I’m very honored to take part in this lovely series, and especially to represent dance. As a traditional step dancer, I think of myself mostly dancing “old steps” - ones I learned from older dancers or archival sources, but within this style I’ve found I do also enjoy composing. Initially, I would often compose out of necessity. I love hopjigs, single jigs, marches, etc., but very few steps/dances in these meters have survived, so in order to dance these tunes I’d have to come up with my own steps. I’m almost always inspired by a particular tune, and tend to write steps that relate to the melody, phrasing, or ornaments within it. I’m also drawn to the idea of social step dance - footwork-based dances with a refrain, or at least a structure, that can be enjoyed in groups as well as solo.

I’d like to thank Michael Tubridy for graciously allowing me to use his wonderful system of dance notation to notate these steps. For a full description of the system and a glossary of terms, please refer to A Selection of Irish Traditional Step Dances, 2nd Ed. Thank you also to Samantha Jones and Katie Knudsvig for technical help on sound, editing and music scoring.

The dances

Jackie shared three compositions for this series. The first is danced to a traditional single jig, the second to a traditional hop jig and third to a newly-composed set-dance, composed by Joey Abarta and Jackie O'Riley. The videos below show both a performance of the dance, and a slower recording with a focus on the dancer's feet.

1. Follow me up to Carlow [comp. Jackie O'Riley], dance
2. The dusty miller [comp. Jackie O'Riley], dance
3. The artful dodger [comp. Jackie O'Riley and Joey Abarta], dance
   

Transcriptions of the steps in the dances

Transcriptions of the music played for the dances

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Follow me up to Carlow [comp. Jackie O'Riley], dance

I’ve loved this tune since I first heard Joey play it as a single jig. To my ear, the rhythm sits somewhere between the dance “Singletime” and hornpipe timing. I’d been loosely thinking of steps for this melody for a few years, but finally sat down and solidified the dance in the early months of the pandemic. I wanted to put a consistent structure on the steps and also use a smaller vocabulary, so that it would be easier to share and dance with others. I enjoy this dance because the steps physically feel good to me! I hope you enjoy it as well.

Learning resources:

PDF: Transcription of the steps
Link: Interactive Score
PDF: Transcription of the music notes

Video of the dance at a slower pace, with a focus on the feet.

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The dusty miller [comp. Jackie O'Riley], dance

The rhythm in hop jigs makes for really great dancing, and it’s one of my favorite meters. Unfortunately, very few steps in hop jig time have survived, so I do end up composing in this meter often. This was the first dance I wrote with Joey, back in 2013 after hearing him play it. I also love Ronan Browne’s recording of this tune on The Wynd You Know, played in a set with “As Pat Came Over the Hill”. Here I was trying to dance the piping ornaments, particularly the crans on the B parts, and the phrasing, like the long notes in the A parts. Please note, one of the steps shown here is from Dan Furey’s “Slip Jig” and is marked as such in the notation. I love that dance, and as a habit dance that step within my steps, so I included it here.

Learning resources:

PDF: Transcription of the steps
Link: Interactive Score
PDF: Transcription of the music notes

Video of the dance at a slower pace, with a focus on the feet.

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The artful dodger [comp. Jackie O'Riley], dance

We were honored to take part in the 21st Century Dance Master Series, organized by the great Edwina Guckian. Composing both a tune and the steps was certainly a first for us, so there was a learning curve. The process ended up being quite iterative, and we enjoyed working on it slowly over time, suggesting changes for each other. We love pairing piping and step dancing, so we structured it as a set dance. With set dances, I’d usually try to dance them twice through to enjoy the tune, either repeating the set part twice, or dancing two versions of a set together. As is common in Munster sets, I used a traditional step of my choice for the A part on the second time around, here an old favorite, “Curtin’s Pick”, that I learned from Patrick O’Dea in 2010. You could dance this set dance once or twice through, depending on what you preferred.

Learning resources:

PDF: Transcription of the steps
Link: Interactive Score
PDF: Transcription of the music notes

Video of the dance at a slower pace, with a focus on the feet.

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About Jackie O'Riley and Joey Abarta

Jackie O'Riley spent her formative dance years in the Irish set dancing community in Boston, MA. Over the past two decades, she has ardently sought out old-style step, sean-nós, and set dancing and is now a respected performer and teacher, with a unique repertoire that includes older steps she’s collected from masters and field footage, and original material she’s composed.

Jackie performs and teaches in the US, Canada, and Ireland, was an original member of the touring sean-nós dance show Atlantic Steps, and in 2018 performed at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin as part of Na Píobairí Uilleann's production, "The Sound of Ireland". She founded, directs, and teaches O’Riley Irish Dance, a unique, non-competitive dance program for kids and teens now in its 13th year, and most recently was a 2022 co-recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Choreography Fellowship.

In 2019 she co-released a debut, first-of-its-kind “visual album”, From the Floor. Above all, she believes in prioritizing musicality in dancing, being a part of the wider musical and traditional community, and maintaining the joy that drew her to the tradition in the first place.

Jackie's husband and music collaborator, Joey Abarta, divides his attention between performance, teaching, and recording. Originally from California, he first received instruction on the Uilleann pipes from Dubliner Pat D’Arcy, a founding member of the Southern California Uilleann Pipers Club. He is an All-Ireland winning piper and has been recognised by the state of Massachusetts as a bearer and conduit of cultural tradition. He is president of the Patrick J. Touhey Memorial Weekend and acting president of the Boston Piper's Club (1908-present).

Instagram: @jackieorileyirishdance, @joeyabarta

Facebook: facebook.com/jackieorileyirishdance, facebook.com/joeyabarta

Website: www.jackieoriley.com, www.joeyabarta.com