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 civi ...

, 7 August 1993) was an Irish dance teacher and

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

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 ...

, Ceili dancing and

Step dancing Step(s) or STEP may refer to: Common meanings * Steps, making a staircase * Walking * Dance move * Military step, or march ** Marching Arts Films and television * ''Steps'' (TV series), Hong Kong * ''Step'' (film), US, 2017 Literature * '' ...

. 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 or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. Bic ...

. 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 northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

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 Irish traditional music sessions are mostly informal gatherings at which people play Irish traditional music. The Irish language word for "session" is ''seisiún''. This article discusses tune-playing, although "session" can also refer to a singin ...

Festival

As a fitting memory to their local hero, the people of Labasheeda started to organize a dance festival in 1995. They were completely taken by surprise when former students showed up from all over Ireland, United States and Great Britain. The festival still exists.Dan Furey Weekend Labasheeda
/ref>

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 people Musicians from County Clare Irish male dancers Irish fiddlers 20th-century violinists Performers of Irish dance