This blog post is republished with permission of Sarah Kate Morgan, the Director of Traditional Arts Education at Hindman Settlement School in Knott Co., Kentucky.

by Justin Brown, Hindman Settlement School

originally published on April 2, 2024 on the Hindman Settlement School website

Over 360 Knott County students took an imaginary adventure to Ireland this past week when award winning Irish dancer, Allison Duvall, danced through their schools! Duvall has been dancing for 27 years and shares the joy of Irish dance through her Lexington, KY studio, the McTeggart School of Irish Dance. With financial support from the Berea College Appalachian Fund’s Folk Arts & Culture Initiative, Hindman Settlement School coordinated visits to Carr Creek, Hindman, and Emmalena Elementary Schools as part of our ongoing artist-in-residence programs.

*Duvall teaching at Hindman Elementary School*

Irish dance is a close cousin to several forms of Appalachian dance, which is unsurprising considering the Irish heritage many Eastern Kentuckians share. As the Scots-Irish settled the Blue Ridge and Eastern Kentucky mountains, they brought with them the music and dance of their homeland.

Set dancing is the Irish cousin to Appalachian square dancing. This is a form of social dance, most often practiced in rural farming communities and seen at a musical community gathering called a “Ceili” (pronounced kay-lee). Irish set dances are done in sets of 4-8 people and closely resemble a square dance or a “Kentucky big set,” which are still common throughout our region.

Sean-nós dancing is a solo, percussive dance style, similar to the flatfooting and clogging still practiced widely in Appalachia. Sean-nós dancing is a little different than the iconic Riverdance we all know and love. The stiff arms, high energy kicks, and jumping is a newer style simply called “Irish dance.” Sean-nós is an older, lower impact style where the dancer has more freedom to move their arms fluidly and improvise steps in response to the music, much like Appalachian flatfooting.

These two Irish dance styles, Sean-nós and Set dancing, blended with Cherokee, African-American, and other European dance traditions to form a brand new American and Appalachian style of dancing, square dancing and flatfoot dancing.

The echo of Irish dance can be heard in Appalachia to this day, including right here in Knott and surrounding counties. You can see Appalachian flatfooting and clogging, a cousin to the Sean-nós percussive Irish dancing:

On main street in downtown Hindman on bluegrass night during the Gingerbread Festival;
every Friday night at the Campbell’s Branch/Line Fork Community Center in Blackey;
the second Saturday of every month at the Carcassonne Community Center in Letcher County (the longest running square dance in the state of Kentucky!); and
right here in Hindman every month at the Settlement School’s square dance, featuring traditional Appalachian square dancing and Kentucky big-set dancing.

Our thanks go out to Allison Duvall, the McTeggart School of Irish Dance, Berea College Appalachian Fund, for supporting the Settlement School’s effort to provide students a unique and immersive experience in dance, rooted in tradition and still practiced today!