Irish Dance Terms are our attempt to label those Irish Dance things we know, but which don’t have a ‘real name’.
noun clus·ter·feis \ˈklə-stər-fɛʃ\
1 : a complex and utterly disordered and mismanaged situation : a muddled mess, when it comes to anything related to Irish Dance
2 : a way to say what you are REALLY thinking when your Irish Dancers are in earshot and you can’t say what you are really thinking.
noun feis·pi·o·nage
1 : the activity of spying on dancers from other schools in order to steal their steps or routines.
The next post in my Feis Dad series out on Antonio Pacelli is a quick intro to some of the terms used in Irish Dance. You know the easy ones to say like ‘feis’. Don’t laugh, you know you probably said it wrong before you were ‘in the know’.
So take a look and let me know if I captured all of them out at An Introduction to Irish Dance Terms.
Haven’t had a new glossary term since the first one I posted months ago, but my reference to FeisNation in a FB post today prompted a follower to write a little ‘wiki’ on what that means, so without further ado… Hat tip to Karen for the definition :)
Feisnation: (definition) a growing group of the population. In public they appear completely normal other than a having a strange graphic applique on their vehicle that depicts what you think at first is a pole dancer but is actually an Irish Step Dancer in motion.
Term of the week is our attempt to label those Irish Dance things we know, but which don’t have a ‘real name’. The first one came out of my mouth tonight on the way home from dance practice, and I thought to myself, oh, I gotta start writing these nuggets down, so here goes.
verb ˈhan(t)s, ˈhän(t)s
1 : to use only ones hands to practice all the steps in an Irish Dance routine.
intransitive verb
1 : to engage in or perform Irish Dance steps with only the hands. This can be done in a seated or standing position
