{"id":337,"date":"2012-09-23T01:03:09","date_gmt":"2012-09-23T00:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.martindoyleflutes.com\/news\/?p=337"},"modified":"2025-10-31T03:13:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T03:13:03","slug":"martins-september-2012-vidpic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martindoyleflutes.com\/news\/2012\/09\/23\/martins-september-2012-vidpic\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin’s September 2012 VidPic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some weeks ago, Martin Doyle<\/a> sent me (his webmaster) links to the two videos offered below and said, “What do you think of them?” Naturally I liked them very much and was quite impressed with the spontaneity and freedom of movement in the dancers. And the music being played for the dancers is excellent! “Sean-n\u00f3s – what does that mean?” was my question to Martin. “Old style,” was his answer. So I did a little looking around…<\/p>\n

For the uninitiated (like me), sean-n\u00f3s dance is an older style of traditional solo Irish dance – the lesser known free-form solo type of dancing that many of Ireland’s older traditional musicians played for.<\/p>\n

It is a casual dance form (as opposed to the more formal competition-oriented form of) Irish Stepdancing. “Sean N\u00f3s” in the Irish language means “old style” and refers to various activities, including sean-n\u00f3s song<\/a> and sean-n\u00f3s dance. These less common forms of Irish dance and traditional Irish singing have been documented by folklorists and song collectors (aka ethnomusicologists<\/a>), but still often form part of the traditional dance scene in Ireland.
\nRead more: Sean-n\u00f3s dance \u00bb<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The musicians in this first video clip include the renowned Irish ‘box’ (melodeon) player Johnny Connolly<\/a>. Emma O’Sullivan<\/a> is the dancer…<\/p>\n