Greek Highland Dance

An exponential amount of people often cannot tell the difference between the art of Irish Dance, and the art of Highland dance. To the untrained eye, it is perfectly acceptable to confuse the two passions; nevertheless there are quite a few similarities, however there are far more differences. The differences of the two practices are actually quite obvious: The costumes that the dancers wear at demonstrations, the dances that are executed at competitions, and the style of music played at performances. Highland dance originates from Scottish heritage, therefore one of the costumes for highland dance is the Scottish kilt. The Scottish kilt can be any tartan that the young dancer desires; typically a dress tartan is chosen. The kilt is paired
The costumes are more unique and flashy. Each dancers has a long sleeve dress, which goes down to their mid-thigh, and on each dress there are hundreds of rhinestones and sparkles. The dancers wear large wigs that increase the size of their curled hair and on top of that, they wear a crown to match their costumes. Similar to Highland dance, the Irish dancers wear ghillies upon their feet in order to execute some of their dances. Unlike Highland dance, where the costumes symbolize their country, the Irish’s outfits have nothing to do with their heritage. The costumes were adapted as the years went on, and multiple different details were added and erased from history. Now each dancer’s personality and skills are represented through each of their costumes. In comparison to Highland dance, Irish dance has eight main dances; the dances depend on how many rounds that a dancer qualifies for. The eight main dances are under champion level; typically danced back to back and are all scored individually. There is one main dance for a trophy and the dancer will need two first place trophies in under one year to advance to champion level. Once at champion level you have two dances that rotate every year: slipjig, hornpipe, treblejig and reel. If a performer manages to get a recall, they dance a third dance called a set and get their overall score for the three dances. As the dancer becomes more advanced and depending on the level, they add their own personal preference into the set dance, therefore causing the dance to never be the same. In order to complete their dance steps, they must have set music. The Irish dancers are different from Highland in music as well. Although the live music is similar, the Irish dancers use a live band that include fiddlers and pianists. The music never changes, and is always the same tune, depending on the dance; however, the tune may be different speeds depending on the band.