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Dance


Scottish and Irish Dance
The San Antonio Highland Games features a variety of both Scottish and Irish Dance performances, with some opportunities for crowd participation.

Scottish Highland Dance
Scottish Highland dancing requires skill, strength, and endurance to perform the highly technical dance which derived primarily from solo step dancing. Highland dancing involves both complicated footwork performed on the balls of the feet, in conjunction with upper body, arm, and hand movements. The San Antonio Highland Games offers both a Highland dance competition, as well as Highland Dance performances.

The traditional Highland dances include The Highland Fling, The Sword Dance, Seann Truibhas (pronounced ‘Shawn Trewes’), Reel of Tulloch, the Irish Jig, and the Sailor's Hornpipe, among others.

Scottish Country Dance
Scottish country dancing is a social dance which shares elements with ballroom formation dance. Dance tempos vary from lively jigs, hornpipes and reels, to the elegant, slower strathspeys. According to the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society, "Participants are grouped into sets, typically of 3, 4 or 5 couples arranged either in two lines (men facing women) or in a square, and work together to dance a sequence of formations. This will leave them in a new order, and the dance is repeated enough times to bring them back to their starting positions, with everyone dancing each position in turn." Scottish Country Dance is performed at the San Antonio Highland Games and each performance typically includes a set where audience members are encouraged to join in the fun on stage.

Irish Dance
Irish dance includes a variety of traditional dance forms which can be segregated into social dance and performance dance.

One type of Irish social dance, céilí dance, can be performed by as few as two people, but may be expanded to accommodate an unlimited number of couples. Céilí dances are sometimes "called", where the upcoming steps are announced, and are typically performed to music which utilizes traditional Irish instrumentation.

Another Irish social dance, set dancing, is danced in square sets of four couples. These dances are comprised of a number of parts which are frequently repeated throughout the set. Each part of the set dance is danced to a music tempo, mostly reels, jigs, polkas, hornpipes and slides.

Performance Irish dance is traditionally recognized as Irish step dancing where the dancers maintain a controlled but not rigid upper body, straight arms, and quick, precise movements of the feet. Popularized by the show Riverdance, the step dancers can use "soft shoes" or "hard shoes". Irish dance performed at the San Antonio Highland Games includes both group dances as well as solo performances and is always a crowd favorite.

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