In Canada, we celebrate Irish Heritage Month through the month of March and today we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with billions of others around the world.
My paternal grandfather was from County Armagh in northern Ireland. I never knew him as he died before I was born but I was motivated to explore my Irish heritage because of him. One of the ways I’ve done that is through participating in ceilidh dances, which I’ve been fortunate enough to attend more frequently over the past couple of years.
Taijiquan is a martial art and my primary movement practice. I have found many of the same skills we cultivate in taijiquan are trained in ceilidh dancing. As such, I find both practices complimentary.
Forms and Called Dances
In taijiquan, one of the core practices is the forms (taolu). Forms are set patterns of movements. In Chen style, the routines range from around 2 minutes (ie. the broadsword/sabre) to 15 minutes (the first barehanded routine). Learning the forms requires learning how to observe and replicate movements, memorizing long sequences, and repeating them until the principles reside in the body.
In the ceilidh dances I attend, a caller teaches the choreography before each dance. The dances usually run through the choreography slowly a time or two before they try it at speed with music. The caller provides prompts throughout the process. The choreography of ceilidh dancing is designed to be relatively simple in order for most people to be able to pick it up, but it can still be a challenge especially since most dances have at least two people involved.
Participating in ceilidh dances allows me to keep skills such as observing and replicating movements fresh while avoiding a common taijiquan mistake of “collecting forms”-going for quantity instead of quality.
Hips and Knees
In taijiquan, power is generated in the core and the hips. This requires a strong connection with the ground. While taijiquan is generally a fairly accessible movement practice, one of the key injury risks is the knees. Generating power in taijiquan requires a series of spiral rotations through the body-if performed incorrectly, this can put undue stress on the knees. Chen style taijiquan adds to this risk by maintaining jumping movements to aid both attack and defense.
To avoid injuring the knees in taijiquan we focus on engaging the thighs to keep the legs braced out, relaxing the hips, keeping the center of gravity down and level, and the weight in the heels. These are also practical defenses in taijiquan’s optimal range of close quarters, upright grappling.
Ceilidh dancing also runs the risk of knee injuries through a similar focus on the legs. In ceilidh dancing this risk is heightened by movements which alternate between the balls of the feet and the heels. When ceilidh dancing, I intentionally bring in elements of taijiquan’s injury protection-while I can’t always keep weight in the heels due to the nature of ceilidh dancing, I do so inasmuch as I am able and the general control of center of gravity, relaxed hips, braced legs, and engaged cores is often possible. Ceilidh dancing is thus excellent training for applying taijiquan principles in other movement practices to avoid injury and maintain endurance.
Push-Hands and Dance Partners
During forms training as a group, taijiquan requires being aware of one’s distance from others in the group and of the surrounding environment. While taijiquan can often seem very inward-oriented and that is indeed an aspect of the training, it is primarily a martial art and thus outward awareness is equally important to cultivate.
One of the other key practices for taijiquan training is push-hands (tuishou). Push-hands is practiced with a partner, and serves as a bridge to free sparring. Push-hands expands several key skills required for martial efficacy. The training progresses from fixed patterns of movement to freer movements. Push-hands begins with the partners in contact, and contact must be maintained throughout push-hands practice. Thus, striking is generally not trained in push-hands, and the focus is instead becoming comfortable in close quarters, upright grappling, cultivating the ability to read an opponent’s intent and discern ways to unbalance one’s opponent while disgusing one’s own intent and maintaining one’s own balance. All of this requires great sensitivity and awareness through touch and sight, as well as neural connections to act in an instant of vulnerability that is often more fleeting than fully conscious awareness allows.
Since ceilidh dancing is done with at least two people and can expand to several different combinations of partners, skills of managing distance, maintaining proper time, and honing awareness of one’s partners and surroundings through touch and sight are also trained in this context. There have been times where my push-hands training has been interrupted due to a lack of available partners. Personal circumstances and systemic crises (like the COVID-19 pandemic) can be very real challenges in finding consistent and skilled push-hands partners, especially if one is training with martial efficacy in mind. I have found ceilidh dancing to be of great value during such times for providing a venue to practice some of the transferable skills.
Conclusion
Dancing and martial combat are often more interconnected than many people realize. There are many transferable skills and both cultivate key aspects of physical literacy. Dancing, especially dancing that retains core cultural influences, often incorporates movements and principle shared with the culture of origin’s martial arts and traditions. I firmly believe that martial artists would do well to explore dance and that dancers and other movement artists would benefit from exploring martial arts, especially internal styles like taijiquan. I have found much reward as a taijiquan practitioner in exploring various dance styles, including ceilidh dancing. I encourage you to consider practicing both dance and martial arts as well.
“A warrior who cannot dance? Clumsy in both war and peace, he is.” -Jedi Grand Master Yoda in Star Wars: Clone Wars: The Cestus Deception by Steven Barnes
The Dreamers' Corner 