Whereneverever Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Any Irish dance families here? I'm looking at this for my two dds. :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BakersDozen Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 I have 4 of my dc (next year we'll add 2 more) in Irish dance yet it is nothing like the super competitive dance I know is out there! A nun at a local church teaches - she's 75 and has been dancing since she was 4! She is absolutely amazing! We love listening to her lovely voice as she still sounds like she just stepped off the boat from Ireland. I love that my dc have not only learned a beautiful and fun way to dance but have also learned how to work with a group and choreograph their own dances. It's precious to see even my littlest ones out in the schoolroom dancing with their siblings every night. :001_wub: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whereneverever Posted July 27, 2012 Author Share Posted July 27, 2012 I have 4 of my dc (next year we'll add 2 more) in Irish dance yet it is nothing like the super competitive dance I know is out there! A nun at a local church teaches - she's 75 and has been dancing since she was 4! She is absolutely amazing! We love listening to her lovely voice as she still sounds like she just stepped off the boat from Ireland. I love that my dc have not only learned a beautiful and fun way to dance but have also learned how to work with a group and choreograph their own dances. It's precious to see even my littlest ones out in the schoolroom dancing with their siblings every night. :001_wub: Aw, that sounds great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LizzyBee Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Any Irish dance families here? I'm looking at this for my two dds. :bigear: My 11 yo has been Irish dancing for 2 years. Our studio is great about not pressuring people to compete, but providing good instruction and support for those who are interested in competition. We have a full range from students who don't compete at all to one kid who went to Nationals this year and several who went to Regionals. My dd loves performing whether she's competing or not, and our studio works with local pubs to provide those opportunities at least once a month. We also participate in parades and festivals. We have two troupes of more advanced dancers who perform at events such as weddings. One thing to be aware of is that Irish dance instructors are sometimes not as well trained in safety as ballet instructors. I noticed that my dd's teacher was not teaching them good form imo for their stretches, so I taught dd some principles such as not letting her knees go forward past her toes, etc. We just got a new instructor from England who toured in Riverdance for 3 years, so we are excited to see how things are going to change. He is implementing all new steps, so we are not planning for dd to compete this year except in our local feis. By next spring/summer, she should have nailed all the new steps and we will probably travel to several feises. The traveling gets expensive no matter how much you cut corners, so I'm not sure how deep we'll get into competition in the future. DD is dyslexic, so academics are challenging, but she thrives on dancing. So if she has the potential to be really good, I don't want to hold her back. If you are interested in competition, see if your studio offers an option for unlimited classes. Our school just added that option for only $15/month, so for only $15, dd could go to class up to 4x week. There's only one class weekly that is at the location that is close to us, so we'll going to forego unlimited classes for now. But if dd gets serious about competition, as in wanting to go to Regionals, etc, we'll have to commit to 3 classes per week. I'm glad the school is doing what they can to make that affordable. Now if they could just lower the price of gas for driving to the other locations...:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacia Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 My 11 yo has been Irish dancing for 2 years. Our studio is great about not pressuring people to compete, but providing good instruction and support for those who are interested in competition. We have a full range from students who don't compete at all to one kid who went to Nationals this year and several who went to Regionals. My dd loves performing whether she's competing or not, and our studio works with local pubs to provide those opportunities at least once a month. We also participate in parades and festivals. We have two troupes of more advanced dancers who perform at events such as weddings. This is similar to us. Dd (13) just completed her second year of dancing. This past year, she competed in two local feises, a parade, & various festivals/local outings (pubs, senior centers, etc...). The studio where she dances has a 'pro' group that dances & they were innundated w/ so many requests at St. Pat's Day (since it was on a Saturday this year) that the owner created a secondary group to go to a couple of places. Dd was thrilled to be in the second group & ended up performing at 2 restaurants & a wedding, after having already participated in the parade & city festival earlier in the day. My dd absolutely loves it & wants to be even more involved for the upcoming year. We've had a blast, but I don't look forward to the $$$ as she competes more ($ for travel & especially for the competition dresses :svengo:). It's been great for my dd, though, & she absolutely, positively loves every moment of every & anything having to do w/ Irish dance. :thumbup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hillfarm Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 We did Irish dance for a couple of years also. Things I noticed were that if you decided to go the competitive route, the expenses pile up very quickly. Girls in our area were spending easily $1000 on a performance dress, and then there were shoes, hair pieces, etc., not to mention travel, hotels, and entry fees. Because we are in a rather rural area and had difficulty attracting good (?certified) teachers to our region, several of the girls had a 2 hour drive each way to get to the nearest city 3 times a week. I do not think I could have stood the grind of that. I did also notice quite a bit of drama, but that probably had much more to do with the age of the girls, preteen and teen, than anything to do with the dance itself. We did not choose that route. We did the few local performances and then eventually got out of the habit when dd took up archery. She has been in that for 5 years now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 My oldest DD did an intro class through the local Park & Rec but to continue she would've had to switch to their studio and the costs really would've started to add up. DD liked it but didn't LOVE it, so I didn't think it was worth the investment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ma23peas Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 My girls just finished their third year...they love it! The first two years were with a studio that was not TCRG (not part of the North American Commisium that does traditional feis)..so they did not compete, just did soft shoe/hard shoe and performance class. It was great for them, but they reached a point where they really wanted to compete. We switched to a TCRG based studio and have attended 2 feis, they are doing great and we love the mom/daughter time and travel. I disagree on the expense side..there are ways to not make it expensive! :) I curl my girls' hair...part of the bonding process, everyone believes they have wigs on...I just prefer real hair v. the wigs...more trends pointing towards more natural styles..so maybe in a few years it'll be there. My girls are just competing in the school dresses...there is no requirement to wear a solo dress and we will not get one until they get to Prizewinner (some can take years to get there). They could be there next year but we plan on designing the dress and having a friend make them for us. It costs us about $100 for each feis they participate in...we get hotels on travel points so it's not bad for us. But, again, you do not have to compete. We are blessed that our instructor is also a physiotherapist specializing in sports medicine..she is very strong on proper placement and preparation. We love the conservative dresses and the physical exercise is so good for them. Their plan is to go as high as they can and then teach it while they go to college to earn money on the side....for our family, it's a wonderful experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LizzyBee Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 This is similar to us. Dd (13) just completed her second year of dancing. This past year, she competed in two local feises, a parade, & various festivals/local outings (pubs, senior centers, etc...). The studio where she dances has a 'pro' group that dances & they were innundated w/ so many requests at St. Pat's Day (since it was on a Saturday this year) that the owner created a secondary group to go to a couple of places. Dd was thrilled to be in the second group & ended up performing at 2 restaurants & a wedding, after having already participated in the parade & city festival earlier in the day. My dd absolutely loves it & wants to be even more involved for the upcoming year. We've had a blast, but I don't look forward to the $$$ as she competes more ($ for travel & especially for the competition dresses :svengo:). It's been great for my dd, though, & she absolutely, positively loves every moment of every & anything having to do w/ Irish dance. :thumbup: Oh my gosh, are we in the same school? We also had to split into groups on St Pat's Day, and dd was in the parade and then danced at the festival after the parade. Are you in NC? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparkle Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 My dd did Irish dance for a couple of years, and enjoyed it. I think it is a great sport, especially for girls. You don't have to conform to a particular body type, and generally, you can decide whether or not to compete. The thing I didn't like about my dd's studio was the teacher - she was good at teaching the dances, but she was terrible on the administrative end and very disorganized yet she refused to let anyone help her out with it. It was frustrating for me because there was no communication going on. She also did not permit parents to view the classes, so I had no way of knowing what she was teaching, and I couldn't help dd practice at home, since I didn't know the steps, and just looking at a piece of paper with them written down wasn't helpful. I would find out the teacher's policy on parents viewing the classes, and how they expect the kids to practice on their own. Also, check on how the teacher communicates - is it by email, Facebook, phone calls, website? Just my 2 cents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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