Chapter Three

IRISH STEP DANCING LITERATURE

Throughout the 1990s and into the twenty-first century, scholarship relating to

Irish step dancing began to grow both in volume and in scope. Studies of Irish step

dancing began to be related to other concepts commonly framed under the header of

“critical studies.” Moving away from ethnographies or chronologies alone, scholars

writing on Irish step dancing began to link the practice to discourses of gender, race,

capitalism, sexuality, the state, and globalization, among a number of topics. In

addition, there were a variety of texts focused on the ways in which Irish step dancing

may be used by practitioners to “create identity,” both in terms of Irish identities as

well as identities of Irish diasporic communities. Furthermore, following the market

success of shows like Riverdance and Lord of the Dance, a number of authors sought to

document the economic success (and meanings in relation to economic processes) of

the shows, as well as their ideological implications.

Perhaps the increase in such discourse was a product of shifts among academics

in general, some of whom sought to elevate “social practices” and “performance” to a

higher position within scholarship in general. Perhaps some of the increase in discourse

and documentation came as a result of increasing respect for studies of the body in

general, and dance as a subset of that. However, it does not seem particularly surprising

that the increases in popularity and profitability which Irish step dancing practices and

shows in general saw in the mid-1990s coincided with a significant increase in the

number of people writing on the form.

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 HISTORIOGRAPHY OF IRISH STEP DANCING LITERATURE

This chapter traces much of the commonly available literature on Irish step

dancing that has been published since the 1980s. It divides literature into six themes.

First is an examination of the works of John Cullinane. After that are sections on works

that depict Irish dancing as a representation of “Irishness” and Irish dancing as a

representation of Irish nationhood and the Republic of Ireland. After that, I address

scholars who look at linkages between representations of Irish step dancing, gender, and

moralities. Next, I address works that are unique (or underrepresented) within the Irish

dancing milieu—such as works that deal with connections between Irish dancing and

landscape and Irish dancing and class. Finally, I address works on Irish step dancing

costuming.

John Cullinane: Charting the Landscape

John Cullinane hews to empirical models for writing. In terms of output, he flies

far above many other authors, as he has written numerous books exclusively on the

subject of competitive Irish step dancing since roughly 1987. Cullinane provides a great

deal of information about the chronology and history of Irish step dancing, about

developments within An Coimisiún le Rincí Gaelacha (The Irish Dancing

Commission), and about notable personalities such as dance teachers and adjudicators.

In his earlier works, such as Aspects of the History of Irish Dancing: In Ireland,

England, New Zealand, North America and Australia (1987) and Further Aspects of the

History of Irish Dancing (Ireland, Scotland, Canada, America, New Zealand and

Australia) (1990), Cullinane addresses the development and “origins” of Irish step

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dancing. In his earlier works he searches for the earliest references to dancing as a

whole in Ireland. Later, however, in books such as Aspects of the History of Ceílí

Dancing: 1897-1997 (1998) and An Coimisiún le Rincí Gaelacha (Irish Dancing

Commission): Its Origins and Evolution (2003), he focuses more clearly on accounts of

Irish step dancing within the twentieth century. Cullinane writes about competitive Irish

step dancing as it has been performed, structured, and taught in a variety of areas

around the world, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States, as

well as in his native Republic of Ireland. As areas external to the Republic of Ireland

are often scarcely addressed within extant Irish step dancing literature (especially in the

case of New Zealand and Australia), Cullinane’s specific focus on such areas has

certainly helped to fill gaps with books such as Aspects of the History of Irish Dancing

in North America (1997) and Aspects of 170 years of Irish Dancing in Australia (2006).

In addition, Cullinane has chronicled various histories of subset topics in the Irish

dancing world, including ceílí dancing (which is distinguished form Irish step dancing

but is often performed in competitions held by the same organizations). Furthermore,

Cullinane is one of the very few scholars who has chosen to address Irish step dancing

costuming in any particular depth, as he does in his 1996 book, Aspects of the History

of Irish Dancing Costumes (discussed in following sections).

Studies of Irish Step Dancing as a Representation of “Irishness” and Irish

Identities

Irish step dancing has been seen by practitioners of the art at the very least, and

perhaps many more, as a form that is somehow symbolic of Ireland, either in terms of

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the physical values it generates and solidifies within the dancer and the images invoked

by the movement of the individual or of the group, or in terms of the sociality which is

generated by groups of people doing the dancing. Anthropologist Frank Hall writes, in

his1995 dissertation, “Irish Dancing: Discipline as Art, Sport, and Duty”:

They symbolize themselves when they perform Irish dancing. It might be

said that they literally embody the values they associate ideally with the
construction of their identity as a nation” (viii).

Irish step dancing has been seen and used by some to create and project ideals not just of

a specific people, but of Ireland as a nation. Irish step dancing is also seen by other

scholars as a practice that is symbolic of an Irish-American or other hyphenated Irish

“experience.” There is perhaps too much of a temptation to extrapolate information from

one form, such as Irish step dancing, and apply it as an undisputed one-to-one symbol

for the experience of Irishness as a whole. Of course, there are many Irish experiences,

and even for one person, the experience of Irish step dancing may be only one of a wide

variety of ways they might experience a whole array “Irishnesses,” or even just ways of

being in Ireland, or ways of being descended from people from Ireland. Furthermore,

any practice of dance should be read as, in the words of Hall, “more complex than some

kind of symptomatology in which ‘the character’ of a people, a dubious construction in

itself, can be read as signs belonging to a universal code, which reveal the psychological

make-up or personality traits of a people” (51). Thus, Irish step dancing reveals limited

but useful information only about certain specific types of Irish or Irish-American

experiences—which are constantly in the process of forming and unforming.

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 As a note, scholar Erin Hebard simply seems to accept the idea that Irish step

dancing is in and of itself representative of “Irishness,” as a whole and unified concept

that largely remains undefined. However, most of the other scholars addressing the topic

have more defined views of what Irish step dancing may or may not represent, and some

address notions that there are multiple “Irishnesses.” Hall suggests that Irish step

dancing is mostly important to analyze as a representation of “Irishness” or a form of

Irishness because the practitioners claim, and truly seem to believe, that it is

representative of something special, perhaps essential, perhaps undefined, but

nevertheless “Irish,” “whether or not the claim can be evaluated according to some

standard of truth” (x).

A number of scholars focus on various ways in which participants in Irish step

dancing create or reiterate forms of Irish identity or “Irishness.” There seem to be a

number of different thrusts to this argument, which is often offered by scholars doing

ethnographic or participant-observation surveys of Irish step dancing. The first is an

imperative to legitimate the idea that dance and bodily experience plays a part in the

development of overall concepts of self, individual identities, and broader cultural

identities. However, different scholars dispute the relative power of discipline as a force

determining identity, and the agentive role of participants in creating it. The focus on

agency, which seems to be more and more popular later on in the literature, suggests a

more active role for dancers; these authors describe Irish step dancers as people actively

constructing meanings and identities. However, some authors suggest that the

construction of meaning and identity may be more complicated than dancers simply

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choosing to embody Irishness, and move towards a balanced approach that emphasizes

both agency and structure.

One author who conceptualizes a relationship between Irish step dancing and

“Irishness” is anthropologist, folklorist and dance scholar Cynthia M. Sughrue, who

writes about the topic in her paper, “The O’Shea Dancing School as a Socio-Cultural

Medium in a Boston Irish Community” (1985). In this ethnography of a dancing school

in the northeastern United States, Sughrue disputes the definition of competitive Irish

step dancing as “traditional,” and posits Irish step dancing as a practice that is

representative and constitutive of Irish-American ethnicities. She notes the nationalist

origins of An Coimisiún le Rincí Gaelacha, and describes the impacts of competition as

a force that has shaped Irish step dancing as a practice. Sughrue largely refers to

competition as a disciplining force, and discusses the stresses that it (and parents) may

place upon dancers. She analyzes the ways in which Irish step dancing socializes

dancers into a culture not only of Irish-Americanness, but also restriction and discipline.

In her 1990 chapter “Irish Americans and Irish Dance: Self-Chosen Identity,” in

the book, Encounters with American Ethnic Cultures, children’s art teacher Erin

McGauley Hebard conducts a similar sort of ethnography. However, Hebard stresses the

effect of discipline far less, and instead suggests that ethnicity can be chosen and shaped

by participants at will. Instead of exploring the world of solo dancing, Hebard chooses

adult-centered social ceílí dancing as her subject. She describes her experiences as a

newcomer to ceílí dancing and then provides information learned from interviews with

the (unaccredited) ceílí teacher, Mrs. Dougherty, who ran the group under the name

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“Dougherty Irish Dancers” (Philadelphia), as well as from her conversations with

students in the class. This work is particularly informative about Irish-American dancing

practices conducted outside of the jurisdiction of An Coimisiún, outside of a competitive

environment, and in a setting more receptive to adult dancers in particular. Further, she

weighs in on the identity formation question in clear terms. Hebard suggests that the

types of identities constituted through interaction with other ceílí dancers may be

defined as a new form of self-chosen (as opposed to legally defined, or socially

predetermined) Irish-American ethnicities, which are solidified through socialization.

She cites Irish ceílí dancing as “a significant marker of Irish-American ethnicity” (132).

The concept of identity as simply being “chosen” is problematic for a variety of reasons,

not only because there may be significant boundaries to who can chose to be one type of

ethnicity legitimately, and who cannot. Nevertheless, Hebard’s concept of “self-chosen”

ethnicity seems to foreshadow contemporary discussions of “performing Irishness.”

The Dougherty Irish Dancers of Philadelphia are also referred to in Stefano

Luconi’s 2003 chapter “Frank L. Rizzo and the Whitening of Italian Americans in

Philadelphia,” which appears in the book Are Italians White? How Race is Made in

America. Luconi suggests that while in the early 1980s, the Dougherty group may have

initially had “nationality requirements for enrollment,” later on in the decade the

organization “progressively reached out to different national groups and eventually

turned into a social club for Americans of European backgrounds, regardless of the

country of birth of their forefathers” (177). While even this extended inclusion still

sounds relatively exclusionary from the perspective of the twenty-first century (and

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possibly might have sounded exclusionary—if not racist—to their contemporaries in the

twentieth), the blurring of backgrounds in terms of participation in this particular social

circle with regards to national origin lends weight to Hebard’s thesis that participation in

Irish ceílí dancing allows dancers to self-choose, assume or constitute new ethnicities

through participation in dancing practices. However, whereas Hebard seems to assume

that these identities are a form of Irishness (which certainly, they may have been),

Luconi suggests that the affiliations and social interactions between Irish-Americans and

Italian-Americans in such groups as the Dougherty Irish Dancers may have produced a

different kind of social affiliation… one dependant on perhaps unspoken ties of

whiteness.

In her 2001 dissertation, “Creating Identity: The Experience of Irish Dancing,”

musicologist Danica Marie Clark takes a different tack on the identity question by

arguing that the social experience of participating in Irish step dancing “contributes to

the individual’s personal identity, or sense of self” (1). Further, Clark suggests that

participation in Irish step dancing is a means of strengthening “his or her personal

identity as a member of the transnational Irish community within the context of a

Canadian multi-cultural milieu” (2). She cites the importance interaction with dance and

music organizations plays in solidifying a sense of Irishness and linking members of

diaspora Irish communities “to other members of the transnational Irish community” (8).

Clark states that members of diaspora communities may cultivate “a heightened

awareness of their Irish heritage, clinging to cultural artifacts such as music and dance”

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(70). Clark differentiates the experience of an Irish step dancer in a diaspora community,

such as Canada, from the experiences of an Irish step dancer in the Republic of Ireland.

Clark utilizes Andriy Nahachewsky’s model of cultural affiliation, which

suggests three “main categories” of affiliation: geographic, derivative, and symbolic”

(73). Whereas geographic affiliation “refers to something that is physically in the

location in question,” and derivative “refers to anything that [physically] came from the

homeland in question,” symbolic affiliation “refers to any element of dance that holds

some symbolic value” (73). Clark argues that, for members of diaspora communities,

geographic or derivative affiliations may be of little relevance, because dancers do not

necessarily visit Ireland or acquire goods, information, experiences, or products directly

from Ireland. In contrast, for dancers in diaspora communities, “what is important in

their experience of Irish step dancing as a cultural activity, is Irishness as a transnational

entity, not limited by borders but realized through symbols” (75). These symbols, from

which diaspora community members use “to create a sense of Irishness,” are

“constructed and mediated by the members of the community” (81). After being

inculcated into this culture, the dancers not only incorporate these symbols into their

sense of self, but actually become “symbols of Irish culture” themselves, signifying that

culture when they perform Irish dancing (83).

Citing the influence of ethnographer James Clifford’s ideas (as articulated in his

1986 book, Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography) that culture is

contested and created “both by insiders and outsiders,” and is emergent rather than a

“unified corpus,” Clark emphasizes the ability of a dancer to “actively define and create

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his or her own sense of culture” (10). Clark emphasizes choice in the creation of

identity, writing, “for many of these participants, the adoption of an Irish identity

evolves through their experience of the dance” (14). Clark proposes a model of culture

in which participants have a great deal of power in the process of “adopting” these

identities. She bolsters her argument by noting that not all participants in Irish step

dancing are Irish or come from families that have recently immigrated, yet both these

types of dancers may still strongly connect with Irish culture and incorporate it into their

concepts of self.

In her 2003 dissertation, “Performing Irish Identities Through Irish Dance,”

speech communication scholar Jessica Tomell-Presto somewhat complicates this line of

reasoning. Tomell-Presto questions the ability of participants in competitive Irish step

dance to choose their own identity, although she does not entirely refute the thesis of the

aforementioned authors. Tomell-Presto acknowledges the complicated nature of Irish-

American identity itself, and suggests that the process of becoming or, in her words,

“performing” Irishness may have different meanings for different people, and that these

meanings are “negotiated” (6). Tomell-Presto specifically addresses the ways in which

gendered identities are navigated and learned by Irish step dancers. She suggests that

these identities are both imposed upon the dancer as well as created by the dancer,

writing:

“The gendered identity of the female Irish dancer is a complicated

performance that is influenced by contemporary culture as well as
cultural traditions. The choices made by female dancers cannot simply be
dismissed as being governed by oppressive gendered practices or
assumed to be consciously or unconsciously followed. Dancers have a
variety of reasons for performing the way they do” (102).

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According to Tomell-Presto, there is a “tension between maintaining tradition and

having individual agency” (102). Dancers are able to influence some of their choices,

but are also constrained by the imperatives of their teachers, their perceptions of the

judgments of adjudicators, and the directive of various authority figures and bodies to

maintain a level of “tradition.” However, although Tomell-Presto suggests, “there is a

great deal of leeway in how ‘authenticity’ is negotiated,” she also gives weight to the

limitations that are placed upon the decision-making power of dancers (107).

Studies of Irish Dancing Representations of the Nation

Writers addressing Irish step dancing have also contended with the many issues

that surround the representations of the Republic of Ireland, from past voicings to

present articulations. At various points in the history of Ireland, Irish dancing styles of

various varieties (such as ceílí, set, step, as well as ballroom and other “foreign” social

dance styles) have been epitomized as representations of Ireland, as immoral plagues

upon the piety of Ireland, as practices of resistance to British colonization, and as

depictions of the economic development of the contemporary Republic of Ireland. The

following section addresses some of the scholars who have approached the topic of the

relation between national imagery and varieties of Irish dancing.

Economic analysts Kieran Keohane, Donncha Kavanagh, and Carmen Kuhling,

in their working paper “The Creative Scene of Riverdance: Artrepreneurship and the

Celtic Tiger,” propose an interesting triad of Irish embodiments as representations of

various stages in the development of the Republic of Ireland. Like other authors, they

connect developments in Irish step and ceílí dancing with developments in some of the

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politics of the Irish nation. The authors propose a framework for viewing bodies in

Ireland since the 1840s that is segmented by time. The three categories of Irish

embodiment they propose are “Colonial Ireland, Parochial Ireland, and Global Ireland”

(6). The authors argue that each of these conceptions of an Irish body corresponds with

changes in Irish dancing cultures, and with the relation between Irish dancing and

external authorities such as the state (either the British Empire or the Republic of

Ireland), as well as societal response to dancing. The body of “Colonial Ireland” is from

the “pre-Independence, post-Famine” era, and is “either subjugated and/or starved by

Imperial power” (6). The authors suggest that sean nós dancing is a representative

dancing style for the “colonial” period, noting the importance of dancing as a social and

community activity in rural areas. The body of “Parochial Ireland” comes after

independence was won, and is “subjugated and subsumed into De Valera’s dream of a

Romantic, unified Ireland” (6). The authors associate the development of competitive

dancing structures with this period, as well as ceílí dancing, which was in part overseen

and sanctioned by the Catholic Church as well as the Gaelic League. The body of

“Global Ireland,” is “the contemporary Irish body, which is an object of global systems

of production/ consumption, rendered either an instrument of production in the

accumulation of global capital, or an object of consumption through the imperatives of

global consumerism”—during the time period of the 1990s onward (6). The bodies of

Riverdance performers are cited as representative of this period. For the authors,

“transformations in dance can be seen as a microcosmic example of some of the

transformations in Irish culture and society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries”

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(6). While other authors might not use the same terminology, it is not uncommon to see

Irish dancing practices segmented into categories similar to these.

The question of the national has been particularly relevant to some scholars of

dance in the Irish context because of the ways in which Irish nationalist organizations

such as the Gaelic League directly utilized dancing as a means by which to generate

interest in their programs. The Gaelic League at the turn of the century was an

organization dedicated to the preservation and the resurrection of the Irish language, and

to the promotion of indigenous culture. The Gaelic League’s focus on dancing, which

grew over time, was something of an accident, as the League had always sponsored

dancing events, but found that dancing was more popular than language and was a

greater builder of support for the League’s continuing existence. Performance scholar

Moe Meyer writes in his 1995 article, “Dance and the Politics of Orality: A Study of the

Irish Scoil Rince” that “ten years after its founding,” the Gaelic League “underwent a

calculated takeover by the Sinn Fein (“ourselves alone”) party” and thus its programs of

cultural nationalism began to fill more explicitly political nationalist goals (30). Indeed,

Meyer says that social dances “served as a major source of revenue for the League with

the monies oftentimes diverted to revolutionary activities, primarily the purchase of

arms” (30). In this way, Irish dancing can be seen as being used for explicit nationalist

ends. Further, Meyer notes that these political histories remain in present day Irish step

dancing officiating structures and movements. This is certainly legitimated by the fact

that An Coimisiún is still under the patronage of the Gaelic League and requires Irish

language competency for teachers and adjudicators living in the Republic of Ireland.

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 In Catherine Foley’s 2001 article, “Perceptions of Irish Step Dance: National,

Global, Local,” the author explores the ways in which certain Irish dancing practices

(such as set dancing, or sean nós dancing) have been marginalized or strengthened as

they have been either advocated for or against by nationalists and others. She also

explores the shifting concept of the nation and the changing relationship that Irish

dancing has had to it. Certain styles of Irish dancing (such as step and ceílí dancing)

were deemed representative, according to official bodies and other authority structures,

of an idealized Irish nation. The promotion of certain forms occurred at the expense of

other styles, which were rejected. Foley states that An Coimisiún, the governing body of

Irish step dancing and one of its great promoters, “declared itself the mainstream, or

center zone, in Irish step-dance practice, while at the same time assisting, whether

consciously or unconsciously, in the gradual demise of both the transmission and

performance of Irish step-dance practices in the margins and thus placing them on the

periphery” (36). According to Foley, some group dances that were designated by the

Gaelic League and An Coimisiún as “ceílí dances” were effectively treated as “the group

dances”—that is, the only group dances that were sufficiently Irish to be considered

traditional or authentic (36). Ceílí dances stand opposed to set dances, which in fact,

many scholars have argued, were not very substantively distinct from the dances

designated as truly “authentic” or “traditional,” either in practice or in terms of external

influence. The legitimacy given to certain dances and not others was often based upon

the idea that the dance was not tainted by foreign influence, but also that the dances were

a sufficient medium for the representation of other national ideals.

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 However, as Foley suggests, the relation of different peoples to concepts such as

nation is fluid, and styles such as step dance which may once have been seen by at least

some as positively representative of the nation are framed by shifting meanings, which

sometimes maintain elements of the original ideals, or which sometimes resituate those

ideals in entirely different ways. For example, Foley writes, “other sectors of Irish

society perceive Irish step dance from a postcolonial perspective; they view it as

backward in its nationalistic, rigid aesthetic and not cultured in line with Western art

aesthetics” (38). Such a perception accepts some of the original premises of what was

offered by the Gaelic League and An Coimisiún—that these dances represent the

nation—but they come to represent negative, as opposed to positive, aspects of

nationalism. Irish step dancing, Foley, argues, had been framed in association with

ideals of the isolationist, rural, and pastoral Ireland promoted by Irish leaders such as

Eamonn de Valera, who was the prime minister of Ireland from 1932 to 1973 (38).

Studies of Irish Step Dancing, Gender, and “Morality”

A variety of scholars have discussed the ways in which conceptions of Irish

morality are solidified and embodied through the practice of Irish step dancing. The

scholars link ideals of morality in Ireland to the direct interests and applications of

power applied by the state and the Catholic clergy. Scholars have related these

conceptions of morality and of the morality of bodily practices to concepts of gender.

Anthropologist Frank Hall described the ways in which morality is coded as a

form of discipline through the body positions of Irish step dancing and the restrictions

on the dancers’ bodies in his 1995 dissertation, “Irish Dancing: Discipline as Art, Sport,

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and Duty.” Morality may be linked to sexuality, but for Hall, morality, as it is

transmitted to students by Irish step dancing teachers and adjudicators, is also tied up in

a correct way of presenting oneself, in a means of reflecting, responding to, and a way of

legitimating authority figures. Hall cites a dancing teacher, writing, “‘It’s sin to have

your toes up. You have to stiffen the toe and squeeze.’ The language of discipline here

indexes a whole cosmological and moral system of belief institutionalized in a social

system of authority” (38). According to Hall, Irish step dance supplies a means of

inculcating a specific “physical-moral-social-aesthetic education” in which the body is

fully controlled and disciplined towards precision, uprightness, swiftness, physical

control, and towards some of the interests of the authorities that govern it (47). The

complex of educations resembles the disciplinary mechanisms of bodily control

Foucault details in Discipline and Punish, although Hall does not cite Foucault in his

dissertation.

Barbara O’Connor makes explicit connections between dance, gender, and

morality in Ireland in her 2005 paper, “Sexing the Nation: Discourses of the Dancing

Body in Ireland in the 1930s.” O’Connor describes the dancing body as a political entity

that is shaped by, and shapes, concepts of the nation. According to O’Connor, “dancing

bodies, both theatrical and social, emerged as sites of identity formation and of

competing discourses on national identity” (89). For O’Connor, in this paper, the

nationality of the Irish dancing body is partially inscribed through norms of gender and

“moral” behavior. One structure utilized by the state to control the morality of dancing

bodies was the 1935 Dance Halls Act. In Ireland in the 1930s, according to O’Connor,

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women’s bodies (as they moved in dance halls) were perceived as being both

“vulnerable” to the interests of predatory men, and also, conversely, “to present a threat

to the patriarchal order” (92). Traditionalists and nationalists decried the advent of

threatening, “foreign” jazz dancing, and promoted instead moral, “traditional” ceílí

dancing. However, Irish society was not and is not a unitary and undivided whole.

O’Connor points to the interests of advertisers, who “were constructing women in an

alternative way as consumers” (94). Marketers set up worlds of bodily fantasy for

women to partake in, for example, by going to the cinema. Women and others were able

to engage shifting concepts of bodily morality in their appreciation and consumption of

“glamour, luxury, [and] romance” (95). The movies indulged in by female audience

members featured dancing and music, and allowed an escape from the otherwise

sexually restrictive life of the viewers. O’Connor thus questions the totalizing

connection of nation with gender in Irish dancing.

In “Performing Irish Identities Through Irish Dance,” Jessica Tomell-Presto

investigates gender relations in the competitive Irish step dancing context, exploring

connections between gender, costume, homophobia, and competition. Tomell-Presto

suggests that gender identity is constituted in Irish step dancing through the means of

“costuming, steps, and behaviors” (35). Tomell-Presto explicitly discusses the norms

and standards of contemporary Irish step dancing costuming as problematic. She cites

feminist concerns about the lack of choice for female dancers as to what to wear, as well

as the asymmetrical expectations for male and female dancers. She also raises concerns

about the total cost of competitive Irish step dancing costuming, and suggests that the

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expense required may negatively affect dancers who (or whose families) cannot afford

the high expense required to purchase dancing costumes. Tomell-Presto also describes a

great deal of discomfort among her ethnographic subjects when issues of homosexuality

are raised, and a notable aversion on the part of male dancers to being described or

perceived as effeminate or gay. She discusses the confinement of certain dances, such as

the more flowing slip jig, to female dancers only, as a means of solidifying

heteronormative expectations of the gender roles girls and women should perform. In

addition, she discusses the restriction of Irish step dance participation to young bodies,

which she says, controls the bodies of both young and older women in the Irish

community; both are forced to acknowledge this ideal” (131). Tomell-Presto also

analyzes shifts in the predominant gender of teachers (men, in the early part of the

century, to women, in the present period). She ponders the question of whether the

increase in female teachers has corresponded with changes in the social status of Irish

step dancing, either positively or negatively, or, in contrast, changes in the social status

of women. In large, Tomell-Presto sees Irish dancing as gender-oppressive for females,

in many respects. Tomell-Presto is also one of the only writers to address the

implications of class, albeit in a more limited manner than she does gender. My thesis

also takes a critical stance on Irish step dancing costuming and gender relations within

Irish dancing, somewhat like that offered by Tomell-Presto.

Another scholar who touches slightly on issues of gender relations in Irish step

dancing performance is Joyce I. Sherlock. Her chapter, “Globalization, Western Culture

and Riverdance,” in the 1999 book Thinking Identities: Ethnicity, Racism and Culture,

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suggests that the nationalistic “resonances” of Riverdance, which cultivates an appeal

regarding an Irish homeland, has “sinister as well as positive connotations” (205).

Sherlock suggests that the aesthetic of Riverdance embraces a “nostalgic… somatic

rendering” of homeland imagery, but “also reminds one of the more sinister aspects of

shared experience related to military precision such as political rallies” (213). She writes

that the show dichotomizes men and women into biological genders, the roles of which

are in part idealized extensions of a particular Irish nationalism. For example, in the

pieces The Heart’s Cry and Reel Around the Sun, women in Riverdance are presented as

examples of “traditional, essentialist notion[s] of spiritually pure womanhood and the

controversial Irish nationalist earth mother, robust, and passionate” (215). Sherlock

suggests that the imagery of Riverdance can be connected temporally with the

coinciding referendum vote on the legality of divorce in the Republic of Ireland.

Sherlock states that the ideology of womanhood offered by Riverdance does less to

embrace “modernization” in terms of gender rights, and more to avoid debate and offer

imagery of “dominant discourses of traditional heterosexuality” (216). For Sherlock as

for Jessica Tomell-Presto, Irish dancing offers much negative imagery with regard to

females’ dancing. In her conclusion, Sherlock suggests that Riverdance may represent a

“nostalgic [diversion] from the real struggles in consumer capitalism and dance of all

kinds” (217). Indeed, I do not think it is a far stretch to say that both Riverdance-style

and competitive Irish step dancing practices do tend to reinforce conventional discourses

of heterosexuality and femininities, and do not tend to challenge conventional politics in

any strident manner.

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Unique Approaches in Irish Step Dancing Scholarship

Some authors whose arguments took particularly distinctive approaches to the

study of Irish step dancing should be treated separately from the clusterings I have

discussed so far. For example, in his 1995 paper, “Dance and the Politics of Orality: A

Study of the Irish ‘Scoil Rince,’” Moe Meyer describes Irish step dancing as a form of

“orality,” because of the ability of the dancer to transmit meaning through the body and

also make use of an acoustic apparatus—the hardshoes on the floor. Meyer makes the

argument that while dance in general “shares many important features with language,

and can be likened to (a) language in many contexts, it can not usually shape acoustic

space in a way that constitutes poetry” (Meyer, p. 26). However, Irish step dancing is

more closely akin to an oral language because of the beats it makes, and the way in

which the dancer communicates through sound with music.

Another very unique approach is that which is offered by J’aime Blair Morrison

in “Mapping Irish Movement: Dance-Politics-History.” In the 2003 dissertation,

Morrison makes connections between geography and Irish step dancing, and interrogates

the concept that the landscape of Ireland, the physical soil, has been personified in terms

of movement, “as a moving body” (12). Furthermore, Morrison explores the ways in

which the bodies of different groups of Irish people have helped to define political space

and territory. For example, mass movements such as Loyalist marches in Northern

Ireland “choreograph territorialization,” she says (40). In a different way, athletic

competitions under the auspices of the Gaelic Athletic Association and Irish step and

ceílí dancing practices under the direction of An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha serve to

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define a nation of Ireland by the movements they perform, the circumstances under

which they perform, and their restrictions on membership, among other factors.

Morrison suggests that “if space is mobilized through movement,” then dance can be

used to define a “bodily geography of motion” (7). Morrison further states:

…dance is a form of embodied history, and in attending to this history we

gain a more complete understanding of the individual and social
movements that have shaped ‘Ireland.’ Choreography is a map for a
moving ground, for recording the ‘tremors’ of Irish experience (358).

Morrison’s strategy of making linkages of moving bodies with both political movements

and characterizations of the physical (earth) form of the nation is quite unique, but holds

promise for future studies of Irish dancing.

In the 2001 article, “Dancing Between Decks: Choreographies of Transition

During Irish Migration,” J’aime Morrison applies the methodology—connecting

embodiment with place and landscape—that she would later turn into the approach for

her dissertation (which focused solely on the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland)

to experiences of Irish-American migrants in the nineteenth century. Morrison states

that dancing, for Irish emigrants, “was a way of embodying a particular past and a local

landscape of memory.” Morrison views “migration [itself] as social choreography,” but

also points to instances where dancing was of great importance to the emigrant

experience. For example, before leaving the shores of Ireland, many emigrants, as well

as their families and friends, held events called “American wakes,” which featured a

great deal of dancing, and which served to mourn the loss and departure of the

emigrant. According to Morrison, “dance mediated the passage between this world and

the next and between Ireland and America.” On board ships, Irish migrants participated

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in dancing, perhaps as a means of helping to “assuage the feelings of loss associated

with leaving Ireland.” These ship-board dances, Morrison suggests, may have dually

served to integrate Irish passengers with other passengers, as they were held “between

decks” and henceforth between classes. However, the dancing also may have caused

conflicts between Catholic and Protestant passengers, who may have had different

perceptions about the appropriateness and morality of dancing. Finally, Irish step

dancing may have been used by immigrants to America as a means of connecting with

the land left, and mapping “a circuitous route back to Ireland—not just an imagined

return but an embodied recovery” (82-97). Of course, the experiences of Irish-

Americans and the mid-1800s and the present cannot be conflated. In the 1990s and

2000s, Irish dancers may create less an “embodied recovery” than new forms of

embodied Irish-Americanness. The same may have been true for Irish immigrant

dancers in the 1800s.

Dancer Richard Carter Crawford’s Masters of Fine Arts thesis entitled “The

Modernization of Irish Dance: An Exposition of Recent Changes” (1992) evaluates

whether or not competitive Irish step dancing has changed over the ten years prior to

the study. The answer that Crawford comes to after surveying six Irish step dancing

adjudicators is, rather unsurprisingly, that it has. The answers to a variety of questions

put to these six are shown in terms of percentages, and then those percentages are

interpreted. While there are some significant flaws in Crawford’s methodology, the

attempt at collecting quantitative data from Irish step dancers is rare, and thus

potentially valuable. 1 Further, Crawford describes the way in which certain dances

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have become faster or more intricate (particularly hard shoe). In addition, Crawford

uses systems such as Labanotation to describe more closely than other sources had

previously done, what exactly the bodies of Irish step dancers are actually doing.

Some scholars deal in limited ways with the demographics of Irish step dancing.

For example, it is common for writers to note differences in terms of levels of

participation of different sexes. Jessica Tomell-Presto makes attempts to begin a study

of class relations within Irish step dancing. However, the most comprehensive

demographic study of any type of Irish step dancing is Mary Friel’s 2004 book, Dance

as a Social Pasttime in the South-East of Ireland, 1800-1897. Friel examines the1841

and 1851 census reports of Ireland, to try to determine ratios of professional dancing

masters and professional musicians, to determine ages of dancing masters, and to

highlight regional disparities. Friel also examines a variety of different public occasions

for dancing in Ireland, and details some of their social implications.

In her 2006 edited book, Irish Moves: An Illustrated History of Dance and

Physical Theatre in Ireland, Diedre Mulrooney places Irish step dancing within the

broader context of contemporary dance in Ireland, treating it alongside Irish modern

dance and Irish ballet. She creates space for the works and experiences of dance

company Siamsa Tire, and choreographers Colin Dunne, Jean Butler, and Breandán de

Gallaí. Siamsa Tire, a company that was created in 1989, “combin[ed] the Irish with

contemporary movement [that they] develop[ed] out of the footwork [of Irish step

dancing]” (247). The three latter choreographers all moved from being stars of

Riverdance to creating new solo and group choreographies. All of the choreographers

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listed test and question the boundaries of Irish step dancing performance, by breaking

apart “traditional” movements, and by applying approaches (as opposed to movements)

from contemporary and modern dance to the exploration of Irish step dancing.

According to Jean Butler, who has an essay in Mulrooney’s volume:

Irish dancing is extremely exciting because of the sheer virtuosity of the

skills required to perform it. But one can also pose questions through
dance, challenge assumptions, surprise and delight through a different
application of the same virtuosity (241).

Mulrooney’s approach is unique because she focuses on the intellectual merit of Irish

dancing choreographers. This is notable because most accounts that address Irish

dancing stage choreography address larger-scale shows such as Riverdance and Lord of

the Dance, and, generally, make (often legitimate) jabs at those shows’ choreographic

and thematic failings. In her book, Mulrooney seeks to display choreographers who

challenge contemporary competitive Irish dancing cultures, or who experiment with

deconstructing common Irish dancing ways of moving. Mulrooney’s approach is also

interesting because it looks more to individual choreographers as opposed to broader

Irish dancing cultures, or to Irish dancing as a social phenomenon.

LITERATURE DISCUSSING IRISH STEP DANCING COSTUMES

The topic of the social meanings of Irish step dancing costumes has not received a

great deal of attention in either dance literature or in Irish dancing literature. To get a

better sense of where approaches towards analyzing costumes within the Irish step

dancing context might go, I consulted texts that deal with a variety of issues. One

relevant article, to be detailed below, describes dress codes among contra dancers. Two

other relevant sources offer information about Irish dress and fashion in a sociopolitical

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context. Although these sources do not address Irish step dancing costuming specifically,

they offer insights about broader issues in the mediation of Irishness and Irish political

identity via costuming. Finally, I appraise four scholarly writings on Irish step dancing

costumes.

In their 2004 article, “Deciphering Folk Costume: Dress Codes among Contra

Dancers,” Laurel Horton and Paul Jordan-Smith delve into some of the multiple

meanings that can be read from the casual dress attire of contra dancers. The authors

assert that outfits worn by participants in contra dance conform to a variety of standards

and codes, although these codes are only informally enforced. Horton and Jordan-Smith

suggests that the choice to dress oneself in garments that conform to the overall aesthetic

of contra dance wear both “expresses the wearer’s assent to the values and traditions of

the group whose identity the clothing represents” and identify the wearer as a member of

the contra dance group or subculture (417). The outfits worn by dancers serve to convey

messages and symbols that are “subject to interpretation” (Horton and Smith, p. 419).

The authors suggest that the range of symbols, or garments, that are available to the

dancers is constrained by both paradigmatic limitations, which designate an array of

acceptable choices for the dancer, and syntagmatic limitations, which designate the ways

in which those garments may be “combined to form a message” (419). According to

Horton and Smith,

We don individual garments according to semiotic, as well as normative,

rules, and each garment functions as part of an ensemble, or outfit, the
whole of which conveys one or more messages, simple or complex, about
ourselves. And when we go forth, clothed in messages, other people
evaluate our self-definitions unconsciously and consciously, as we do
theirs (419).

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Contra dancing clothes are quite different from Irish step dancing costumes in that they

are informal garments that include everyday clothing such as t-shirts, as well as

idiosyncratic choices such as tie-dye and ethnic skirts, and even skirts on men. However,

despite the relative flexibility of contra dancers in determining their own styles of dress,

there are some types of clothing that are not considered appropriate, such as “full skirts

and crinolines” or cowboy boots (293). Contra dancers learn to read the specific codes of

their dance style, judge what is appropriate or not, and negotiate their behaviors

appropriately. The dress codes of contra dance are related to the socio-political context in

which the dancing style gained popularity. According to Horton and Smith, contra dance

culture is influenced by feminist social movements, and contra dancers have the relative

freedom to not shave (women), or wear skirts (men). The political leanings of members,

and the initiation into a body of knowledge of the dance form’s conventions, enables

dancers them to “read” these costumes differently than might casual observers.

In his 2003 article, “Clothes Make the Irish: Irish Dressing and the Question of

Identity,” Christian Huck notes that topics of clothing and fashion have, in general, not

been treated with a high level of seriousness or accorded respect from scholars either

within Irish studies or outside of the discipline (aside from, he notes, the realms of

feminist and gender studies). Scholars at a conference where he initially presented his

research were “skeptical” of the relevance of the topic to Irish studies in general. He

states that the “role of clothes” in “identity formations” aside from the formation of

gender “has been thoroughly overlooked, or rigorously criticized as a hegemonic tool of

oppression” (273). Huck attempts to correct these oversights through his own

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scholarship, addressing some of the ways in which dress has been conceived of as

symbolic and constitutive of Irishness and Irish identities. Huck begins his analysis in the

medieval era and carries it forward to the early twentieth century. He initially focuses on

the ways in which Irish dress was perceived and then proscribed by law by English

colonizers. From the medieval era onward, the Irish were perceived as an uncivilized

group of people, and their clothing was viewed as being “uncultured” (274). The mantles

(or cloaks) worn by Irishmen were depicted by Edmund Spenser in the sixteenth century

as being a means of deceit, and a way for Irish people to evade capture by the law, by

making themselves unidentifiable (275). Huck notes that in the late sixteenth century, a

law was enacted in Kilkenny that prohibited all apparel that was not made “after the

English fashion” (275). Dressing the Irish in English garb was portrayed as a means of

“fashioning the mind[s]” of the Irish, and hence cultivating them (276). By the nineteenth

century, the Irish population largely dressed in a similar manner as the English

population. However, the various nationalist movements in Ireland sought to create a

specifically Irish form of dress, and suggested that the identity of Irish people as Irish

might be strengthened through the wearing of “Irish” clothing. Huck describes the

attention that Douglas Hyde, the founder of the Gaelic League, devoted to the promotion

of authentic Irish clothing. According to Huck, Hyde was interested in manifesting an

“inner Irishness” in a visible way, through the presentation of an “outward Irishness”

manifested in dress (279). In his work, “De-Anglicizing Ireland,” Hyde described the

ways in which the jerseys worn by members of the Gaelic Athletic Association helped to

revive “Irish manhood” (Huck 280). Hyde also argued in support of the wear of Irish

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home-spun fabrics, as opposed to “cast-off clothes imported from English cities” (280).

Hyde was promoting certain styles of clothing that could be perceived (by sympathizers

with independence movements) as being, in the words of Huck, “more genuine, more

authentic, more natural, surely more manly and, most of all, more Irish” than other styles

of dress (280). This tendency—that is, to define one form of dress as being more Irish or

more authentic than another—remains in Irish dancing, where the rules technically

mandate that all dancing costumes be “traditional Irish” even though no definitions are

given as to what that means.

In a related vein, in her chapter, “Reconstructing Irishness: Dress in the Celtic

Revival, 1880-1920,” Hilary O’Kelly addresses the construction of ethnicity, as well as

the construction of the national, through the purchase and wearing of garments symbolic

of diverse ideas of Anglo-Irish elites as well as nationalist Anglo-Irish and Irish, and

loyalist Irish. The particular relation to clothing encouraged by each group was connected

to members’ perceptions of the national question and independence. Members of

organizations such as the Gaelic League and the Gaelic Athletics Association sought to

“eradicate” the “manners and modes” of England, and one means they used was the

support of local industries and the development of specific garb, invented to be

interpreted as “Irish” in origin and culture (76). Female Gaelic League members wore

angular cloaks closed with brooches, as well as kilts for men, and were intended as

everyday attire, although they were probably most often worn for formal occasions. In

contrast, the Castle-Set, which opposed Home Rule and Irish independence, sought to

dampen revolutionary spirits by the creation of a strong Irish economy, which might sate

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the general populace. The Castle-Set similarly developed garments depicting “traditional”

or almost stereotypical images of Irishness, which they wore at special costumed events,

and not as an everyday practice. An outfit of this type might be styled almost as a quaint

caricature of an eighteenth-century peasant woman, albeit in green and scattered with

shamrocks. Such an outfit would feature a calf-length full skirt, and an open-collared

bodice. Similar to the Gaelic League, the Castle-Set favored the wearing of garments

using Irish-made fabrics such as lace, particularly for charity events and fashionable

occasions. In creating, approving of, and wearing such garments, both groups ultimately

created or reinforced culturally specific and classed ideas of Ireland and Irishness, and

reiterated their particular stances on Irish nationalism. Because the Gaelic League was

instrumental in fostering the organizations which have become most prominent in

contemporary competitive Irish step dancing culture, some of the philosophies of the

Gaelic League play through in Irish dancing costuming.

Contra dance clothing, and quotidian Irish dress, thus have received some

scholarly analysis. However Irish step dancing costumes—which generate a large number

of internet posts, and are discussed frequently in dancing magazines—are largely ignored

by most scholars, or are given cursory treatment. Four sources, discussed below, directly

address the histories and some of the social meanings of Irish step dancing costumes.

The first among these sources is John Cullinane’s 1996 book, Irish Dancing

Costumes: Their Origins and Evolution. Cullinane examines the development of Irish

step dancing costumes during the period from 1892 to 1992. He provides a great deal of

photographic evidence to support his descriptions of costumes. Cullinane locates some of

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the conventions of Irish step dancing dress within the context of the imperatives of the

Gaelic League in the early twentieth century. According to Cullinane, during the first

fifteen years of the Gaelic League’s existence (roughly, the turn of the twentieth century),

“there was nothing that was identifiable as a dancing costume” (1996: 25). Rather than

being specialized garments, outfits worn for dancing “constitut[ed] little more than every

day dress of the period” (1996: 25). During this period, costumes worn by dancers

included a style called the “Colleen Bawn,” which consisted of a white dress with a long

green cape worn over it. However, the cultural nationalist movement in Ireland

eventually began to consider this attire to be too “stage Irish,” even though it was derived

from conventional attire. As Cullinane states, the “question” for these movements “was

what could replace these costumes and could be acceptable as national dress” (1996: 27).

These new costumes included garments that had not been worn by Irish people before

cultural nationalist movements sanctioned them—the most dramatic example of this is

the kilt, which may have been adopted by Irish nationalists as a nod to the success of

Scottish nationalists.

Cullinane describes changes in dancing costumes throughout the remainder of the

twentieth century, as the garments became increasingly specialized and contextually-

specific—that is, specific to the environment of the feis or Irish step dancing

performances. Whereas previous dancing costumes may have been reminiscent of outfits

worn to church, costumes of the middle and late twentieth century increasingly featured

silhouettes that were specific to the dancing form. Changes over the course of the

twentieth century in Irish step dancing costumes included the increasing use of

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embroidery and appliqué, the development of a specialized shawl or brat, the use of tara

brooches to attach various garments, the creation of aprons to display medals and the

subsequent banning of their wear in competition, the adoption of an a-line princess

bodice dress, the addition of crochet collars and cuffs, and a shift in fabrics from wool

and polyester to velvet. As can be seen from this short and by no means all-inclusive list

of developments in Irish step dancing costumes, the garments worn by dancers changed

considerably over the twentieth century. This should give scholars of Irish step dancing

pause before they denote one form of Irish step dancing dress as “authentic” and another

as not being so. Cullinane discusses upward trends in the amount of adornment and the

price of Irish step dancing dresses in general. As time has progressed, it also seems that

the rate of change in dancing costumes, as documented by Cullinane, has increased

towards the end of the century. Cullinane attributes the pace of change to a variety of

factors including the advent of the Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne (World Championships)

in the late 1960s. Cullinane’s position as a long time observer and participant in Irish step

dancing culture allows him a vantage point from which he makes critiques of various

developments in Irish step dancing dress. For example, Cullinane notes that his school

was one of the last in his area to transition away from school dresses toward (more

expensive) solo dresses. Additionally, Cullinane notes his own sponsorship of a ban on

tiaras for dancers.

Martha Robb’s 1998 book, Irish Dancing Costume, is a slender volume that is

offered for general public consumption as opposed to an academic audience. Robb traces

several of the same narrative pathways as does Cullinane, with reference to Irish step

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dancing costumes of the early and mid-twentieth century. However, Robb breaks down

the overall form of the dancing dress into separate parts, such as fabric and color, motifs,

brat design, embroidery and appliqué, collars and cuffs, addressing each as a single unit

of scholarly inquiry. Robb, who is less critical of developments than is Cullinane, offers

an optimistic evaluation of modern trends in Irish step dancing dress. She ties these

developments to a rosy estimation of contemporary Irish political and economic

circumstances, stating that:

whatever direction future fashion of… Irish dancing costume takes, it will
reflect a self-confident modern Ireland, rich in traditions of music and
dance, an Ireland which continues to reinvent its own heritage and to
express its own national pride and identity (43).

Regardless of the positive overtones, Robb offers an assessment that I agree with—that

Irish dancing costumes, the forms they take, and the ways dancers relate to them, do

provide information about contemporary Ireland and Irishnesses.

Darrah Carr’s 2001 article, “Colorful, Complex Creations Adorn Irish Dancers,”

which was published in Dance Magazine, describes contemporary Irish step dancing

costumes. Carr states that the restrictions placed upon dancing costumes act to “prevent

competitions from turning into beauty pageants,” “ensure that costumes are age-

appropriate for the many young girls who take part,” and “serve to remind the community

of Ireland's history.” Carr lays out some of the major issues involved in the debate around

dancing dresses: price, intensification of the complexity of design, the quick pace of

changes in trends in dancing dresses, the dress as a signifier of achievement, and dancers’

emotional interpretations of the dresses. The evaluations that Carr gives of dancing

dresses are almost entirely positive.

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 In her dissertation, “Performing Irish Identities Through Irish Dance,” Jessica

Tomell-Presto describes her mixed feelings about contemporary solo dresses, which she

places within the context of the gendered construction of Irish step dancing identities.

Tomell-Presto emphasizes the uneven expectations for male and female dancers. Male

dancers are able to compete in relatively simple attire, but female dancers must wear

elaborate and expensive costumes, and also must attire themselves with appropriate

accessories such as wigs, tiaras, glued-up socks, and makeup. Tomell-Presto

characterizes the scale of the performance of femininity that is required by female

dancers as “extreme” and reminiscent of the standards required by beauty pageants (117).

She suggests that the expectations of dancer’s level of costuming and the sexual

segregation involved reify ideals of heteronormativity. Tomell-Presto states that in Irish

dancing it is assumed that men should perform masculinity, and that “only women should

perform femininity” (125). Costuming, according to Tomell-Presto, is a major expression

of sex role segregation in Irish step dancing.

Tomell-Presto suggests that dancers navigate tensions between expressing their

own personalities, that is, “having individual agency,” and the expectation that their

dancing dresses be considered traditional or authentic (102). Tomell-Presto states,

“although the colors seem to be more indicative of contemporary fashions and the

personality of the dancers, these dancers claim that the design of their dresses is

traditional” (51). One of the ways in which dancers are encouraged to achieve a certain

type of appearance is through competitive pressure. According to Tomell-Presto,

“[d]ancers are, or at least they believe they are, judged on appearance as well as

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execution of steps” (103). The pressure, as well as the desire, to triumph in competition,

impacts the dancers’ opinions of, and relations to dancing dresses—dancers choose

dresses that will have the combined effect of expressing their personalities, expressing

what they perceive as “traditional” Irishness, and attracting attention to themselves as

competitors. As Tomell-Presto states, “[i]t is no wonder that appearance receives so much

attention if the dancers feel that winning the competition may hinge on their choice of

dress” (114). Tomell-Presto addresses a number of issues that I expand upon in my thesis,

including the delineation of a gender binary through Irish step dancing costuming, as well

as the social constraints which help to determine the form and reception of Irish step

dancing costumes.

The texts described above show some of the ideas that may be applied to the

discussion of Irish step dancing costume. Several authors link Irish clothing and Irish step

dancing costume to broader political and economic conditions in Ireland. Tomell-Presto

offers a ground on which to develop analysis of the ways in which gender is constructed

through the medium of Irish step dancing costumes. However, the relatively small

number of sources addressing the topic indicates that work remains to be done in this

area.

Reasons to Focus Study on Irish Step Dancing Costumes

Since the early 1990s, more and more scholars have been devoting attention to

Irish step dancing practices. These scholars have addressed issues relating to gender,

identity, nationalism, nationality, authority, and the body, as well as other topics.

However, Irish step dancing costumes have not yet received much attention. This thesis

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contends that Irish step dancing costumes are particularly worthy of analysis in part

because they can be critically interconnected with so many of these and other issues. Irish

step dancing costumes sheathe dancing bodies to create images of the Republic of Ireland

and Irish diasporas. Little girls create their own images, the images of their idealized

girlhoods, through their imaginings of dresses. In the process, those same girls learn

about and negotiate very specific notions of femininity and sexuality. Irish step dancing

dresses, as commodities, are shipped around the globe, discussed in magazines, and

hunted on the internet. While gender analysis has begun to be applied to competitive Irish

step dancing costuming, theories of fashion and commodity analysis offer additional tools

and interpretive frames with which to explore the “consuming passions” for costumes on

display in competitive Irish dancing circles in the early twenty-first century.

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 ENDNOTES

1 Because Crawford’s study draws information from only six accounts, his sample is too
small for any sort of reliable quantitative analysis. However, if he had distributed his
survey to a larger number of teachers and adjudicators, his methodology might have
yielded fruitful information.

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