Have you ever wondered why Irish dancers never touch the floor with their heels? Irish dancing is a kind of dance that people think very little of. But what they don’t know is how much time, practice, and effort is put into it.

The world of Irish dancing

There are a lot more people that do Irish dancing than it seems like there are and I know that because I used to think that it was super rare for people to do this dance but there are always so many people at competitions. Girls and boys from all over the world do participate in this kind of dancing, whether they do it for fun or they do it to compete. Michael Flatley is known as The Lord of Irish Dance. 

Some more famous dancers are Ciara Sexton known as the  Precision and Grace. Gardiner Brothers Jean Butler The Original Riverdance Star. Colin Dunne The Master of Rhythm. Alliyah O’Hare Eight-time World Champion. James Devine The World’s Fastest Feet. Padraic Moyles  The Dynamic Performer.

Training and dedication

Training is very important if you want to level up, for example, I have been doing Irish dance now for about four years and have been working on the same dances for three years and just leveled up at my most previous competition, hard work pays off. That shows how hard it is to level up and how much time and effort it takes. 

A lot of people have the same vision of what Irish dancing looks like, but it is often very far from right. When you are in Irish dancing you have to practice the splits every day. We have to practice them because we do kicks and you need to get ninety degrees or higher.

 Some people that hear about Irish dancing think that we put our hands on our hips. No, no, no, we have to keep our arms slightly behind us and mostly to our sides. We have to stay on the balls of our feet so basically on our toes throughout the entire dance. At a beginner level we have at least four to five dances.

Competitions and levels

When you get to novice, prize winner or champs you will have seven to eight dances, sometimes even nine! There are competitions every two to three months, we travel out of state all the time to compete. 

As an Irish dancer you do not want to touch the floor with your heels, especially during a competition. If you touch the floor with your heels when you aren’t supposed to you can lose points.

The Cost of Dancing

When you get three dances into novice, the girls get very fancy expensive dresses! You typically have to wear either a bun wig or a full wig of tight curls.

The dresses range anywhere from one hundred dollars to Six THOUSAND dollars! Classes usually range anywhere from 30-90 dollars a month, for one dancer!

In our dance classes we run kick drills, diamond drills which means we have to keep our feet crossed like a diamond. We go on mile runs and run up steep hills to get our calves strong. It is very important to have strong legs in Irish dance. 

We have to keep posture throughout the whole dance. Shoulders back, fists closed, a small but noticeable smile and chin up. As an Irish dancer you will get docked for the smallest things. That includes, heels touching the floor, not smiling, uniforms not fitting, or even that your hair is messy.

We have team dances that can have two people to sixteen people in one dance.

Every school makes their own dances, no school has the same dances.

Most dance schools require spray tan at dance competitions, there are some schools that don’t require it, but most of them do. There are more that don’t require it but this is one of the best schools. Most dance teachers were worldwide competitor dancers.

Injuries and Challenges 

A lot of dancers get injured by pushing themselves way too far. Most girls or boys get shin splints from doing a drill too much or tear something in their leg because of doing kicks too high. I know a girl who dances that kicked so high at a competition she hit her nose with her knee and broke it! 

 There are state competitions, country wide competitions and even world comps. 

At some competitions they sing the Irish anthem, The judges are mostly past dancers. Every competition has a live musician, they play the violin, an accordion, flute and piano. Even all at once in some competitions. Every song sounds very similar yet so different.

Dancing takes super long to level up, it goes on roller coasters, sometimes you get medals like crazy and sometimes you can’t even place for years!  We have hard shoes which some people call clogging which we do our clicks and cool rythmed dances, and we have our soft shoes which are called Gillies where we have our kicks and tricks.

Interesting Facts

It is believed that Irish dance evolved 2,000 or more years ago, when Celtic druids danced in celebration of oak trees and the sun. Irish dancing was started sometime around 1600 b.c. From the hips up dancers do not move, our legs do all of the work.

In closing Irish dancing is not what most people think it is, there is so much more to it than what people see. People join from all over the world! There are so many drills and many hours of practice that come with it, dresses are super expensive, and we do not put our hands on our hips!