Books by Catherine E Foley
Dance and Modernism in Irish and German Literature and Culture, 2020
Modern Dance, understood as a Gesamtkunstwerk, influenced, and was influenced by, other art forms... more Modern Dance, understood as a Gesamtkunstwerk, influenced, and was influenced by, other art forms, including architecture and industrial design in the early 20th century; it fundamentally changed perceptions of space and movement to the present. Gestural movement, choreography, and corporeality took a central role on stage, in literature, visual media, and the design of buildings, a shift that still finds its reflection in contemporary culture. In the Irish context, this shift is of particular interest, with regard to the leading role of Irish modernist literature internationally, and the significance of Irish traditional dance and culture as identity markers, and their relationship to ballet, contemporary dance and other expressions of culture, for Irish and international audiences.The volume consists of two sections. Section 1 focuses on Irish-German cultural connections made through dance, and Section 2 explores the role of dance in Irish and German literature, visual art, and architecture.
Dance and Modernism in Irish and German Literature and Culture is published by Lexington Books.
Step Dancing in Ireland: Culture and History, 2013
For many people step dancing is associated mainly with the Irish step-dance stage shows, Riverdan... more For many people step dancing is associated mainly with the Irish step-dance stage shows, Riverdance and Lord of the Dance, which assisted both in promoting the dance form and in placing Ireland globally. But, in this book, Catherine Foley illustrates that the practice and contexts of step dancing are much more complicated and fluid. Tracing the trajectory of step dancing in Ireland, she tells its story from roots in eighteenth-century Ireland to its diverse cultural manifestations today. She examines the interrelationships between step dancing and the changing historical and cultural contexts of colonialism, nationalism, postcolonialism and globalization, and shows that step dancing is a powerful tool of embodiment and meaning that can provoke important questions relating to culture and identity through the bodies of those who perform it.
Focusing on the rural European region of North Kerry in the south-west of Ireland, Catherine Foley examines three step-dance practices: one, the rural Molyneaux step-dance practice, representing the end of a relatively long-lived system of teaching by itinerant dancing masters in the region; two, Rinceoirí na Ríochta, a dance school representative of the urbanized staged, competition orientated practice, cultivated by the cultural nationalist movement, the Gaelic League, established at the end of the nineteenth century, and practised today both in Ireland and abroad; and three, the stylized, commoditized, folk-theatrical practice of Siamsa Tíre, the National Folk Theatre of Ireland, established in North Kerry in the 1970s. Written from an ethnochoreological perspective, Catherine Foley provides a rich historical and ethnographic account of step dancing, step dancers and cultural institutions in Ireland.
Irish Traditional Step Dancing in North Kerry: A Contextual and Structural Analysis, 2012
Irish Traditional Step Dancing in North Kerry examines a unique form of step dancing in North Ker... more Irish Traditional Step Dancing in North Kerry examines a unique form of step dancing in North Kerry in the south-west of Ireland. The book is based on the author’s ethnographic fieldwork in the region and her collection of Irish traditional step dances from a population of elderly step dancers. This research was undertaken in the 1980s and was the first intensive, regional, ethnographic study of Irish step dancing in the world. It is richly illustrated with contextual and socio-cultural knowledge, and provides mnemonic and Labanotated scores of step dances and movement analysis based on the author's constructed hierarchical movement system as learned and collected by the author in North Kerry. The book, accompanied by a DVD, contributes to the cultural and historical knowledge of dancing in Ireland.
Catherine Foley, 2015
Stór Damhsa is a video recording of performances and tutorials of Irish solo traditional set danc... more Stór Damhsa is a video recording of performances and tutorials of Irish solo traditional set dances and step dances by Catherine Foley. Solo set dances are dances which are choreographed to specific pieces of music – of the same name, in either Jig or Hornpipe time and which are, for the most-part, irregular in structure. The step dances are generally in the regular 8-bar structure. Some of the set dances in this DVD were choreographed by specific dancing masters, such as Jeremiah Molyneaux of North Kerry or Stevie Comerford of Cork, while others are a combination and re-arrangement of step dances choreographed by a number of different dancing masters or dance teachers. The set dances and the traditional step dances on this DVD I learned from many traditional step dancers over the years and to whom I am very grateful. These include Peggy McTeggart and Pat Foley Ryan, Cork, James Keane Labasheeda, County Clare, and the Molyneaux traditional step dancers of North Kerry including Phil Cahill, Seán Cahill, Michael Carroll, Jack Dineen, Sheila Lyons Bowler, Marie Finucane Kissane, Willie Goggin, Paudy Hanrahan, Jimmy Hartnett, John McCarthy, Eileen Moriarty MacNamara, Jerry Nolan, John Joe O' Donnell, Michael Walsh, Mossie Walsh, Fr. Pat Ahern, Jimmy Smith and Jonathan Kelliher. I am grateful to the Trustees of Muckross House, Killarney, County Kerry, who initiated a collection of Irish traditional music, song and dance in the 1980s, and I was selected as one of the two collectors; this work was the seed for my interest in collecting, archiving, teaching, performing, and disseminating further traditional Irish step-dance repertoire and style.
Musicians: Eileen O'Brien (fiddle), Liam O'Brien (concertina), and Niall Keegan (flute)
Guest Step Dancer: Jimmy Smith
Camera and editing: Kevin Minogue Productions
DVD Production: John Dawson
Printing and Duplication Services: Dutec
DVD recorded at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, August 2013.
Copyright: Catherine Foley.
Dance, Place, Festival: 27th Symposium of the International Council for Traditional Music Study Group on Ethnochoreology, Jul 2014
The 27th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology took place at the Irish World Acade... more The 27th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology took place at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, Ireland, from 22nd – 29th July, 2012. The University, situated on the River Shannon in the mid-west of Ireland, provided a beautiful location for the Symposium. This Symposium marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Study Group, making it the oldest dance scholars’ community in the world. Hosting this Symposium was, therefore, of special significance to the University of Limerick particularly since the first MA in Ethnochoreology at any university in Europe was established at the University of Limerick in 1996.
Dance, Place, Festival includes papers from this symposium from ethnochoreologists and dance anthropologists from Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, Taipei, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the USA. The papers are presented under the two themes of the symposium: (1) Dance and Place; and (2) Dance and Festival.
Capturing Composition: Improvisation in Dance Research , 2011
Capturing Composition: Improvisation in Dance Research and Practice is the edited proceedings of ... more Capturing Composition: Improvisation in Dance Research and Practice is the edited proceedings of Dance Research Forum Ireland's 3rd International Conference.
At the Crossroads? Dance and Irish Culture , 2007
At the Crossroads? Dance and Irish Culture is the edited proceedings of Dance Research Forum Irel... more At the Crossroads? Dance and Irish Culture is the edited proceedings of Dance Research Forum Ireland's 1st International Conference. As an international, interdisciplinary, inclusive, and all-embracing society for scholarship of dance in Ireland, Dance Research Forum Ireland (DRFI) seeks to provide a platform for both dance academics and dance artists. Its primary objective is to encourage, promote, support and develop a theoretical and performative research body of dance knowledge in local and global senses. To this end, Dance Research Forum Ireland’s 1st International Conference, which took place over a period of three days (Thursday 22nd – Sunday 25th June, 2006) at the University of Limerick, included academic-based papers, practice-based research presentations, lecture demonstrations, master workshops, and a dance concert.
At the Crossroads? Dance and Irish Culture is the written representations of presentations at DRFI’s first international conference. These papers reflect current scholarship and artistic endeavours in the field of dance in Ireland and abroad, through diverse formats including theory informed practice and practice informed theory. They do not represent the discussions or question-and-answer sessions; neither do they include representations of the many discussions that happened throughout the event. Photographs are included in the volume to highlight the work of some of the presenters and the conference itself.
The volume is divided into eleven sections in accordance with the different sessions of the conference: Keynote Address; Irish Dance: Local and Global Perspectives; Lecture Demonstration (excluding the demonstration); Dance at the Crossroads in Scotland 2006; Dance Education in Ireland; Practice Based Approaches to Dance; How Irish is Irish Dance; Documenting and Reconstructing Dance; Dance and National Identity; and Student Posters.
The Sionna Set Dance. , 2007
The Sionna Set Dance is a newly commissioned set dance choreographed by Catherine Foley. The comm... more The Sionna Set Dance is a newly commissioned set dance choreographed by Catherine Foley. The commission was at the request of Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Founding Director of the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick. The Sionna Set was choreographed by Foley in 2005 and performed at the Sionna Festival of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick in that same year. It was published by Foley in 2007 as an Educational Pack comprising a DVD of the set dance (performance and instructional tutorials), a CD of the accompanying music, and a 20-page, bi-lingual (Irish and English), illustrated educational booklet, including historical notes. The illustrations were undertaken by Mick McCabe of Mediatician. The publication was funded by the Arts Council of Ireland.
Journals, refereed by Catherine E Foley
For over a hundred years the Irish céilí, as an 'invented' social dance event and mode of interac... more For over a hundred years the Irish céilí, as an 'invented' social dance event and mode of interaction, has played a significant and changing role. This paper examines the invention of this Irish dance event and how it has developed in Ireland throughout the twentieth century. From the Gaelic League's cultural nationalist, ideological agenda of the late nineteenth century, for a culturally unified Ireland, to the manifestation of a new cultural confidence in Ireland, from the 1970s, this paper explores how the céilí has provided an important site for the construction, experiencing and negotiation of different senses of community and identity. 'No man is an island entire of itself' (John Donne, 1572-1631) The opening line above is often quoted by people in everyday life in Ireland. It is from Meditation XVII from the prose work, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (1624), by John Donne. This line speaks of the notion of connection, belonging, community, and the universal self. Notions of community fall along a continuum from small-scale, intimate, micro-communities (real, virtual, or imagined) to the human race as a macro-community; John Donne's line above refers to the latter. Traditionally the notion of community defined a group of interacting people living in a common location with shared common values providing them with a social cohesion. Today, the word also refers to different kinds of communities. 1 1 These different kinds of communities include: local community, national community (also referred to as a 'community of sentiment' by Weber (1977); an 'imagined community' by Anderson (1983)), 'organic community' (Boyes 1993)), global community, virtual community, an affinity or interest group community (Slobin 1996; Cooley 2009), a cultural cohort (Turino 2008), a sub-cultural community (Hebdige 1979), community as a symbolic construct (Cohen 1985), and community as a communitas (Turner 1969) which describes a society during a liminal period that is "unstructured or rudimentarily structured [with] a relatively undifferentiated comitatus, community, or even communion of equal individuals who submit together to the general authority of the ritual elders" (Turner 1969: 96).
New Hibernia Review / Iris Éireannach Nua, 16:2 (Samhradh / Summer, 2012), 2012
Up until the 1980s, dance in Ireland existed as an important human activity, engaged in for vario... more Up until the 1980s, dance in Ireland existed as an important human activity, engaged in for various reasons: socialization, entertainment, competition, performance, tourism, ceremonial occasions, and so on. It was not, however, researched and examined on a par with other fields of study within the social sciences. From the 1980s on, however, the academic study of dance within the context of culture increasingly gained ground in the West, due to the influence of a number of anthropologists in the United States interested in human movement studies. Academicians also began to note the work of ethnochoreologists in Europe who, since the 1960s, had been involved in field research and studies of dance in their respective cultures. Dance and the role that it played—together with the meaning that it embodied within diverse societies around the world— gradually became a significant field of research and study. Scholars within multidisciplinary fields of study—including anthropology, ethnochoreology, ethnomusicology, dance ethnology, sociology, philosophy, cultural studies, cultural geography and feminist scholarship—argued for the significance of dance and the body as a way of illuminating and understanding issues relating to human movement, culture, and humanity. Certain themes or concepts became prominent in this scholarship: for example the linguistic, ethnicity, identity, politics, cultural embodiment, and gender.
Routes and Roots: Fiddle and Dance Studies from around the North Atlantic 4, edited by Ian Russell and Chris Goertzen, pp. 144 – 155, 2012
Dance Research Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 43-60, 2011
For over a hundred years the Irish céilí, as an ‘invented’ social dance event and mode of interac... more For over a hundred years the Irish céilí, as an ‘invented’ social dance event and mode of interaction, has played a significant and changing role. This paper examines the invention of this Irish dance event and how it has developed in Ireland throughout the twentieth century. From the Gaelic League's cultural nationalist, ideological agenda of the late nineteenth century, for a culturally unified Ireland, to the manifestation of a new cultural confidence in Ireland, from the 1970s, this paper explores how the céilí has provided an important site for the construction, experiencing and negotiation of different senses of community and identity.
Inbhear: Journal of Irish Music and Dance, Issue 1, Volume 1, edited by Anne Margrete Fiskvik and Marit Stranden, 2010
The cultural construction of Irish step dance embodies diverse performative meanings: meanings wh... more The cultural construction of Irish step dance embodies diverse performative meanings: meanings which are shared by different communities of step dancers. From informal, improvisatory performances to formal, stylised and highly structured performances, step dance adapts, is adapted and appropriated to give meaning and kinaesthetic expression to both the individual step dancer and the group within these diverse dance communities. In this paper I look at notions of conceptual and aesthetic boundaries in Irish competitive step dance and at how step dancers attempt at negotiating these boundaries. In particular, the paper focuses on one particular step dancer, namely, Colin Dunne, and explores the artist’s attempts at negotiating the aesthetic and structural boundaries in Irish step dance performance practice and the artistic strategies employed by him to assist in this negotiation process.
The 21st Ó Riada Memorial Lecture, 2009
Dance Research Journal 33/1- Summer 2001, pp. 34 – 45., Jul 2001
Proceedings of International Council for Traditional Music’s 21th Ethnochoreology Symposium, edited by Tvrtko Zebec and Elsie Ivancich Dunin, 2001
Proceedings of International Council for Traditional Music’s 20th Ethnochoreology Symposium, edited by Frank Hall and Irene Loutsaki, pp. 33 - 43, Jun 2000
Journals, other by Catherine E Foley
Fleadh Cheoil na Mumhan, pp 147-155, 2013
Traditional Dance, vols. 5-6, edited by Theresa J. Buckland, bp. 159-174, 1998
Movement and Dance Quarterly. Vol. 13, No. 4, pp 4-6, 1994
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Books by Catherine E Foley
Dance and Modernism in Irish and German Literature and Culture is published by Lexington Books.
Focusing on the rural European region of North Kerry in the south-west of Ireland, Catherine Foley examines three step-dance practices: one, the rural Molyneaux step-dance practice, representing the end of a relatively long-lived system of teaching by itinerant dancing masters in the region; two, Rinceoirí na Ríochta, a dance school representative of the urbanized staged, competition orientated practice, cultivated by the cultural nationalist movement, the Gaelic League, established at the end of the nineteenth century, and practised today both in Ireland and abroad; and three, the stylized, commoditized, folk-theatrical practice of Siamsa Tíre, the National Folk Theatre of Ireland, established in North Kerry in the 1970s. Written from an ethnochoreological perspective, Catherine Foley provides a rich historical and ethnographic account of step dancing, step dancers and cultural institutions in Ireland.
Musicians: Eileen O'Brien (fiddle), Liam O'Brien (concertina), and Niall Keegan (flute)
Guest Step Dancer: Jimmy Smith
Camera and editing: Kevin Minogue Productions
DVD Production: John Dawson
Printing and Duplication Services: Dutec
DVD recorded at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, August 2013.
Copyright: Catherine Foley.
Dance, Place, Festival includes papers from this symposium from ethnochoreologists and dance anthropologists from Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, Taipei, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the USA. The papers are presented under the two themes of the symposium: (1) Dance and Place; and (2) Dance and Festival.
At the Crossroads? Dance and Irish Culture is the written representations of presentations at DRFI’s first international conference. These papers reflect current scholarship and artistic endeavours in the field of dance in Ireland and abroad, through diverse formats including theory informed practice and practice informed theory. They do not represent the discussions or question-and-answer sessions; neither do they include representations of the many discussions that happened throughout the event. Photographs are included in the volume to highlight the work of some of the presenters and the conference itself.
The volume is divided into eleven sections in accordance with the different sessions of the conference: Keynote Address; Irish Dance: Local and Global Perspectives; Lecture Demonstration (excluding the demonstration); Dance at the Crossroads in Scotland 2006; Dance Education in Ireland; Practice Based Approaches to Dance; How Irish is Irish Dance; Documenting and Reconstructing Dance; Dance and National Identity; and Student Posters.
Journals, refereed by Catherine E Foley
Journals, other by Catherine E Foley
Dance and Modernism in Irish and German Literature and Culture is published by Lexington Books.
Focusing on the rural European region of North Kerry in the south-west of Ireland, Catherine Foley examines three step-dance practices: one, the rural Molyneaux step-dance practice, representing the end of a relatively long-lived system of teaching by itinerant dancing masters in the region; two, Rinceoirí na Ríochta, a dance school representative of the urbanized staged, competition orientated practice, cultivated by the cultural nationalist movement, the Gaelic League, established at the end of the nineteenth century, and practised today both in Ireland and abroad; and three, the stylized, commoditized, folk-theatrical practice of Siamsa Tíre, the National Folk Theatre of Ireland, established in North Kerry in the 1970s. Written from an ethnochoreological perspective, Catherine Foley provides a rich historical and ethnographic account of step dancing, step dancers and cultural institutions in Ireland.
Musicians: Eileen O'Brien (fiddle), Liam O'Brien (concertina), and Niall Keegan (flute)
Guest Step Dancer: Jimmy Smith
Camera and editing: Kevin Minogue Productions
DVD Production: John Dawson
Printing and Duplication Services: Dutec
DVD recorded at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, August 2013.
Copyright: Catherine Foley.
Dance, Place, Festival includes papers from this symposium from ethnochoreologists and dance anthropologists from Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, Taipei, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the USA. The papers are presented under the two themes of the symposium: (1) Dance and Place; and (2) Dance and Festival.
At the Crossroads? Dance and Irish Culture is the written representations of presentations at DRFI’s first international conference. These papers reflect current scholarship and artistic endeavours in the field of dance in Ireland and abroad, through diverse formats including theory informed practice and practice informed theory. They do not represent the discussions or question-and-answer sessions; neither do they include representations of the many discussions that happened throughout the event. Photographs are included in the volume to highlight the work of some of the presenters and the conference itself.
The volume is divided into eleven sections in accordance with the different sessions of the conference: Keynote Address; Irish Dance: Local and Global Perspectives; Lecture Demonstration (excluding the demonstration); Dance at the Crossroads in Scotland 2006; Dance Education in Ireland; Practice Based Approaches to Dance; How Irish is Irish Dance; Documenting and Reconstructing Dance; Dance and National Identity; and Student Posters.
western world and these programmes generally focused on theatre dance,
particularly contemporary dance and ballet; training in an indigenous
dance practice within a university system was much rarer (Dodds, 2011;
Foley, 2012b). In this essay, I examine the introduction of the first degree in
Irish traditional dance performance programme into the university system
in the world: The MA in Irish Traditional Dance Performance programme
at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick,
Ireland.