How to Do the Treble Shuffle in Irish Step Dancing

Series Summary

Irish step dance is a type of performance dance that originated in Ireland and has become popular world-wide thanks to exposure granted by Michael Flatley's Riverdance. Characterized by stiffly maintained erect upper body postures and nimble, quick-moving feet, Irish step dance is often performed in group form, displaying a unique form of rhythm, syncopation and talent amongst its dancers. Irish music and its history have inspired many kinds of native dance traditions, but step dancing is one form of expression that has made its way through the years to gain popularity. The two types of Irish step dance (hard shoe and soft shoe) contain a variety of moves ranging in difficulty to very simple to extremely difficult, and they all have traditional Irish names, as well. A step dance performance may contain steps with such names as the “jig”, the “reel”, the “slip jig”, the “corkscrew” and the “hornpipe”.

In this free instructional video dance lesson, our expert will demonstrate intermediate-level Irish step dances, including treble shuffles, cuts, kicks, and hop moves, as well as combination clicks and stamps. Additionally, you will learn how to do the butterfly combo, complete with tips and suggestions for your own practice routines.

Video Transcript

"On behalf of Expert Village my name is Niall O'Leary from the Niall O'Leary School of Irish Dance in New York City and today I'm demonstrating intermediate Irish step dance. This is intermediate Irish step dance and now we're wearing the hard shoes. If you've done any kind of tap dancing you may be familiar with this type of move. In tap dancing it's called a shuffle, in Irish dancing there's a number of different names for it, it can be called treble or batter or valley or even 123. So what am I doing exactly? I'm striking the floor twice and I'm getting a little bit of ankle in there as well. The important thing is that I end with my foot in the air ready to do something else. So it's....like this, it's two sounds and as you can see it's not just tapping my foot, I'm actually striking the foot. So the faster you strike the floor, the louder the sound."