My Favorite Activity

 

My favorite activity to do is Irish Dancing. Irish Dancing can be done indoors or outdoors but it usually has to be done on a hard surface. Irish Dancing has two unsimilar kinds of shoes that you have to wear for two different kinds of Irish Dancing. The names of the shoes are hardshoe and softshoe.

 

Softshoe dancing is usually the first dance that you do. In softshoe class you learn things like hop one, two, threes, sevens and three kinds of jigs. Hop one, two, threes are basically what they are called. First, you hop up on one foot and with the other you kick your backside. Then with the foot that you kicked your backside with you put that foot in front and then, keeping yourself in one place, you make 2 more steps and it keeps repeating. Sevens are when you walk sideways seven steps. The jigs that we do are called leg jigs, slip jigs and I cannot remember the other one. When you ace all of these steps you start doing an advanced jig to get you ready for hardshoe class, the next kind of dance that you would learn and also to get ready for the advanced version of softshoe class. After you master that jig then you go to the advanced class.

 

The softshoes that you wear have really lengthy laces and they cross over like the laces of a sneaker at the top and then at the bottom you have about a yard of lace left and you have to tie the shoe a certain way. In the beginning it is makes you flustered when you’re trying to tie them but then you get the hang of it and start doing it much faster. The softshoes make no noise when you are dancing in them.

 

In hardshoe dancing you use some of the things that you learned in softshoe class like sevens and you learn new things such as trebles. To do a treble you pull back one of your feet a little bit and take it forward so it just lifts off the ground. Make sure you hit your whole foot on the ground when you are pulling your foot forward. Then you use the foot that you lifted off the ground and bring it to the opposite side of the foot that you lifted. Last you jump onto that you had by your side and repeat with the other foot. You also learn two more jigs. One is called hornpipes. I forget what the other one is called. Once you master the hornpipes and the other jig you move on to advanced hardshoe class.

 

The hardshoes that you wear have a lessened amount of lace than the softshoes so you only have to tie them and not have to do the kinds of things that you do for the softshoes. You also have to buckle something on the shoes as tight as you can so you don’t fall. The shoes have heels on them and it makes it harder to stand and easier to fall. The hardshoes make noise when you dance in them.

 

Once you think you are ready you can go to an Irish Dance competition also known as a feis. (Fu-esh) They take place in many different places. You compete against other Irish Dancers in a certain dance or another thing like doing sevens and hop one, two, threes or something like that. Then if you get 1st, 2nd or 3rd place you would get a medal or a trophy. You have to do the dance well and have good posture to get 1st, 2nd or 3rd place.

 

This is why Irish Dancing is my favorite activity.