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Article: Gotta dance!(Irish Moves: An Illustrated History of Dance and Physical Theatre in Ireland)
- Article from:
- Irish Literary Supplement
- Article date:
- September 22, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Irish Studies Program. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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DEIRDRE MULROONEY Irish Moves: An Illustrated History of Dance and Physical Theatre in Ireland The Liffey Press, Ltd, 2006.
THINK OF IRISH DANCING, and the first image that comes to mind is a troupe of little girls, dressed in stiff multicolored dresses and adorned with fake curls and headbands, hopping solemnly through treble reels and slipjigs. Or rows of black-clad men and women battering the stage floor to the accompaniment of a frenetic band and the applause of a theatre audience. These images of competitive Irish stepdance and of theatrical dance spectacles spawned by Riverdance suggest that dance in Ireland is limited in its forms and hidebound by tradition ...