Dance Education - Irish Step 101

Since dance is such a passion of mine, I though I would share information about this activity, tradition, sport... whatever you want to call it. Let us start at the beginning, shall we?

Irish Step Dancing has its roots in Ireland (duh!) and over the years it has grown into a worldwide, internationally recognized sport/activity.  Let's start with the dances.  There are 2 basic types of dances in Irish. Hardshoe and softshoe.  Hardshoes are also called heavy shoes or jig shoes. The shoes we wear now are made with leather soles and uppers and fiberglass tips and heels. This way we make as much noise as possible.

Hard shoes

Softshoes are the soft version of our dance shoes. They are usually made of soft leather and have no hard sole.  Softshoes are also called ghillies. Not to be confused the Highland Dance (scottish) ghillies. There is actually a difference!  There are laces that lace from the beginning of your toes and go up around the ankle of the foot.  Everyone laces and ties their ghillies a little differently, but below is a perfect example of softshoes.

Ghillies

I am sure you are  incredibly curious about what we do with these shoes... right? Well that, is a topic for another time. :) Short and sweet, just to keep you interested. Or something like that.