My daughter wants to try dance for a while (instead of martial arts), so we’re looking at two possibilities: ballet/tap or Irish dance. I guess I don’t mind much which we pick; they cost about the same and the classes are at the same time. We visited the Irish dance class today and my kid, who is always enthused about anything she tries, wants to do it. (But if we visit a ballet class, she’ll want that.)
So: what’s it like? I just want to have fun–I don’t want to start doing competitions, spending hundreds of dollars on glittery stiff costumes, or buying scary curly wigs. So that makes me nervous, but the teacher promises we don’t have to do any of that stuff.
Not sure how useful this will be, but…
At our local streetfair, they put up a stage where various groups perform. There’s usually a martial arts school demo, and some dance demo. This past year, I caught the Irish dance school demo - various ages performed their dances culminating in the big finale with all the kids out there. I have to say I thought it was cool. It was much “classier” than most dance school demos in that it was so traditional. I don’t know that the kids were having any more/less fun than any other dance class. But I liked seeing more of folksy, traditional style than the usual “bump and grind” pop dance demos that I usually see at the street fair. It had a bit of the tap/stomp of the “Riverdance” stuff, and others that were more ballet-like.
Yes, that is an appealing part of it; there’s no way my girls are going to take booty-shaking dance classes. (Not, come to think of it, that they would be any good at it anyway. They haven’t got that kind of rhythm.)
I would avoid any Irish dancing classes that focus on competitive dancing at all. Your daughter will be exposed to that aspect and might want to pursue it over your objections. That could be a bad scene.
We were looking for non-competitive classes in Massachusetts and came up empty. Then we stumbled into a set at an Irish pub in Providence, RI and found a group of people who dance solely for pleasure. They were able to guide us to resources we hadn’t found on our own. I would suggest checking out the local Irish restaurants, pubs, and clubs to see if they have anything going on.
Ahaha, you seem to think I live in a city big enough to have more than one Irish pub and/or dance studio. Funny. Nope, there’s just the one place, and it’s affiliated with a pub and some music folks. (I expect the next closest studio is probably in Sacramento, two hours away.) The owner is happy to relax and have fun and not push people into competition, but some kids do it. There’s an online photo album, and sometimes the kids are in matching t-shirts and shorts, and sometimes they’re in dresses. Only some of the kids seem to own scary wigs–a lot of them just have their hair pulled back.
Yeah, I have no idea what’s with the wigs. They’re not pretty. I’ve seen some performers with curly ponytails instead, which is at least tolerable and not so scary. The difference in appearance between adults and teens in this genre is kind of stunning!