Difference between Irish and Tap?

pr · Joined: 11 Apr 2005 Posts: 1011 Location: Göteborg, Sweden

A real newbie question... :P What is the difference between Irish and Tap?

Plumeria · Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 9:11 pm Post subject:

I think there's a huge difference between Irish and Tap. But before I go into that more, I'm just going to say that there is no such thing as "Irish tap". I'm a Irish dancer, and I hate people saying that they are Irish tap dancing. It's a huge pet peeve of mine.

In Irish dance you do have shuffles like Tap. But, us irish dancers wear hardshoes. We don't wear tap shoes. And some of our steps are different. For example, Irish dancers have slices, which is like a kicking and swtiching your feet so your heels click. (Sorry, I have no idea how to explain it) Unlike tap dancers, we can't dance to just any song. We can only dance to a song with a certian tempo. Like 2,4 time, and others I can't remember right now. We also do higher kicks and leaps, we are not allowed to keep our feet close to the ground.

In Irish dance, we don't just dance in hardshoes. We also dance in softshoes. Softshoes are ghilles. Softshoe dances are supposed to be graceful or fast and entergetic. It depends on what dance you are doing. In softshoe, we have a dance called the reel which is supposed to be fast and exciting. We also have the slip jig which is graceful and full of leaps. Irish dance is also really competitive. You have to place a certian number of times to go to the next level. Plus, Irish softshoe and hardshoe dances came before tap.

Oh, I can't believe I almost forgot this one difference, we don;t use our arms! Tap dancers seem to swing their arms around when they dance. Well, the only time we use our arms is at the end of one dance called the treble reel. We have to put our hands on our hips at the very end. That's all. hehehehe

Irish dancing really is a blast! There's fast and graceful dances.

Here are some websites to learn more about it......
http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~aeliyahu/425/final/feature.htm

^That one compairs Irish and Tap.

http://www.dance.net/topic/4362921/1/Irish/All-About-Irish-Dance.html&replies=10

^That one explains what Irish dance is. I love that link because it even gives pictures of the dance shoes we wear and our dresses.

dancersdreamland · Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 4:49 pm Post subject:

Great explanation and comparison.

I started with tap dance and had always thought Irish dance was similar. Then I had the opportunity to take an Irish step-dance class and realized they are nothing alike. I mean the can both make the clicking noise, but really the foundations behind the dance, the steps, the stylizations are all different.

Thanks for explaining it so clearly!

pr · Joined: 11 Apr 2005 Posts: 1011 Location: Göteborg, Sweden

Thanks! :D

adamjthompson · Joined: 03 Sep 2007 Posts: 6

So.....are Riverdance, Lord Of The Dance, etc authentic Irish dancing, or are they a mixture? Because Michael Flatley is a tap dancer, and he wears tap shoes, not irish hard sole shoes....

Seems to me that Riverdance sticks more to Irish dancing, but Michael Flatley's shows have become successively less Irish...

ghilliesnstrings · Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 9:43 pm Post subject:

Don't even get some Irish dancers started on Michael Flatley. Riverdance is modern Irish, and Lord of the Dance, Feet of the Flames, Celtic Tiger, etc. are kind of tap dancing with a slightly Irish flavor. I don't know whether or not Michael Flatley actually has tap shoes. He might be wearing hard Irish shoes (which are high-heeled shoes with wood, resin or sometimes fiberglass toes and heels). I'm not sure. But you could be right about that.

EDIT: I researched it and in his signature, Michael-Flatley-stuck-up way, he explained that for "his" style of dancing, he needed aluminum taps, which is not very traditional, I must say.

adamjthompson · Joined: 03 Sep 2007 Posts: 6

ghilliesnstrings wrote: Don't even get some Irish dancers started on Michael Flatley. Riverdance is modern Irish, and Lord of the Dance, Feet of the Flames, Celtic Tiger, etc.

Yeh, that's about what I thought. I realize they are not "authentic", but I love them (for the most part...Celtic Tiger has some really cheap stuff in it, like the strip tease).

pr · Joined: 11 Apr 2005 Posts: 1011 Location: Göteborg, Sweden

Welcome adamjthompson! :D I said welcome to ghilliesnstrings in another thread but welcome again! :P

adamjthompson · Joined: 03 Sep 2007 Posts: 6

pr wrote: Welcome adamjthompson!

Thanks! These forums seem awful quiet... :-P

ghilliesnstrings · Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 3:51 am Post subject:

adamjthompson wrote: ghilliesnstrings wrote: Don't even get some Irish dancers started on Michael Flatley. Riverdance is modern Irish, and Lord of the Dance, Feet of the Flames, Celtic Tiger, etc.

Yeh, that's about what I thought. I realize they are not "authentic", but I love them (for the most part...Celtic Tiger has some really cheap stuff in it, like the strip tease).

Yes, I like Riverdance, but LotD, FoF and CT are all too...I don't know. I don't really like them. It could just be that I hate Michael Flatley. Maybe I'm a hypocrite, but I LOVE Jean Butler and Colin Dunne's "Dancing on Dangerous Ground." It's FAIRLY Irish really. There are some modernizations, but much more Celtic than say...Celtic Tiger.