AMA- I’m an Irish dancer!

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I’ve seen other people doing this sort of thread so thought I’d give it a go in case anyone was interested or had any questions about Irish dancing or dancing in general!😁

I fell in love with Riverdance and also have Irish family😄

My inlaws run a big Irish dancing school - if I say mother and daughter have both won the Worlds 3 times, whole family either in Riverdance or Lord of the Dance you may know them!

Definitely not, or I’d have had a lot more success at competitions 😂

No but I definitely want to see a video of this 😂

I had to go to work at the last minute. Answering now!

There’s definitely been a shift in attitude recently and more people are going for the more natural dress, hair and no make up look! I think the rise in living costs will actually impact it too as otherwise a lot of people will be priced out of Irish dance so it’ll be interesting to see if more people adopt the natural look.

No they’re definitely not compulsory at competitions but specific schools might not allow dancers to dance for them at competitions without wigs. Some
people go without wigs but it does take confidence to do that especially as 99% of the other competitors will be wearing them

Haha yeah sock glue. Half the fake tan comes off with it so your legs usually look very patchy the next day!

I think it's appalling what "they" have done to Irish dancing.
Appalling and ridiculous.
I hate the fake tan, wigs, make up and costumes that are prohibitively expensive on children. Absolutely no reason for it.
I wish someone at the top in Irish dancing circles would shout stop to the whole thing.
Just ghastly.
I'm sad they've done this to Irish dancing.
I'd love to know how this ridiculous malarkey came into the activity.

What do you use to glue the wig down?

I agree. I used to do it in the late 80's and 90's. We had to have the hair in ringlets and the dress for competitions, which was ridiculously expensive even back then as it was hand embroidered, but that was it.

The fake tan, wigs and make up these days is just awful.

Surely it doesn’t take much courage not to look utterly ridiculous and frankly tacky? I get that very young girls might be dazzled by the Barbara Cartland makeup, drag-queen-meets-poodle wigs and glittery frocks, but surely teenagers upward can see that they’re making themselves ridiculous at vast expense and that you could dance just as well make-up free, in your own hair, your own skin tone and in any dress that let you move freely?

And I don’t for a second buy that ‘make up stops you looking washed out under stage lights, and the bouncy wigs accentuate your high steps’. The World Irish Dance Association stipulate that dancers under 12 must wear white polo shirts and dark green skirts or black trousers, aren’t allowed to wear make up, big wigs or fake tan — how come they’re clearly perfectly able to compete while not looking like child beauty pageant contestants?

When I was at uni back in the mid to late 90s, my friend in the room next door was either a national champion or top 3 in Ireland. There was lots of loud foot banging and she was fit as fuck. Anyhow, this was peak Riverdance mania and she had been invited to join Riverdance and had lots of friends who had. Friend had recently lost mum and decided to come to England to train as a nurse (massive recruitment in Ireland from our nursing school then- nursing had just becomes university level training and we were a little outpost affiliated to a proper uni). She confirmed Michael Flatley is apparently as much a a slease and egotist as he appears. She met up with her friends frequently and remained very much part of the Irish dancing world so had no reason to disbelieve her.

Michael flatley is a huge sleaze. Absolutely vile. I was also an Irish dancer, and a very successful one at that

I was actually in one of these type shows when i danced professionally (not riverdance, a smaller one but it still toured a lot of places) the pay was similar to most other dance contracts so just 6 months or whatever long job then onto the next thing. Some people did multiple years.

Dancing in general is not well paid tho!

I’m not saying I agree with it, I’m just explaining why people do it as people asked!

Personally I think extreme make up, wigs and tan should be banned for all children competing and it should just be about the dancing, although as a teen who was self conscious about my skin and wore make up with my friends and to school it would have felt strange not being allowed to wear make up at a dance competition and I definitely would have felt self conscious. I think it should be somewhere in the middle- makeup should be allowed but it should be natural. Although there will always be a group of parents who take it too far and put their children out in heavy make up so it would be easier just to ban it altogether

wigs definitely do give a bouncier appearance when jumping and doing leaps. Again, I’m not saying whether I agree with it or not, but that’s the reasoning behind the curls.

the fake tan helps for big big competitions eg worlds where you are competing on massive stages and the lights are very bright and can wash you out- besides, gymnastics, skaters and other types of dancers wear tan for this reason so I don’t see why Irish dancing would be different. I do think it should be banned for children though and for them it should just be about the dancing

the world Irish dancing association is a much, much smaller organisation and generally their feises are much smaller and not on as big stages as other organisations feises. It’s not a dig at them, but with WIDA a lot of their feises are a smaller event overall compared to other organisations where the major events are on massive stages with bright, bright lighting. WIDA have a big worlds but the rest of their regionals and nationals and other feises are a much smaller scale than the likes of CLRG

Glad you're not Michael!

Thanks for the replies.

The schools with the plain black dresses and sashes, and no wigs. Is that a different type of Irish dancing or just entry/beginner level?

I went to school with a girl who eventually became world champion. She’d be in her mid/late 50s now.

What age did you start and how often did you go to classes?

Was it easy to learn? Can you learn at any age do you think?

Yes Michael Flatley is a total sleaze, I can't believe more has not come out about him. Proper snogging his young leading ladies back in the day, his hands are always where they shouldn't be, and I watched a more recent LOTD where he came on for the encore and he several of the female dancers a good old grope as he danced past them. He is vile.

And Lord of the Dance is so tacky and unnecessarily sexualised compared to Riverdance, which was always so much more classy and elegant.

What do you think about cheating and favours within Irish dancing? There was a bit of a clanger in one of the younger age groups at this years CLRG World Championships wasn't there?

I hadn't heard of this

Nor I! What happened there?

School favouritism, that sort of thing? You see that sometimes.

Hi op, what are the different types of Irish dancing and which do you like? I know there is a type where the dancers move their arms more and it’s not the straight up type of dance. I do look at the dancers and think that their knees hips and ankles must be banjaxed.