Irish dancing hen party dance class Leicester [ reels and threes · leicester house ]
A hired room, a reel at an unreasonable tempo, and a line of people discovering that sevens and threes take four minutes to learn and rather longer to get right. £185 buys the ninety, everyone in the line included, and the venue cost of the hired central Leicester room is set out alongside it in writing; the hour is £160 plus that venue cost.
One line, one
tempo, no mercy
The last set, taken faster than anybody agreed to — how these bookings reliably end.
Get it in the diary while the date is still yours
A rough date and a rough number is enough to start. A call comes back within the day carrying real availability, followed by one written number with the hired room’s cost already counted into it. Novelty is the selling point: among hen party ideas, almost nobody has actually done this one, and everybody has an opinion about it anyway.
A hen do dance class is also easy to lock in early. The theme can still move afterwards — a dance hen party is allowed to change its mind weeks later — so nobody is committed to a reel for ever. No dance experience is required from anybody in the group, which removes the usual objection to hen party activities that involve counting.
Numbers moving is normal and costs nothing. The figure was never worked out per person, so a line of eight and a line of eighteen are quoted the same.
Two steps, then everything made out of them
Nothing is prepared in advance. The teacher brings the music and builds the material in front of you, because a line of twelve who have never done this needs a different session from a line of twelve containing somebody whose mother made her do it for nine years. What gets made is made in the room, for that room.
The structure is unusually kind to beginners. Almost everything in this style comes out of two moves — the sevens, sideways along the line, and the threes that turn you round — and both can be walked through slowly in a few minutes. The difficulty is entirely in the tempo, which the teacher raises gradually and then, at some point, stops admitting to raising. That is the part groups remember.
Ninety makes room for a proper group figure, where the line splits and crosses and everybody has to count out loud to survive it, plus time to run the finish more than once. The hour version takes in a warm-up, the two core steps and a short set at the end. The pace is composed on the day and adjusted as the session goes, so the standing-around bits land exactly when the room needs them.
Irish dancing is honest in a way most themes are not: backs straight, arms still, and every foot out of time can actually be heard. Sevens and threes feel impossible at tempo until they have been done slowly a good many times, and the longer booking is what lets the line put in that slow work before the reel is wound back up to speed.
If there is a tune the group wants, say so and it gets a run-through.
Five tunes in contention; the line settles it.
The Siege of Ennisthe group figure that makes a nervous room start talking to each other
the openerWalls of Limericksimple, sociable, and impossible to get wrong quietly
crowd pickCooley’s Reelthe tempo test — where sevens and threes stop being theoretical
the drillDrowsy Maggiefaster again; booked only when the room has clearly got the bit
outside runnerThe Irish Washerwomanthe one everybody can hum, and the natural place to finish loud
the last setThat is a shortlist and not an order of play. The teacher decides on the day, in the room, based on how fast the line is actually moving — nothing is committed to before the date.
[ a tune you want? ]Say so on the form and the teacher will find a home for it.
Back to the door desk ↑
Fitting a reel into a Leicester afternoon
The hired room sits centrally, which matters more for this theme than most: nobody wants a long walk afterwards. Lunch near the Market, class mid-afternoon, then two minutes to the Clock Tower and whatever the evening turns into. Groups come in from Wigston, Oadby and Loughborough and none of them has ever needed a parking plan.
Nothing is supplied — not shoes, not anything else. Trainers or soft pumps are genuinely the right answer, and anybody who already owns hard shoes is welcome to bring them and be enormously smug. Groups who fancy matching green do it themselves; groups who turn up as they are get the identical class and quieter calves.
One warning worth printing: this is the theme most likely to produce aching legs the following morning. Nobody has ever listed that as a complaint, but it does affect how ambitious the Sunday plan should be.
Which room it is arrives in writing with the confirmation, days before anyone has to go looking for the door.
Two stubs from the line
"The sevens and threes take four minutes to learn and about forty to get right, which turns out to be the whole joke. Twelve of us in a line, counting out loud, and a finish that sounded like the floor was coming up."
"Booked on a whim and it was the loudest ninety minutes of the weekend. Trainers were absolutely fine, the teacher started us slowly and then quietly stopped slowing down, and the price on the email was the price we paid."
Six questions, no evasions
Anything else worth asking, ring 07535 351968 and it gets answered in about a minute.
Does anybody have to own proper Irish shoes? +
No. Nothing is supplied and nothing special is required — trainers or soft pumps are ideal, and the teacher gets the sound out of the floor either way.
What is the fee for an Irish dancing class? +
The ninety is £185 and the shorter hour £160, whole party on one line, plus the venue cost of the central Leicester room we hire, all shown in the written quote.
Which tunes and steps might come up? +
Sevens and threes first, then a reel. The Siege of Ennis, Walls of Limerick, Cooley's Reel, Drowsy Maggie and The Irish Washerwoman are all in contention.
Is there any chance of keeping our arms down? +
There is, and most groups last about ten minutes before giving up on it. Arms down is traditional; arms wherever you like is what usually happens by the finish.
Which Leicester room would the reel run in? +
A central Leicester room we hire for the slot, named in writing at confirmation — a couple of minutes from the Clock Tower and from Granby Street.
We are hopeless and slightly unfit — realistic? +
Yes. No dance experience is needed, the material is composed on the day at the room's pace, and the teacher builds in the standing-still bits on purpose.