I remember learning the High Cauled Cap in Ireland, a year or two after I had moved there from Australia- I think it was a lovely weekend in Mullaghboy, Co.Louth.

For those of you who don’t know, this is quite a complex Irish figure dance that crosses over between being a ceili dance and a set dance: an unusual creation with  a foot in both camps!

We got to the part where we do “sevens” – dancing sideways and back again to place – and I thought, “Goody -I know how to do this bit” ( SEE FILM at the bottom of this post). Every dancer who learns Irish step dancing will pretty much start with this step. And then a funny thing happened. Everyone else was doing sevens but they didn’t look the same, although it was very like the sevens I was dancing, with pointed toes and little leaps at either end but not the same. Then, the confusion of the next few moves overtook me and I forgot that thought. Continue reading →