Dance: Although Deirdre Mulrooney, in her book Irish Moves, posits Ireland's adolescence in the 1930s, I would counter that it's taking place now, with a free- wheeling sense of liberation and financial independence and an interest in experimentation - and that it's only just starting, writes Christine Madden
In this spirit, the burgeoning interest in dance has prompted not only the tremendous achievement of International Dance Festival Ireland in building momentum over three festivals, but also further exploration of the Irish dance legacy. Irish Moves is long overdue, but its appearance now is very much an expression of the moment.
Mulrooney's book arose from a series of dance interviews on RTÉ Radio 1, Nice Moves, that coincided with the second Dance Festival Ireland in 2004. In its form, the work echoes this informal style, with interviews to document Irish dance history from earlier times to the present, and concentrating on developments since Ireland's independence in the early 20th century. Because no one until now has sought to represent Irish dance history as a continuum, many vital witnesses and much archival material have been lost. Mulrooney nevertheless creates as full and vibrant a collage as possible, supplemented with second-hand information about iconic figures such as Erina Brady, who launched the Irish School of Dance Art in 1939 but is herself no longer alive to give a first-hand account.
Others, such as Ninette de Valois (born Edris Stannus in Blessington, Co Wicklow), have left written records of their time and experience in the struggle to achieve recognition for Irish dance and physical theatre. Although she began the Abbey School of Ballet at the behest of Yeats, who wished to explore dance and physicality within his own work, such as the Noh-inspired Plays for Dancers, she was swimming against the tide of repression of the expression of the body in the early years of the State. Phenomena such as the Public Dance Halls Act of 1935 "for the licensing, control and supervision of places used for public dancing and related matters", or the prohibition of second position (in which the feet are spread apart) and shiny patent leather shoes in dance classes, testify to a climate in which bodily expression was straitjacketed. Dancer Colin Dunne recalls teachers who "had the sleeves of their dancers' costumes sewn to the bodice of their dresses or jackets so they couldn't move their arms" - an almost brutal manifestation of the rigidity of mid-20th- century Irish society.
But you can only keep freedom of expression stifled for so long. Like Joyce, Beckett and other writers, many dance artists had no option but to leave the country to pursue their careers elsewhere. Talents such as de Valois (who went on to found the Royal Ballet in London) enriched other countries instead of this one. Luckily, however, in the latter part of the century, skilled dancers such as Joanna Banks, Finola Cronin, Joan Denise Moriarty and Catherine Nunes returned to Ireland after fruitful careers abroad, bringing back the benefits of their ability and experience. And after the Arts Council cut funding to dance in 1989, causing many casualties, such as the demise of Moriarty's Irish National Ballet, many dancer professionals - such as John Scott, Robert Connor and Loretta Yurick, David Bolger, Liz Roche and Michael Keegan Dolan - flouted the setback and went on in the 1990s to set up companies and flourish.
Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin says he smiles when he watches the fluidity of sean-nós, likening it to a water diviner with a hazel rod. Yet Raymond Keane, founding member of Barabbas, recalls feeling "so envious" of his American cousins, their confidence and loose physicality when they came to visit in the summer: "I always felt that while the Americans were there taking up space in the kitchen, I was cowering in the corner."
This sense of inferiority, giving rise to defensiveness, sometimes comes too painfully across. Why, for example, the discussion as to whether there is an indigenous Irish word for "dance"? French people don't discuss the problems of the word "ballet" coming from the Italian "ballare" - nor do the Russians, for that matter. "Dance" itself is hardly an "English" word - most Indo- European languages use some version of it - but this is beside the point. What matters is that dance in many different forms exists in all human society, and has and continues to have potency in Ireland, thanks to its many determined and talented exponents.
Mulrooney includes no bibliography in her book - is there so little material? Let's hope that, in coming years, other works will be published and will include Irish Moves among their source materials.
Christine Madden is a journalist and dance critic
Irish Moves: An Illustrated History of Dance and Physical Theatre in Ireland By Deirdre Mulrooney Liffey Press, 295pp. €24.95