I haven't done a how-to video in quite some time! It was nice to get behind the camera for the first time in what seems like forever to bring you the following tutorial.
I was apprehensive when I first chopped off all my hair last September because of the whole wig issue. Being a team dancer as well as a soloist, I knew I couldn't get away with not putting a wig in my hair. I wouldn't call myself a professional in putting a wig in short hair, but I have had a lot of practice with it in the last few weeks (more on that in my next post).
I hope you find this video helpful if you're looking for a solution to put a both a bun wig and a full wig in a pixie haircut. I am silly at some points, so I hope it's not too distracting. Enjoy!
Goals: Have a better treble jig at the feis this Sunday
Days till Os: 199
Again, I am finding more and more cool Irish dance fusion videos that I just have to share! I have two videos to share at the moment. All previous versions of my Irish dance fusion group posts are here: [Number one][Number two][Number three]
Ciaran Plummer and Zach Klingerberg of TapTronic released a new video in May. As always, I am impressed with the musicality of their rhythms, and the entire video experience that goes along with it. They will be performing at nationals on July 4th and 5th, and I am looking forward to seeing their live performance! [Like TapTronic on Facebook][Follow TapTronic on Twitter]
2013 is definitely going to be a big year for the group called Hammerstep. After performing at the opening ceremonies of the world championships, they recently auditioned on the show, America's Got Talent. I see a lot of parallels between their performance and Prodijig's performance on the British show Got to Dance (which they went on to win). Hammerstep is not a new group in the Irish-fusion circuit. They have been around since 2009, working on fusing Irish, tap, and hip hop to progress these dance forms. [Check out their website][Like Hammerstep on Facebook][Follow Hammerstep on Twitter]
Goals: Finish packing, and continue to drill little things
Days till NANs: 6
I just have to keep adding to my list of cool Irish dance videos that fuse the traditional Irish steps with new exciting things. My previous posts can be found in these places:
I'm going to start out this third edition of fusion groups with a video my none other than dancer extraordinaire and jiggaholic, Ciara Sexton. I love the way she has modernized Irish dance by mixing it with modern dance. Also love where and how the video was filmed and edited. [Read Ciara's blog][Follow Ciara on twitter]
This next selection I have for you is brought to you by Chris Naish, former Sneaky Stepper and Hammerstep member. This awesome video is of an improvisational jam session for dancers and musicians that was been held in NYC. This particular video was filmed the day before hurricane Sandy struck One of the things that really draws me into this video is the fusion of classical works and percussive dancing. I only wish I had rhythm that snazzy. [Follow Chris on twitter]
In honor of back to school and back to dance, September's blog challenge is to post an inspiring dance video.
One of my favorite inspiring Irish dance videos is the trailer to Jig.
I first saw this trailer right before I left for New York to compete in my first open champ feis. At the time, I was training for my first world championship. Being able to watch this video on the daily gave me that much more excitement for the competition I was about to dance in. Watching such awesome dancers live out their own worlds journey, even if only in a two minute video clip really gave me that extra boost to practice. The makers of the trailer packed in all the quintessential elements that I love about Irish dancing. And come on, Mike Stobbie did such a good job on the music that you can't help but move.
A few months ago I posted about some Irish dance groups that are taking our dance for to the next level by fusing other dance styles with Irish dance. I would like to say that the buck does not stop with those three groups. Today, I'm sharing three more.
By now, quite a few people both inside and outside of the Irish dance world have seen Taptronic's video to a dubstep song, "Crave You." This particular video doesn't show very much in the way of fusing with other styles and the featured dancing is mostly Irish, but something cool to note is that one dancer is wearing traditional Irish dance hard shoes, while the other is wear tap shoes. This creates an awesome effect because you are hearing two different timbres at the same time. The tap shoes are slightly higher pitched than the hard shoes.
A video I discovered over the weekend features Colin Dunne, singer Alyth McCormack, bohdran player Aimee Farrell Courtney, and the Notre Dame drumline. I am assuming this collaboration was a part of the Navy/Notre Dame football game played in Dublin's Aviva Stadium over the September 1st weekend. This video truly highlights Dunne's innate sense of rhythm, especially in relation to both the drumline and the rhythm of the Gaelic words being sung. Because of this, I found this piece was very interesting to my musician brain.
Noctu is a show by Riverdance star Breandan de Gallai. When I first saw the trailer for this show, what really drew me in was the piece choreographed to Stravinsky's Firebird. This piece has become more well-known since it's feature in Fantasia 2000, but for me as a classically trained musician and Irish dancer, of course it drew me right in. I'm a sucker for Irish dancing to non-traditional music. The clip below is just one of many featured on Gallai's Youtube account. I encourage you to spend some time there watching longer clips of this contemporary Irish dance show. Oh, and you can follow Noctu on twitter for more news.
Goals: Start PT this week, and do exercises. Review figure choreography.
Days till Os: 81
Find out how I do my feis make up: a neutral smoky eye and bold red lip!
Make up used:
Maybelline 24-hour Super Stay foundation
e.l.f. eye primer
MAC eye shadow in Nylon
ULTA palate
Maybelline eyeliner in onyx
Maybelline Define-a-lash mascara length and volume
Maybelline Mineral Power bronzer
Covergirl Outlast lipstain
N.Y.C lipstick in Retro Red
Tips:
You don't have to buy high-end make up to achieve a feis-worthy look! Nearly all my look can be found at Target!
Buy your foundation a shade darker than normal. This will either help blend better with your tan, or give you better stage appearance if you don't tan. Be sure to blend well!
Prime your eyelids. Your eye shadow really will last longer.
You can alter the eye shadow to complement your dress. Use white as a base color, then build on it with a medium shade, and a dark shade.
If you go with red lips, wait to apply it right before you go onstage. This will minimize risk of it getting smudged!
Perfect for carrying around at summer feiseanna, this clutch can be made using old Irish dance magazines!
Tips:
Find the most colorful pages in your magazines. This may mean that you only get a couple pages from each magazine. Ideally, there should be no white space and little printed text.
Take your time with the weaving to really make your clutch look neat. The closer the better!
If you don't want a clutch bag, feel free to attach straps to the inside of the bag using tape and more folded paper strips (four or so taped together)
Remember: this is a bag made out of paper and tape. Be kind.
Turn one pair of socks into a plush monkey pet that will be the guardian of your dance bag! This is the third of three, and the most advanced tutorial in the poodle sock upcycle series featuring this monkey, a vase, and a heat/ice pack.
Knee-length socks will make for longer limbs on your monkey, and various sizes (small, medium, large) will make different sized bodies. (I used large knee-length socks and this monkey is 19 inches long!)
Try your hand at tie-dying your old socks so your monkey can be fun colors!
Be patient when sewing your socks, especially the bubbled part. That section is particularly stretchy and will try to move around when you're sewing. Extra pins are awesome.
Be gentle when you turn your monkey body and legs back to right-side out. The crotch area is very stretchy and if stretched out during turning and stuffing, the sewing back up process will be more difficult. Take your time.
A pencil (use the eraser end) or chopstick is useful for not only helping to turn the body parts right-side out, but also for getting the stuffing down into the feet/hands of your monkey.
Stay tuned tomorrow for special Traveling Feis Monkey information!
I went to my very last doctor's visit yesterday morning. The funny part about this appointment was that I spent more time waiting around than him actually visiting me. He came into the room, looked over the note from my physical therapist, and asked if I hurt and what I was doing. After assessing all this, he said I didn't have to see him again, but to still take it easy if my ankle hurt (I did tear three ligaments after all).
Today, I graduate from physical therapy.
Because of all this wonderful news, I decided to register for the Nation's Capital feis next month. I am feeling extra motivated right now, especially after attending Old Dominion feis to run stages. Being there without dancing was bittersweet: I know I would not have done all that well since I began easing into dance a month ago, but being there all day had me really itching to put my solo dress on...
Last night was my first hardcore practice since my time easing back into dance last month. Inspired by being cleared by my doctor and by the feis this weekend, I decided to run through all three rounds, including the new slip jig steps I tweaked. In honor of this practice, I wore a new Pinterest and Feisonista-inspired outfit, which came in especially handy in my lack-of-circulating-air practice area.
I am lucky to have a practice area that I can use at essentially any time. It's a racquetball court, so the downsides are no mirrors and it's extremely loud, but the floor is nice and it's spacious. I am very much lacking in stamina and general leg strength due to being out for so long, but I am planning on practicing in my space two or more times a week until the feis. Have a video montage of last night's practice session, including all my wonderful brain farts:
A major part Virginia fourth grade curriculum is studying the history of my lovely state, from Jamestown to the geography. The culmination of their studies is usually (depending on the school) a 'colonial fair.' For these colonial fairs, the students learn a dance (or more!) in music class or PE, the most popular dance being the Virginia Reel. Upon my arrival at the school, I noticed just how similar this was to a certain ceili I've learned in my Irish dance days...
I knew that jumping in to being a long-term music substitute was going to be awesome if my fourth graders were doing ceilis every day. And it didn't stop with the Virginia Reel/Haymaker's Jig. The students were responsible for knowing six other line and square dances. Armed with my New England Dancing Masters books (Ar Rinci Foirne for elementary music teachers), I learned and taught the other dances. I was quick to see that square dances are like 8-hands. They even had some of the same moves with different names!
Lead around -----> Promenade
Chain -----> Grand right and left
Once the students knew their square danced, and to encourage them to be serious about their own dancing, I told them I was an Irish dancer and showed them two Youtube videos: one of Haymaker's Jig and one of the Three Tunes. The students were all impressed with how precise their handwork and lines were, and how well they danced without 'calls' with the music. Of course, after introducing myself as an Irish dancer, brought on quite a few questions, so I decided to dedicate a day in the last few weeks of talk about solo Irish dancing, costuming, and yes, teach a jig.
Teaching a simple light jig step is attainable for fourth and fifth grade classes. Most students were just happy to be jumping around and didn't care if they were doing it right or wrong. A lot of the girls enjoyed it and told me how they practice at recess. I was also surprised with the natural ability of some of the boys! They're at an age where most think dancing is "for girls only," but if they knew how many competitions they would win as a naturally talented boy, I bet they would think again.
To culminate this activity, we watched my Lord of the Dance DVD. (skipping the "boring" singing and fiddle parts. Also Breakout.) Watching that DVD inspired my dancing career, so who knows, there may be some new Irish dancing students!
Goals: Re-figure SJ lead so there are no jumps off of bad foot
Days till Os: 170
This month's first Irish dance how-to is still going along the theme of upcyclying old poodle socks. This tutorial is a little harder than April's, and the tutorial being released at the end of the month is the hardest of the three poodle sock tutorials.
Tips:
Use older and slightly stretched out poodle socks. Your hot/ice pack will be bigger.
Don't start sewing in the corner like I did. It makes it harder to sew up after you flip the hot/ice pack right-side out. It is easier if you start in the middle of one of the longer sides
Leave more room than you think open so you don't have to struggle to flip the hot/ice pack right-side out after machine sewing!
A funnel would be helpful for putting the rice into your hot/ice pack
For a cold pack: leave it in the freezer overnight
For a heat pack: microwave in 30 second intervals until warm
Stay tuned for the last of the poodle sock upcycles, being released June 27th!
A litte background before the meat of this post: I was a gymnast almost all my life. In this time, my favorite event was usually floor exercise. I was lucky in what gymnasts call "optional" years to have a floor choreographer who put as much emphasis on the actual dancing in my routine as the required elements and tumbling passes. This concept of having a floor routine full of mostly dance moves with three or so tumbling passes is something that's been around since Nadia Comaneci scored the first perfect 10 in the Olympics in the 70s. Unfortunately for gymnastics fans today, floor exercises are so jam packed with tumbling and other elements in order to up the difficulty score that you hardly see any of this dancing artistry.
What this all boils down to is that I have been interested in other dance styles since I started competing as a gymnast. My eclectic mix of dance studies ranges from ballet barre technique for strengthening muscles, to some contemporary-type mix for my floor routine. Now my style is focused on Irish.
Tying this all together is the fact that Irish dancing isn't just about the traditional dance form nowadays. Just like in other dance styles, Irish dancers are constantly pushing the envelope in what can be defined as Irish dancing. Take Hammerstep and the Sneaky Steppers for instance. Aside from the ever-popular sneaks and flash mobs, this group collaborates with tap and hip hop dancers, beatboxers, DJs electric fiddle, and comedy to break the mold of traditional Irish dancing. Just check out what they did this past St. Patrick's day!
Another one of my all time favorite groups is Up & Over It featuring ex-Riverdancers Suzanne Cleary and Peter Harding. They are most popular for their hand dancing sensation that swept the nation, but what I like most is the aspect of fun they put into their videos, and to be honest who doesn't love a little rap about Irish dance? Aside from the rapping, they seriously are mixing in other contemporary styles along with creative video editing by Johnny Reed. Their newest video is particularly amusing to me because I almost, almost started ballet instead of Irish dancing. Instead, I took a semester-long ballet course in college, and well, just watch the video.
And last but certainly not least is a relatively new group called Prodijig, 2012 winners of the UK's show Got to Dance. This group literally exploded onto the scene with their audition video to Kanye West's "Power." Prodijig combines hip hop elements with precision hardshoe technique that creates a jaw dropping performance. Of all the groups, Prodijig can clearly be defined as an Irish dance group, as their choreography (for now) is comprised of mostly Irish elements. I can't wait to see how this group develops and what new material they come up with!
Have you seen any other cool Irish dance fusion groups lately? How would you push the envelope of Irish dance choerography?
Goals: PT exercises, low impact cardio activities
Days till Os: 193
Ignore the dodgy video in the middle. I have no idea why my camera did that, and I didn't feel like re-shooting that part of the video with my foot and all.
Welcome to my first Irish dance How-to video tutorial! This is the first of a 12-part Irish dance how-to series I will be featuring on my blog this year, AND it's the first of a three-part warm up sequence. Stay tuned for stretching (February) and ab workouts (March)!
Also, ignore the bad editing (Windows Live Movie Maker), and the stuttering. Speaking without a script is apparently difficult for me, and I did the best I can!
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