a ‘tester’ (sixpence-halfpenny) to the musician for a quarter of nine nights. With most dancing masters the quarter was more commonly six weeks. Towards the middle of the nineteenth century the charge was ten shillings per quarter for the dancing master and five shillings for the musician. During his stay in a community he would organise one or two benefit nights which were open to one and all; pupils were admitted free and a collection was usually made for the dancing master and musician.

The dancing master was usually a bachelor, having no fixed residence but travelling from house to house within a radius of twenty miles. He was not only famous for his dancing ability but also for his ability to compose steps; the art of composing new steps was a skill carefully guarded by the dancing master.

Even up to the present day the status of dancing teachers is often judged by their ability to compose new steps of an acceptably high standard. Steps composed in the early days of the dancing masters were much fewer than they are today. Frequently when a dancing master composed a step, he would put his name on the step, for example, Kelly’s Number 5 or Murphy’s Reel Number 1. Some of the steps composed in earliest times were easy enough to be written down, which is not often done today.

A dancing master from Kerry called O’Kearin was very famous at this time and it is he who is attributed with having brought order, uniformity and style to the steps being performed throughout Ireland. This was a mighty task and would be very difficult even in modern times.

Jeryy Molyneaus from Kerry is said to be the last of the old-type dancing masters. He learnt his dancing from Batt Walsh who in turn learnt from Moor (known as Morrin) who was teaching in 1820.

Dances were collected in most parts of Ireland especially the North, where three of the most interesting dances were collected by Nan Quinn from Bessbrook, County Armagh and passed on to that great man of Irish dancing, Tom Farrelly from Dundalk. These were The Trip to the Cottage, The Sweets of May and The Three Tunes.

Each of these dances had something different from most other ceili dances. The Three Tunes is the only ceili dance to have a change in temp and tunes, and it and The Sweets of May are the only ceili dances to involve actions with the exception of The High Caul Cap which has limited actions. The Trip to the Cottage does not commence with the usual type of ‘lead around’ and differs in construction to most of the dances in the Irish Dance Commission books.

The big influence these travelling dancing masters have had on fostering and development of Irish dance over a 200 year period could not be emphasised enough. To them we owe the veey existence of Irish solo and figure dances. Through their enthusiasm and dedication in good times and bad, they laid a great foundation for Irish dancing, as we know it today.

© AppleTree Press: The Complete Guide to Irish Dance by Frank Whelan.
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