What the hell happened to Irish Dancing?

orla wrote: »

Don't think you'd be up to our standard :P

turn it off, turn it off!!!

is that you screaming!:D

mars bar wrote: »

I did it for 7 years back in the day when you had the traditional Irish dress and a wig if ya wanted. That was as far as it went, it was all about the dancing.
It's such a shame the way it has gone now.

I did it back in the day before the wigs! You used your natural hair, skin colour and face!
You were judged on your dancing ability and not your fashion sense. Costumes did cost an arm and a leg however the prices varied, depending on how much you wanted to pay. If you went with your school of dancings costume you were playing a couple of hundred.
I danced in the connaught and All Ireland championships and it was much better than the circus that is paraded nowadays.
Its unfortunate, as the girls/lads obviously have the dancing talent but its the ridiculous colours, fake hair, fake tan, silly clown costumes that take away what Irish Dancing is/was all about. :rolleyes:

Sean-nós dancing is boring as hell.

Costumes used to be nice! I gave up Irish dancing in 2001 and it was creeping in in a major way then. I had a velvet costume with tiny bits of sequins on it- but they're all outlandish now with no celtic designs. Costumes were lovely in the late 90's, boring before then and rotten shiny things now. Was under pressure to wear a wig but never did. It's INSANELY competitive, I started too late and once you rise so high you're competing against people who've been dancing since the age of 4..so you ALWAYS lose to them. Was interfering with school then as well. Can't imagine what those horrible dresses cost now, a brand new dress in 1999 cost £700 (used the buy and sell instead!)

JohnMearsheimer wrote: »

Cheers, I didn't realize Irish dancers had to curl their hair......tells ya how observant I am

It's not compulsory and is sometimes easier not to have curls but at the big competitions you normally wouldn't see many people without them. Personally I prefer natural curls and have never worn a wig, I like it better that way

I was never a huge Irish Dancing fan. I remember being made to do it in school and was never really good at it. I wanted to do ballet instead but they weren't having any of it. :rolleyes:

That said, I saw an amazing display of Irish dancing at a friend's wedding last year. The bride was a teacher of it and some of the girls she taught came and danced at her wedding and what a fantastic show they put on. I was highly impressed.

However, I agree with the costumes. I used to love the old costumes with the beautiful embroidery and celtic designs. They look so tacky and horrible now and the business with the wigs is just unreal. Most girls have beautiful hair and they should be allowed to show it off and look individual, not look like curly-headed clones of each other.

It is a big part of our heritage and it's great that it's still going strong but seriously....sort them costumes out!

Jen ;->

Irish dancing is a martial art invented by the IRA:

From an American newspaper.

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/photos/2010/03/world-irish-dance-championship.html

Whats with al of the didgy wigs? Does it make them look like Irish cailíni

For Forks Sake wrote: »

It's all Flatleys fault.

Good News, Everyone! He's Back. Lord Of The Dance returns to Dublin in November.

I wonder if they'll let me backstage with a big bag of marbles ..? I'm with Leary on this one :cool: