From the Graduate magazine of University College Cork, Summer 1997 – by Isabel Healy
The tradition of ethnic dance in Ireland is a long one, but as solo dancing was almost exclusively an oral tradition, there is no record of its evolution, either in steps or costume until a century ago. "There are lots of books on Irish music but if you look for background information on Irish dancing, there is little or nothing, and very few film clips of people dancing" – according to Dr. John Cullinane.
Dr. Cullinane is a botanist who has lectured for the past 35 years in the Plant Science Department of UCC, specializing in seaweeds. A dancer since he was a boy, John got his teacher’s diploma in his twenties and taught All Ireland, Great Britain and World Champion ceili and figure dancing teams for a decade. Thirty years ago he began recording the memories of old dance masters and collecting information, photographs and letters. He has now catalogued some two thousand items of dance memorabilia. Dr. Cullinane’s most recent publications are two books called "Aspects of the History of Irish Dancing in North America" and "Irish Dancing Costumes, Their Origins and Evolution."
(Note: this article was written more than three years ago and the numbers are out of date… for instance, he now has 4000 items on Irish dance in his possession. - bp)
When he is not teaching at UCC or working on his MA on the history of Irish dancing in Cork through the History Department at UCC, or up the Amazon studying medicinal plants in the rain forest or diving in Ventry Harbour, John is most likely to be sitting in a hall whose walls resound to the sound of dancing feet. That hall could be anywhere from Brisbane to Fort Mac Murray, for Irish dancing knows no cultural or political boundaries, and John Cullinane is one of the top Irish dance adjudicators in the world and Vice Chairman of the Dancing Commission. With dance and science, he has been to China, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand and Thailand.
For decades, Irish dances remained the same, and costumes varied little. Aficionados such as John Cullinane could recognize regional variations and even identify a teacher from the dancer’s style. Nowadays, new dances and fashions in costumes are relayed through fax and video within hours of being introduced. "Up to the 1950s the United States and Australia kept the old styles more or less the same as had been done in Ireland in the 1890s; in the U.S. they practiced the Cork and Kerry style almost exclusively.
John favours the current evolution of dance. "The Jean Butlers and Michael Flatleys don’t come from a different world, they come from a world of competitive Irish dancing. What their shows have done is to free the dance from the rigid eight-bar structure of competition and make it more natural with the addition of hand movements. While the modern form is evolving, there are also the traditional dances which are compulsory for competition and keep Irish dance alive."
As a youth, John himself wore a kilt for dancing, but despises the outfit as both off-putting for boys and not even Irish, as it was only introduced to Scotland around 1780. I the past three years, the Riverdance and Lord of the Dance shows have drastically changed fashions in Irish dance costume.
"But we are still looking for the definitive costume," says John. "The girls wear either elaborate embroidered and sequined dresses with equally elaborate head gear. At some of the major championships, there are shops selling nothing but headgear for Irish dancing. Some people think they are "works of art," but, says John, reverting to a botanist’s metaphor – "You’ve got to prune a rosebush back." In many places the demand is so huge for Irish dance dresses that there is an eight to twelve month waiting list and entire industries have grown up around the elaborately decorated costumes.
Now, however, the costumes could be going to the other extreme. "In Galway at the recent World Championships, some of the minimalist costumes in stretch fabrics were too skimpy. In performance, with dancers using their hands, a short dress in light material allows for the flow of the body, but it doesn’t suit Irish dancing and you’d need a Jean Butler figure and the confidence to carry it off."
Dr. Cullinane’s current project is a book on ceili dancing to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first ceili in 1897 which was organized in London.
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