Beginners Irish Dance advice needed

[uneasyliesthehead]

My daughter is really keen to try Irish dancing and likes the idea of competitions.

Is she too old to dance competitively? Also any other advice you could offer would be appreciated. I'm happy to let her try classes, certainly. She's never done Irish dance before, but has always taken ballet classes (which she will still, in addition), but that might be helpful? as there's a degree of turnout I believe?

What age is she? It's great fun and hard work, also can be really expensive!

I'd say from my dd's personal experience that ballet and Irish dance don't have a lot in common, ballet requires a lot of upper body and arm movement (epaulement and port de bras), and a deep plie with heels down to the ground, whereas Irish is mainly danced on the balls of the feet and there isn't much in the way of arm movement.

My vocationally-minded dd gave up Irish as it was affecting her classical technique, but if she hadn't been working towards a ballet career she'd have carried on I expect. Most people won't have that level of career aspirations so it would be fine.

Go for it.

Agree with dodo. Though if you're looking for something similar to complement ballet slightly more then Highland dancing might be something to explore..

YY to ballet and Irish being very different.

You don't say how old she is, but the most senior dancer at DD's dance school didn't start til she was 9 and is now 22 and still regularly winning and is currently ranked in the top ten in the world.

Competing does get expensive if she wants to go the whole hog with a dress and wig though not to mention looking a bit pageant meets drag queen