Intro to Old-Style Hornpipes: Sean-nós Northwest 2026

I’ve changed my approach to teaching festival workshops throughout the years. For this class, I chose to focus on teaching and refining the basic, foundational movements for old-style Irish step dancing—tip down, shuffle, basic hornpipe step, cuts, rocks, and the finishing step. At the end of class, we put these skills together to dance Joe O’Donovan’s basic hornpipe step “Cuts.” I hope these skills will enable students to learn steps more easily from various online resources and future classes.

We also talked about the many similarities and differences between old-style step dancing and sean-nós dancing. My hope is that students walk away with the confidence and curiosity to independently pursue their own learning and practice throughout the year at home.

Online Learning:

-Dan Furey’s Hornpipes - Celine and Michael Turbidy - a great place to start learning traditional hornpipes

-Annette Collins - online classes in old-style step dancing

-Irish Traditional Step Dancing with Celine and Michael Tubridy - Irish Traditional Music Archive

Videos:

-YouTube playlist of Old-Style Irish Hornpipes

-Archival video of old-style hornpipe steps from Cork, 1930s - Siar an Bóthar/Come West Along the Road

Reading:

-Article: Annette Collins on The Dan Furey Dance Group

-Article: Joe O’Donovan on Irish Traditional Dancing

-Book: A selection of Irish traditional step dances by Michael Tubridy

-Book: Irish Traditional Step Dancing in North Kerry by Catherine Foley