Dan Furey (England, 12 September 1909 - Lackyle,

Labasheeda Labasheeda () is a village in the parish of Kilmurry McMahon in County Clare, Ireland. The village is set on a peninsula on the banks of the Shannon estuary. Location The village lies in an indentation of the Shannon Estuary. It is in the civ ...

, 7 August 1993) was an Irish

dance teacher Dance education is a practice whereby students are taught a broad understanding of dance as a form of art and who are trained professionally in many different genres of dance. Dance education consists of specialized dancers who conduct original r ...

and

fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...

player. Furey specialized in classes for

set dancing Irish set dancing, sometimes called "Irish sets", is a popular form of folk dancing in Ireland danced to Irish tunes in groups of eight or four dancers. It is also sometime named set dance, but this name refers more often to a kind of dance in Iris ...

, céilí dancing and

step dancing Step dance is a generic term for dance styles in which footwork is considered to be the most important part of the dance and limb movements and styling are either restricted or considered irrelevant. Step-dancing is a percussive form of dan ...

. Furey started in the 1930s with his lessons. At first only local, later in the whole of West-Clare, normally travelling by

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered transport, human-powered or motorized bicycle, motor-assisted, bicycle pedal, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two bicycle wheel, wheels attached to a ...

. In that period, many primary schools invited him to give lessons. From there his fame as dance teacher and fiddler spread and in the 1980s he was invited to give lessons in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

and the United States. In 1993, he fell ill and was hospitalized in Ennis General Hospital. There he drove doctors and nursing staff berserk, by keeping dancing, even in bed. The climax came during the

Willie Clancy Summer School The Willie Clancy Summer School ( Irish ''Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy'') is Ireland's largest traditional music summer school

in July 1993, when a party of musicians broke away from the school and organized a seisiún.

Festival

Labasheeda organised a dance festival in 1995 in Furey's memory. Former students showed up from all over Ireland, United States and Great Britain. The festival continues to operate.Dan Furey Weekend Labasheeda
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References

External links

Videoclip
of several dancers, including Dan Furey, made during the

Willie Clancy Summer School The Willie Clancy Summer School ( Irish ''Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy'') is Ireland's largest traditional music summer school

1991 {{DEFAULTSORT:Furey, Dan 1909 births 1993 deaths 20th-century Irish male musicians Musicians from County Clare Irish male dancers Irish male fiddlers 20th-century Irish fiddlers Performers of Irish dance