Overview

The festival tradition of Irish dancing has played a significant part in Ulster's culture over the past century. This historical account takes the reader on a journey from courtly ballrooms and cottage firesides across a landscape of barn dances, harvest homes, fancy dance classes, feiseanna and festivals, narrating how Catholic and Protestant children held hands in town halls, parochial halls and Protestant halls even when bombs splintered communities and deepened mistrust. Highlighting the various provincial towns that nurtured and helped grow the festival movement throughout the 20th century, Angeline's work explores significant figures in the development of both 'feis' and `festival', the champion dancers, influential teachers and unsung community `heroes' who kept this cross-community activity alive. Containing source and archive material drawn from newspaper reports dating back to the 1700s, Ordnance surveys, diaries, journals and interviews with more than 80 of the 20th century's festival dance teachers and pupils, this work will fill a significant gap in Irish dancing publications and appeal to the tens of thousands of current and former festival Irish dancers and Irish dancing enthusiasts in Northern Ireland and further afield.

Full Product Details

Author:   Angeline King
Publisher:   Leschenault Press
Imprint:   Leschenault Press
ISBN:  

9780648592075

ISBN 10:   0648592073
Publication Date:   05 September 2019
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock  
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Table of Contents

Introduction i Chapter 1 Once Upon a Time, There was Dancing 1 Chapter 2 Dancing Customs in Ulster 9 Chapter 3 The Dance Master 21 Chapter 4 Dancing Technique Before the Gaelic Revival 28 Chapter 5 The Gaelic Revival 40 Chapter 6 Figuring Out Irish Dancing 49 Chapter 7 The Birth of the Feis Movement 61 Chapter 8 The Growth of the Feis Movement 68 Chapter 9 Birth of the Folk Dancing Movement 89 Chapter 10 The Father of Irish Folk Dancing 109 Chapter 11 The Theatre of Miss Mulholland 119 Chapter 12 The First Musical Festivals 130 Chapter 13 Larne Irish Dancing Lineage 140 Chapter 14 Growth of Larne Festival 158 Chapter 15 Portadown Musical Festival 167 Chapter 16 Newry Feis 175 Chapter 17 Ballymena Musical Festival 188 Chapter 18 The McConnells of Ballymena 204 Chapter 19 North Antrim and the Glens 223 Chapter 20 Ballyclare Musical Festival 240 Chapter 21 The Modern Festival Tradition 251 Appendix A Differences between feis and festival Irish dancing 267 Appendix B Definitions 278 Appendix C Winners of the Cashel Bowl 281 Sources & Acknowledgements 284 Books 286 Newspaper & Journal Articles 288 Miscellaneous 302 List of Figures 304 Index 308 Index of Dances & Tunes 325 Index of Dancing Schools 327 Index of Irish Placenames 329 About the Author 334 Books by Angeline King 335

Reviews

With a wide frame of reference, this book whisks the reader on an engaging journey across the country... Paul Clements, Irish Times; As the first ever Festival-trained lead dancer of Riverdance, I am delighted to see this book, Irish Dancing: The Festival Story herald the remarkable contribution that Festival has made to the art form of Irish Dance. It's also so good to read about all the familiar names, both teachers and competitors, that I grew up knowing personally or knowing of their legacy. Lauren Smyth, Lead Dancer, Riverdance; Irish Dancing: The Festival Story is a wonderful historical record of dancing in Ulster. I have taught festival Irish dancing, Sean-nos dancing, set dancing and Cape Breton dancing, so this book helped me make sense of all the various styles that I've practised throughout the years. Robert Hunter, Principal dancer in Miss Mulholland's Irish ballets.; Irish Dancing: The Festival Story is the book that fills the gap in the long and wonderful history of Irish Dance. High-lighting the unique way that the style not only kept alive the form and grace of the dance, but allowed a shared culture to thrive despite its community being, at times, torn apart. Les Baird, Principal dancer in Miss Mulholland's Irish ballets & WIDA adjudicator.

Author Information

Angeline King, best known for her contemporary novels, Snugville Street and A Belfast Tale, is the writer and research-er of Mid & East Antrim Council's three-year museum exhibi-tion, 'An Irish Dancing Story.' Angeline enjoys exploring shared culture in Northern Ire-land, her essays on Irish literature have been published in the Irish Times and her short story book, Children of Latharna, which is based on cross-community friendships, is on the reading list of some primary schools in County Antrim. Ange-line is a Professional member of the Irish Writers Centre and recipient of the Arts Council Individual Award. She also pro-motes women's writing through Women Aloud NI. Her blog can be found at: www.angelineking.com/blog

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