Catherine Foley's book is the first systematic, ethnohistorical study of step dance in Ireland, and is a timely and welcome addition to critical dance scholarship. Coming from an ethnochoreological perspectice that engages with the dialectical relationship between movement systems and the historical and cultural conditions in which they are practiced, Foley takes us on a journey with Irish step dance from its roots in rural Ireland of the eighteenth century through to its present day theatrical and competitive practice. Within this trajectory, she identifies three main stylistic forms of step dance associated with the distinctive performance contexts of the local, national, and global. In the local context, she outlines the pivotal role of itinerant dance masters in rural North Kerry throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; the role of the Gaelic League in creating a national dance canon in the early twentieth century; and, in the contemporary context, the role of commercial imperatives in theatrical and competitive dance within a global cultural economy. Utilizing a combination of ethnographic observation, oral history interviews, and documentary sources, Foley demonstrates how the changing skills, aesthetics, and symbolism of step dance reflect a changing society and value systems in each of these performance contexts.

Research on the history of dancing as a leisure activity in rural Ireland in the nineteenth century is not new. It has been well served in the work of Breathnach (Reference Breathnach1983), Brennan (Reference Brennan1999), and Friel (Reference Friel2004) with reference to the southeast of Ireland. Both Breathnach and Brennan use data collected by the Irish Folklore Comission, and Brennan's book also contains valuable ethnographic interview material from various parts of the country. However, Foley's unique contribution to the history and culture of step dancing is her sustained and meticulously conducted ethnographic research in the North Kerry area between 1983 and 1986, and again in 2001. The author, herself a step dancer and ethnochoreologist, clearly establishes her role in the ethnographic process in Chapter 1. Her own experience as a dancer and her prolonged immersion in step dance culture enables her to bring an embodied knowledge and insider view to the project, while her training in Labanotation assists her in providing a precise and detailed description and comparative analysis of the dance styles under review.

The book's discussion, laid out in eight chapters, moves chronologically from the nineteeth century to the twenty-first century. Chapter 2 addresses the influence of the continental European dance aesthetic on the local context and particularly the role of dance in the “civilizing process” (23) and in keeping with an individual's status in a hierarchical society. Though interesting and informative, this chapter could have been substantially edited without damaging its contextualising function. Chapters 3 and 4 are devoted to an account of the emergence of itinerant dancing masters and of their integral role in rural society within the context of colonialism. Foley's ethnographic interviews, especially those with dancers who had learned under the instruction of Jeremiah Molyneaux, the last surviving itinerant dance master in the North Kerry, comprise the cornerstone of this work. Based on information about individual dancing masters, including their backgrounds and personal histories, as well as their teaching schedules, practices, and payment systems, she builds a clear profile of their role in the transmission of dance to the local peasantry. Given the reliance on documentary evidence in historical dance research and the “relative dearth of information on the practices and experiences of dancers” (O'Connor Reference O'Connor2013, 153). Foley's recording of a dance tradition on the verge of disappearing from living memory adds considerably to our knowledge of step-dance practice in the nineteenth century.

The embodied knowledge and the cultural meanings of step dance for the Molyneaux dancers are the subjects of Chapter 4. This knowledge, some of which was acquired through formal training and some informally from local culture, included posture and steps, movement and performance style, knowledge of appropriate ritual occasions, and venues for performing. Dancers also knew the history of step dance and dancing masters in their area, what made a good dancer, who “owned” steps, and where and from whom they learned steps. In each of these ways, dancers embodied and expressed their embeddedness in their own place. “Dancing and talking about dancing contributed to their feeling of being alive and being alive to their local environment, culture and history” (105). Of particular interest in Foley's analysis is the interlinking of the close-to-the-floor, earthy dance style, with a grounded connection to the land, and the creation of community through dance. The inclusion of more quotes from the Molyneaux dancers themselves about the cultural meanings they constructed around their dance practice would, in my view, have strengthened the emic dimension and enhanced the “thick description” (Geertz Reference Geertz1973, 7)of the narrative in this chapter.

Chapter 5 engages with the transmission of nationalist cultural values through step dance performance in a changing Ireland at the close of the nineteenth century. Here Foley outlines the central role of the Gaelic League in inventing “Irish” dance by shaping both competitive (feiseanna) and social (céilí) dancing in line with a nationalist agenda, as well as the hegemonic role of Coimisiún le Rincí Gaelacha (The Irish Dancing Commission) in maintaining a rigid control over dance practice from the 1930s. Following rural to urban migration, step dance transmisson shifted, too, with younger age groups attending classes, a transition from male to female teachers, and an increased discipline in instruction. By and large local dance traditions gave way to a national standard characterized by inter alia, a uniform and more elevated dance style, more intricate stepping, and traveling movement. Though general critical commentary on the “national” era in step dance is by now familiar (see Breathnach Reference Breathnach1983; Brennan Reference Brennan1999; Cullinane Reference Cullinane1998, Reference Cullinane2003; Hall, Reference Hall2008), the detail in this chapter of dance practice, training, and transmission is well- grounded historically and theoretically, and provides a suitable context for discussion of the national system in the local context of North Kerry in Chapter 6. The chapter also raises interesting questions about changing cultural identities, particularly those of social class and gender during this period. For example, the process whereby dance, a mark of masculinity in rural Ireland, shifted to being “perceived by many urban men to be unmanly” (150) invites further inquiry.

Foley discusses the performance of Irishness through step dance in a contemporary context in Chapters 6 and 7. The issues of modernity, globalization, and commercialization have been most frequently addressed with reference to spectacular global theatrical productions such as Riverdance and Lord of the Dance, so it is insightful to learn how these are negotiated in the “glocal” (Robertson Reference Robertson, Feathersone, Lash and Robertson1995) contexts discussed by Foley. In Chapter 6, she investigates the changing nature of contemporary step dance performance in the local dance school, Rinceoirí na Ríochta, as well as observing the World Championships of Irish dance in Killarney in the context of a competition culture. Chapter 7 is devoted to the work of Siamsa Tíre, the Irish National Folk Theatre founded in 1974. She traces its origin, and organizational and artistic strategies, and outlines the challenges of constructing and performing an Irishness that will appeal to a predominantly tourist audience, while at the same time maintaining an artistic and cultural integrity.

The perennial question about any ethnographic endeavor is the extent to which the chosen field site is representative of the whole. And since the title of Foley's book, Step Dancing in Ireland, has a national reference point, it merits comparison with other historical or ethnographic work. Brennan, for instance, suggests that dancing in Connemara and some of the Ulster counties was for the most part learned informally either in the family or community setting (Brennan Reference Brennan1999, 59). Would it be reasonable to assume that dancing masters were fewer or absent from the poorer parts of the country? And if this were the case, did it have implications for dance styles and functions in these parts? Comparitive analysis would also uncover similarities as well as differences. The values of selflessness and cooperation, for example, associated with “the Gaelic idea” (156) of the nationalist era have also been identified as a feature of the revival of folk dance in England around the same time (Snape Reference Snape2009).

While acknowledging the importance of estblishing the general theoretical framework early on, I do struggle somewhat with the placing of definitions of key themes and concepts in Chapter 1. My preference would have been to interweave concepts with the ethnographic narrative as it unfolded in the subsequent chapters. This could have avoided some repetition and improved the flow of discussion in the early part of the book. The inclusion of photographs adds to its visual appeal, particularly those older and rarer images of the dancing masters Neidin Batt Walsh and his wife from 1875, and of Jeremiah Molyneaux, c. 1938.

Foley's publication, integrating as it does a prodigious amount of primary research with a considered and theoretically grounded analysis, makes a significant contribution to the growing multiperspectival body of critical work on dance in Ireland. It is essential reading for scholars of dance, history, and Irish culture, and will also appeal to a general audience interested in any of these areas.