So Irish dancing is all about sex . . . That's the first we've heard of it, writes Shane Hegarty
When an Irish dancer is in full flight, exactly what kind of kicks are they getting from it? That's what briefly became a matter of legal importance in a North Carolina court last month when a judge decided against banning "erotic dancing" in clubs. Central to persuading him was the evidence of an anthropologist and dance expert, Dr Judith Lynne Hanna, who told him that every dance can be interpreted as having sexual meaning, even a dance widely considered not to be sexual, such as Irish dancing. If he banned erotic dancing, it would mean banning cheerleaders or Britney Spears from performing.
"The prohibitions would likewise apply to fully-clothed customers wishing to do the shag or other popular dances such as those seen on the TV show Soul Train or the movies Dirty Dancing or Saturday Night Fever," said Judge N Carlton Tilley, obviously unaware that the shag is something the Irish hope they will do after the dance.
While it has since been reported that the court declared Irish dancing to be erotic, Hanna points out that she said something quite different. "It's interesting that because the instrument of sex and dance is one and the same, any movement can be seen as simulating sex," she says from her office in Maryland. "Any dance, such as ballet or hip-hop, could be seen as simulating sex. And I said that even Irish dancing, with the foot pounding the ground, could be seen as a phallus penetrating the female, just to show how preposterous a government regulation banning sexual dance is. I took it to the extreme, because no one would consider Irish dancing sexual."
Michael Flatley might have something to say about that, of course. On his radio show this week, Gerry Ryan pointed out that Flatley chasing a young lady around the Riverdance stage, with his arm outstretched, was hardly the most subtle of metaphors.
"Irish dancing at a show level could be classed as, dare I say it, sexy at times," says Irish dancing teacher and adjudicator Olive Hurley, "depending on who's doing it and how it's portrayed. But any dance can be. At a Feis, though, it's not sexy."
Certainly, the Flatley effect may have imposed some sex on the dance, but the dance moves are still what wow an audience, she adds. Before putting on a show recently, Hurley was encouraged to provide more modern dancers, "without wigs and with legs up to their necks". After four men danced in rhythm to a bodhrán, some female dancers performed a piece from Lord of the Dance in which they stripped off their skirts to reveal their underwear. "It went down a bomb," she says. But what did the men in the audience say was their highlight? The four blokes and the bodhrán. It received a standing ovation.
The notion of dancing as being something immoral is not new, of course. In 1670, one parish priest told his flock that "dancing . . . is a thing that leads to bad thoughts and evil actions. It is dancing that excites the desires of the body. In the dance are seen frenzy and woe, and with dancing thousands go to the black hell." According to Hanna, since early American history the moral guardians have frowned upon dance. "Ballet, recognised today as a fine art, was in the mid-1950s considered part of the demi-monde."
THERE WAS A bit of fuss in the set-dancing world this week when it was reported incorrectly that Hanna had referred to set-dancing - which involves groups of couples rather than just one couple or an individual dancer - as being erotic. If you were to read about it before seeing it performed, it might seem that way. It can last a short time or go on for quite a while. Dancers might repeat the same set, with the same people, over and over, for years. The dances have names such as "wheelbarrow", "face the hob" and "ladies chain". The books of dances, such as Toss the Feathers and The Flowing Tide, might be considered the dance's Kama Sutra.
Something like this could only be foreign, and it's no surprise to find out that set-dancing came from France. Adapted from the French quadrilles, it was brought here by British soldiers returning from the Napoleonic Wars of the 19th century. It was adapted to fit Irish steps and music and is still pretty popular 150 years on.
Could it be sexually charged? "I wouldn't see anything in the battering that takes place that could be seen as something particularly sexual," says Bill Lynch, publisher of Set Dancing News. "It's physically fulfilling, with a short few minutes to swing and twirl. But when the dance is over, that's it. You're intimate for about 20 minutes. It's like a 20-minute marriage, but then you walk away."
With so many people around, dancers wouldn't have much privacy, he says. "It would be difficult to get up to anything. You're never on your own and have at least three other couples watching you. Traditionally in a house there might have been a crowd of people, family and musicians."
It doesn't mean that it doesn't have a hand in the odd relationship, though. "It's not sexualised, but I suppose it leads to it. Relationships have been made while dancing, and they've been broken too."