The Irish Dancing: Cultural Politics and Identities 1900-2000

CHAPTER EIGHT - On With the Dance: Concluding Thoughts

This book set out to examine some aspects of the role of dance in the Irish cultural sphere at various points in time over the course of the twentieth century. Focusing on dance discourses and on social and theatrical dance performance, it explored how Irish dancing bodies negotiated a range of cultural identities: national and global, gender and social class, as well as ethnic in a diasporic context. Dance, it was argued, as an embodied cultural practice and mode of communication both reflected and constituted the Irish social and cultural sphere in which it was practised. In addition to being mediated through the social, cultural and political institutions in Irish society, it was also a way of performing that culture. The main line of argument throughout the book was that through dance forms, discourses and practices cultural identities were continuously produced and challenged . What, finally, can be said about the mediation of these identities, and the continuities and changes in these forms of identification over the course of the century? Because of the large scope of the phenomena addressed as well as the diversity of topics covered there is no grand narrative to relate. However, there are a number of themes that are worthy of note. Identification with some form of Irishness was a theme running through many of the chapters. In the early decades of the century we witnessed how the Gaelic League sought to promote a distinctive sense of national identity through dance. Drawing on what was considered authentic and distinctive in the folk-dancing tradition, the new dance canon set out to create a perfect match between the Irish body politic and the Irish dancing body. The League’s ability to enthuse and mobilise supporters on the ground to dedicate themselves to learning CHAPTER EIGHT On With the Dance Concluding Thoughts 143 144 The Irish Dancing: 1900–2000 and transmitting the new dances through classes, competitions and social dance events indicates a nationwide enthusiasm for their efforts. And their success in establishing a flourishing tradition of Irish céilí dance for at least the next fifty years is testimony to the widespread support for their efforts. Although the development of céilí created distinctions between Irish and non-Irish dance, and in so doing tended to marginalise other dance traditions such as sets, its overall impact appears to have been a powerful and positive one as energiser of the Irish nation. The creation of Irish national identity though dance became a source of struggle and conflict soon after the foundation of the independent Irish state, when the dominant discourse on dance was marked by the erection of a boundary between Irish/traditional dance and foreign/modern dance. The cultural and political power brokers of the era, believing that the latter were a threat to the moral state of the nation, sought to ban them. In so doing they were attempting to impose their own normative version of Irish identity. However, this version was opposed by the dancing public who identified with British and American popular music. Many disputed the view that it was necessary to avoid foreign, modern, or jazz dancing and felt that one could have a strong sense of Irish identity without restricting oneself to céilí dancing. Here we see an example of the struggle over claims to Irish national identity between cultural, religious and political powerbrokers and ordinary citizens. The Gaelic League was much more successful in its approach to the promotion of Irish dance in the early part of the century than in its draconian campaign against the ‘jazzers’ of the 1920s and 1930s. While boundary creation operated in both instances in terms of defining the nation through the distinction between Irish and foreign dance, the former was a more positive, voluntaristic energiser of national sentiment, whereas the latter was more exclusive, moralistic and dogmatic and was responded to accordingly. Dance also played an important role in expressing and reproducing ethnic identity in the multi-ethnic societies of the Irish diaspora. The popularity of Irish dance, whether in private houses, dancehalls, stage performances, dance classes, competitions or festivals in so many places where Irish emigrants settled, is testimony to its importance in emigrants’ lives. The pleasures of hearing familiar music and dance and connecting with people from home in the Boston dancehall of On With the Dance 145 the 1940s and 1950s, as recounted...