Irish Dance Classes UK | 67 Cities

Irish Dancing Classes in Your City

Every class is taught by a working professional. Choose your city for the local class page: venue, day, time and how to book your first session.

Your First Irish Dancing Class

Posture and the building blocks

Arms relaxed by your sides, chin up, weight on the balls of your feet. Then the small units everything is built from — points, hops and the one-two-threes that power every step you'll ever learn.

Your first reel

Sevens and threes chain together into a real soft-shoe reel step, counted with the music until your feet stop asking your brain for directions.

Rhythm and céilí

A taste of hard-shoe rhythm, then a group céilí dance to finish — the sociable, laughing side of Irish dancing that the competition footage never shows.

What Is Irish Dancing?

Irish dancing splits into two glorious halves. Soft shoe is the airborne one — reels and jigs danced in laced ghillies, all lift and lightness. Hard shoe is the loud one — hornpipes and treble jigs in fibreglass-tipped shoes that turn the floor into a drum. Both share the signature look: a proud, still upper body carried over feet moving faster than seems strictly reasonable.

In class it works like this: steps are built from small units — points, hops, cuts, sevens and threes — counted to the music until they chain into full steps. It is a genuine workout disguised as a dance class, superb for fitness, balance and memory, and no partner is required. Céilí dancing adds the social side: group figures danced in lines and circles, where laughing counts as technique.

No dance style ever had a bigger night than Irish dancing on 30 April 1994, when Riverdance filled the Eurovision interval in Dublin and turned seven minutes of stepping into a worldwide phenomenon. Britain has been part of the story ever since: the World Championships have been hosted in London, Glasgow and Belfast, and adult beginner classes are thriving across the UK.

Still up top, thunder down below — Irish dancing is a drum solo you play with your feet.

Reel

The classic soft-shoe dance in quick 4/4 time — light, fast and airborne. Almost every beginner's first step is a reel.

Slip Jig

Graceful and lilting in 9/8 time, danced high on the toes — often called the ballet of Irish dance.

Hornpipe

A syncopated hard-shoe dance with a swagger inherited from its sailor roots — slower than a reel, twice as rhythmic.

Treble Jig

The heavy-shoe jig: trebles, stamps and clicks layered over a 6/8 rhythm. This is where the floor becomes percussion.

Céilí Dancing

Ireland's social dancing — group figures in lines, circles and squares. The steps are simple, the room does the rest.

Sean-nós

The relaxed old style: low to the floor, free arms, improvised steps — Irish dancing as it looked before the competitions arrived.

Irish Dance Facts Worth Repeating

Seven minutes that changed everything

Riverdance premiered on 30 April 1994 as the Eurovision interval act in Dublin, with Michael Flatley and Jean Butler — and earned a standing ovation that launched a global phenomenon.

The Worlds since 1970

The World Irish Dancing Championships — Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne — were first held in Dublin in 1970 and are run by An Coimisiún le Rincí Gaelacha.

35 taps per second

Michael Flatley set a Guinness World Record of 28 taps per second in 1989 — then broke his own record with 35 taps per second in 1998.

18 weeks at number one

Bill Whelan's 'Riverdance' single, featuring Anúna, topped the Irish singles chart for a record-setting 18 weeks after the Eurovision performance.

Irish Dancing Questions, Answered

Isn't Irish dancing just for kids in competitions?

Not any more. Adult beginner classes are one of the fastest-growing corners of Irish dancing, full of people who never danced as children — plus a few who did and missed it. Competing is entirely optional; most adults dance for the fitness, the rhythm and the craic.

What do I wear? Please don't say a wig.

No wig, no embroidered dress, no fake tan — those belong to competition day and nowhere else. For class, wear comfortable gym clothes and trainers. Soft ghillies and hard shoes come later, if and when you want them.

Do I need to be Irish, or have any experience?

Neither. Irish dancing is danced on every continent, and beginner classes assume zero experience — every step is broken down and counted from scratch. Enthusiasm outranks ancestry in every class we run.

How fit do I need to be?

Fit enough to climb a flight of stairs — the class builds the rest. Irish dancing is superb cardio, but beginners work at their own pace, steps are learned slowly before they're danced at speed, and nobody minds if you take a breather.

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Your City Has a Céilí

Somewhere near you this week, a hall of adults is counting out its first reel and laughing about it. Join them.

67 cities

Find Your Class

Local venues, times and prices — everything is on your city's irish dancing page.

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Questions? Call 07759 656300 or email info@dancecentreuk.co.uk

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