[Lively Music]
- Hi, I'm Penny.
- Hi Penny, I'm Michael.
- And these are the Kid Vision Kids.
And we're here today to find out about Irish Dancing
and a little bit about Ireland.
- [Narrator] Ireland is an island
in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Irish dancing is the traditional dance of Ireland.
- Well welcome to the Breffni Academy of Irish Dance.
And we have the symbol of Ireland, the shamrock.
And the shamrock is a small green plant
that has three heart shaped leaves.
And it's the symbol also of St. Patrick's Day.
And St. Patrick's Day is every year on March 17th.
- What language do you speak in Ireland?
- In Ireland they speak a language called Gaelic.
- Gaelic, how do you say Ireland in Gaelic?
- Ireland in Gaelic is, Eire.
- Eire, can you say Eire?
- Eire!
- We're gonna learn about Eire today!
- Very good.
- How do you say welcome?
- Welcome is, failte romhat.
- Failte romhat!
- Great we learned the word welcome
and we learned about the word Ireland.
And I see a very important word over here
on this room.
- Yes, that room is the bathroom and that's leithreas.
- Leithreas!
- Perfect, I think we're ready to dance!
- Perfect!
Alright everyone we're going to learn
how to do the Irish Jig.
And we have Nicola,
Nicola is one of the teachers at the Breffni Academy.
And she's gonna help us today, okay?
So, one thing we need to do
is we need to take our hands and put them out in the front
and put them into a ball.
And then take our arms
and put them at our sides nice and tight.
And Irish dancing is the only dancing
in the whole entire world that doesn't use its arms.
Okay, now we're gonna take our right foot
and we're gonna put our right foot
in front of the left foot.
And the other thing Irish dancers are known for
is great carriage and carriage means
you stand up nice and tall.
With our arms in tight and our shoulders back, okay?
So now we're gonna take our right foot
and pick up our right foot and lean forward
and then we're gonna pick up our left foot
and then lean back.
Good job girls!
So now we're gonna try that again
from the very beginning.
Okay one, two, three go!
Lean forward, lean back, step back. Two, three, four!
And now the most fun part.
Now we're gonna take up our right foot
swing it out as high as it can go
and then put it back behind our left foot, okay?
So, lets try that.
So, we're gonna swing out our right foot
as high as it can go.
One, two, three go!
Swing out and then back, good job.
So, lets try that again from the very beginning now, okay?
Remember to smile, okay?
One, two, three go!
Lean forward, lean back, step back. Two, three, four!
Swing out and back. Now we have our left foot in the front.
So now we're gonna take our left foot
pick up our left foot, put it behind our right foot,
and then march again. Two, three, four!
Alright girls we're gonna try it to the music now.
So hands in a ball, arms at our sides,
right foot in front of the left foot. One, two, three!
Go! Forward and back and back. Two, three, four!
Forward and back and back. Two, three, four!
Swing out and back and back. Two, three, four!
Good job! Let's try it again one more time, okay?
Hands in a ball, arms at our sides,
right foot in front of the left foot.
Stand up nice and tall! Two, three, go!
Forward and back and back. Two, three, four!
Swing out and back. And back two, three, four!
Great job girls! That's the Irish Jig.
[Applause]
- I'd like to introduce you to the World Team!
- [Narrator] The Breffni World Team
competes in Irish dance competitions around the world.
- Do you girls have any questions
you'd like to ask the World Team?
- What's in the bags?
- That's a good question, what's in your bag?
- First we have snacks because snacks provide energy for us.
And without energy we can't dance.
Then we have water which keeps us hydrated
and we need water to dance as well.
We also have poodle socks
which are good for our presentation.
They look like poodles because
of the little bumps they have on them.
Then we have band-aids.
We need band-aids because of our shoes.
We might get some blisters.
- How are the shoes different?
How many pairs of shoes do you have?
- We have two pairs of shoes.
And the first one is called a hard shoe.
Hard shoes are kind of like tap shoes
and basically you make sharp, concise sounds
and you do lots of clicks.
Our second pair of shoes are called soft shoes.
And they're sort of like ballet slippers.
Very easy to dance in and you do large movements.
Its a graceful shoe. Gracefully dance.
- Wonderful, do you have a question?
- Why do you have dresses?
- Oh, can we see some of your costumes please?
- Well the first costume is our solo costume.
And that's mainly used for dancing by yourself
one by one on the stage.
Our second costume is our team costume.
And it's all the same for all of us.
And it's used when we dance as a group all together.
- Wow! So do you have a question?
- Why do you wear curly wigs?
- According to Irish tradition
after the Irish people would go to church
they would always go to church
dressed in their Sunday best.
So a nice dress and they would curl their hair.
And they would dance after church with the curled hair.
- I see that you all have on different head pieces,
what do you call those?
- Crowns.
- Crowns, I like that word.
[Laughs]
Do you mind getting dressed in your costumes
and doing a dance for us?
- Yeah, sure! Yeah.
- Thank you! Wonderful.
[Upbeat Music]
[Hard Shoes Click]
[Bright Music]
[Applause]
- Well I hope everyone enjoyed
the rhythm of that last dance.
And rhythm is a pattern of sounds
to the beat of the Irish music.
And they were using their hard shoes
that we saw earlier.
And now we're gonna dance the Irish Jig
with the other girls in our soft shoes.
You guys ready to go?
- Yes!
- Alright!
[Irish Music]
- Happy St. Patrick's Day!
From Breffni Academy and Kid Vision!