I have begun to realize that I am spending more and more of my time on the internet watching, researching, and discussing dance. In lieu of this, I have decided that it would be nice to start a blog centered around Celtic dance genres, whereon I can post my findings. My motives for doing this are murky and varied. On the one hand, it will be nice to have a sort of electronic scrapbook for all of the neat things that I have been prone to find and then lose to the ethereal abyss that is the internet. On the other hand, maybe this is my way to justify spending numerous hours each week mindlessly watching videos of Celtic dance on Youtube. Then again, this may just be a good way to keep myself out of trouble this summer. Who knows?

While my goal for this blog is to use it as a space to display the varied nuances of Celtic dance styles, I must also confess that I will most likely spend the majority of my time looking into the Gaelic dances and, more specifically, Irish step dance, as this is kind of my 'home base' when it comes to the dance world. And with that disclaimer in mind, let the journey begin...

THIS past semester, I took History 503: Irish and Scottish Migrations. The class was very interesting, even if a bit challenging at times--the course focused mostly on political and economic histories, and I am more of a folklore type of guy. For our semester project, we had to write a 2000 word paper about some aspect of the migrations from/to Ireland and/or Scotland. The professor was particularly adamant that we write on topics which were not overly popular, such as the migrations of Irish to Australia. I struggled to find a topic for this paper for quite awhile, but I finally resolved to explore the migrations of the step dance tradition from Scotland to Cape Breton. All told, I was a bit nervous to pursue this topic--there just is not that much material and, on top of this, the sources that do exist are all highly conjectural. Nevertheless, it seems that my decision paid off: I got the comments back from my professor today, and he loved the paper. WIN!

If anyone would like to read the paper it can be found by clicking here. Please note, though, this is just one, very limited take on the history of Cape Breton stepping. There are many similar as well as a number of very dissimilar histories. I know that in my research I often had to pick and chose theories of best fit, and the reader of my paper will have to do the same.

And, whether you decide to read the paper or not, please take some time to enjoy these wonderful examples of Cape Breton step dancing:

Also, here is a video of sean-nós dancing that I incorporated into my paper. I just love the second lady's sexy shoulder roll and so naturally had to share: