Being a slim five percent Irish, heritage was almost certainly out of the picture. The remaining culprit was the prancing Celtic music her family has always listened to—along with, of course, her own being in the right place at the right time. Whether by fate or coincidence, though, one part of the story remains clear: when a then-seven-year-old Ida Mihok saw her first Irish dance performance in a local theater, she knew she had to try it herself. Eleven years later—with just as many years of dance experience in her back pocket—Mihok is a freshman at Skidmore, working to revive the school’s Irish dance club as its new president.
First and foremost, it’s important to note that Skidmore Irish Dance is open to students of any and all levels of experience—established Irish dance wizards, those with two left feet, or even those who just liked that one scene from Titanic where Jack and Rose dance in the third-class part of the boat and drink beer from cans.
“Irish dance, when someone’s looking at it from the outside… can seem very alienating and scary to get involved in, especially because there’s this whole idea of having the perfection of it, to look good, to do it right,” Mihok acknowledged. However, she made a point to reassure students, “That’s not what it’s about at all… as a club, we… open our doors to everyone, regardless of their past dance experience.”
Similarly, Mihok also emphasized that the origins, not the dancers, put the “Irish” in “Skidmore Irish Dance”—in other words, the club and the practice in general are far from exclusive to the Irish diaspora.
“While a lot of people who are Irish are more exposed to [Irish dance] than others, there are a lot of great Irish dancers—quite a few in my classes back home—who have no Irish heritage,” Mihok explained, then reiterating that her own heritage has but the faintest traces of Irish lineage.
A third noteworthy aspect of the club comes from the critical distinction between traditional Irish dance—the kind that Mihok and Skidmore Irish Dance partake in—and the more prominent modern Irish dance, which was popularized largely in part by the Broadway show Riverdance.
“There is a lot of crossover between modern Irish dance… and traditional Irish dance,” Mihok said. “But still, stylistically… if you see a modern Irish dancer dancing and a traditional dancer, they sometimes won’t even look like the same thing.”
Indeed, while there are overarching similarities—such as the paradigmatic emphasis on making percussive sounds with the feet—there are certainly key visual differences between the two styles, as well. Whereas modern Irish step dancers generally use a more rigid posture and hold their arms steadfast at their sides, traditional Irish dance allows for a relatively relaxed, looser stance. Additionally, according to Mihok, there are often discrepancies between the overall atmosphere associated with each style.
“Modern Irish dance, the way I learned it… is typically more competitive, whereas traditional Irish dance is more collaborative,” Mihok explained. “I realize that there is still a lot of collaboration in modern styles… but when doing traditional dance, I never had to worry about ‘being better’ than my classmates. It was just about personal expression and teamwork.”
Even within traditional Irish dance, there are distinct subcategories with their own characteristics. Among these is sean-nós—pronounced SHAN-ohss—or “old-style” dance, an entirely separate regional style that originated from western Ireland. In addition to its footwork being lower to the ground (though still very much percussive), sean-nós is characterized by its non-formulaic, even improvisational, nature—something Mihok embraces.
“[Sean-nós] is a lot about… the fact that you don’t need to look the same or execute the steps the same,” she grinned. “There’s a lot of room for personal flair.”
There’s a significant social element at play, too. “In an Irish dance community, you can walk into a pub where there’s Irish music playing, and… you can just start dancing,” Mihok beamed. “And it’s just so awesome having that connection. There’s a lot of emphasis on community-building, which is a big part of what I like so much about [Irish dance].”
This sense of community, along with the aforementioned themes of non-competitiveness and personal expression, are precisely what Mihok hopes to bring to Skidmore. For ten of her eleven years of dance, though, she was building such a community at O’Riley Irish Dance, a local dance studio near her home in Belmont, Massachusetts. While O’Riley instills its students with a necessary dedication to technique, the studio is somewhat unique in its foremost emphasis on musicality. Likewise, the studio’s founder, director, and teacher—the widely talented powerhouse Jackie O’Riley, who has performed with acclaimed dance groups and taught throughout the United States, Canada, and Ireland—believes “above all” in “maintaining the joy that drew her to [traditional Irish dance] in the first place.” Her joy lies in passing down not just the steps, but the “vitality of carrying on this tradition.”
However, the importance of music and tradition does not diminish the remarkability of the steps themselves—in general, nor as they jig their way onto Skidmore’s campus.
“A lot of the steps that [the club is] going to be learning have come directly from Ireland,” Mihok revealed. “These steps have been passed down from generation to generation… and a lot of these steps haven’t been taught to anyone in our generation before.”
This generational character of traditional Irish dance is charming; for many, the notion of a practice preserved solely pedagogically may be reminiscent of a simpler time, enviable from our current daedalic reality. However, Mihok noted that this same element may be contributing to the practice’s decline.
“It’s really… dying out a little bit,” she lamented, “because there’s less and less young people learning it.”
Perhaps, then, the time has come for Mihok to energize the next generation of budding traditional Irish dancers—at least, those within the little corner of the world contained by Skidmore’s walls. So for students who, like a young Mihok, find themselves entranced with the lively world of Irish dance—for students who want to be part of a close-knit community, especially amidst these isolating times—for students who simply want to try something new—and for all the students outside and in-between: Skidmore Irish Dance offers a seamless first step toward realizing whatever spritely, emeraldine dreams you know (or didn’t know) you’ve always had.
Skidmore Irish Dance meets weekly on Wednesdays from 4-5:30 p.m. At the present time, meetings are online via Zoom, but are expected to be in-person beginning on March 24th (COVID regulation-permitting). Additional information, including the Zoom link, can be found on SkidSync; more information, such as FAQs, is located on the club’s Instagram page @skidmoreirishdance. Any lingering questions can be emailed directly to President Ida Mihok at imihok@skidmore.edu.