Summer Fun in San Francisco

Innovative Dance Teacher Creates Unique Experience for Children

Michael Dillon recently hit a roadblock when planning his annual dance summer camp in San Francisco due to city-wide restrictions put in place where week-long indoor camps were prohibited. Known for his "out-of-the-box" thinking, Michael worked around these restrictions while keeping his dancers engaged with a week-long, outdoor scavenger hunt!

During the scavenger hunt, participants discovered more about the beautiful city of San Francisco. The children learned about many of the unique aspects of the Irish culture including dance, history, and Irish sports. Irish Dance steps were incorporated into each day in a fun and engaging way for the children.

BACK to the Business of Dance!

As the stay at home order eases in many parts of the world, we are seeing competitions restart and dance schools re-opening while diligently adhering to recommended safety restrictions and guidelines. It's a new dance world, yet the return to dance is thrilling. Dancers could not be more excited to be BACK TO THE BUSINESS OF DANCE!

Competitions are Baacckkkk!!

Last weekend life took another step towards the pre-pandemic norm with several schools hosting full feiseanna. With full Covid-19 precautions in place, these competitions allowed dancers to once again publicly demonstrate the skills & steps that they have been working so hard to perfect.

Dance Shoe History

The History behind Modern Irish Dance Shoes

..with Julian Wild, founder of Corr's Irish Shoes

Modern Irish Dance shoes have come a long way from their origins. One manufacturer stands out for integrating pioneering modern shoe technology in traditional Irish Dance shoes. And if you own a split sole hard shoe, or a split sole soft shoe, or love the foam padding in any of your Irish Dance shoes, or the heel guard, or the inside angle of the toe chip on your hard shoes, you have Julian Wild of Corr’s Irish Dance to thank.

Irish Dance has a long and storied history, dating back millennia. But dedicated Irish Dance footwear is a much more recent development.

According to Melissa Russell, who operates the online Irish culture resource The Emerald Isle, “step dancers in the 18th and 19th centuries wore their Sunday best. Dancers would simply wear the outfit that they normally wore to church and dance bare foot.” And, for dances that necessitated hard shoes, “metal panels and even nails would have been attached to the sole of the dancers own shoes to allow them to make the ‘bangs’ and ‘taps’ required.”

By the mid-20th century, companies began making specialized versions of these shoes that consisted of more-or-less standard leather oxford shoes modified with thick layered leather heels and added toe tips set with specialized tingle nails to produce the sound.