00:00Confucius has a quote.
00:21You can tell the condition of a man's kingdom by the state in which you find the dance there.
00:30Irish dance was born out of oppression. It's such a raw form of expression.
00:39We were colonized for 800 years. That's bound to make a mark on how we dance and how we see ourselves as dancers.
00:49People respond to oppression by resisting it. People were determined not to be swallowed whole.
01:00The Irish have developed a style of dance that is so intricate.
01:09The fastest footwork of all the folk dances in the world.
01:15Percussion is the heart of it. It's not only dancing to music, but dancing as music.
01:24It's something that's deeply human. I've always been awed by the beauty and the sheer joy of being alive, coming out in motion.
01:34Irish dance has been hugely influential. It has become part of global popular culture.
01:43A lot of the best Irish dancers are no longer from Ireland. They're from Australia, North America or Canada. And they can take Irish dance to a new place.
01:54The big question is how and why the traditional dance of the Irish people has grown to become a worldwide phenomenon.
02:03We have to think about why the dance was happening, the way it was happening, who the people are that made the dance at that time, what the social structures were at that time, what the political structures were at that time.
02:15That all feeds into Irish dance.
02:22Dance won't be captured. It flies free.
02:25Dance music.
02:40Dance music.
02:44Dance music.
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