Irish Dance

Anam Cara u16 oc New England Region

[irishdancer185-deactivated20200]

In case anyone cared here are my action shots from my first NANs 3 months later 😂😂😂

[prettylittleirishdancer]

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What a beautiful hornpipe from Aliyah Neason Credit to @irishdancevideo_

[lookinggforalaskaa-blog1]

30 Irish Dancer Problems

1: when people refer Irish dancing as “clogging” or “tap dancing”

2:when people say Irish dancing isn’t a sport

3: when your Tc says “one more time” at least 50 more times before they mean it 

4: the struggle of dancing or blocking on a tile or any other slippery type flooring

5: the struggle of performing outside in the rain or in over 100 degree weather 

6: waiting 900 years for recalls to be announced, just to wait another decade for awards 

7: two words: oireachtas season, nationals season, worlds season, any season

8: the looks you get when you Irish dance to normal music, or any music that isn’t Irish

9: always saying “sorry I have dance” whenever people try to make plans with you 

10: dancing first

11: dancing alone

12: dancing last 

13: doing a treble jig full, or any full for that matter, especially in heavies 

14: when your Tcs go from really chill to really scary in 2.0 seconds 

15: when you are at a feis and you line up for your comp just for the judges to go on lunch break so you wait 4 score and 7 years for the judges to come back 

16: breaking in new heavies

17: after a really intense workout or full you get jello legs 

18: that annoying competitor that tries to push you off stage or cuts you off 

19: when the musician plays the wrong music or ends too early or too late 

20: when 2 water bottles aren’t enough for class so you die of thirst

21: when non Irish dancers ask you to teach them something, so you try to teach them the jig and even that is too hard -.-

22: the exhaustion of competing whether its a feis or a major 

23: the pain of a full wig 

24: when your spray tan goes wrong and you look like an oompa loompa or a carrot 

25: the gross feeling of putting sock glue on / off 

26: the frustration when people who danced after you, get their results before you when you’ve waited 40 years and they’ve waited like 5 minutes 

27: when your friends think Irish dance is easy but when they try to do it they look like a drunk leprechaun 

28: the pain of missing a click and hitting your ankle instead 

29: the struggle of stepping on or tripping over your own feet 

30: when you accidentally break your own buckles 

[thehorrcr]

I hate myself

[fairyoftrickery]

Kerry Designs

[fallontonight]

Jimmy and Seth made sure Higgins knew that there’s a difference between Riverdance and Riverdale. 

[happinessandhardshoes]

an honest mistake

[mgirishdancer]

Stamina Tips

Okay, so I’ve been wanting to share my stamina tips for awhile! I most certainly don’t have perfect stamina but I have developed some ideas which really help me stay strong until the end.

Stamina is very mental. If you go in thinking about how long your dance is, your stamina is not going to be good. Instead, tell yourself that you are about to do your best dance ever. Another tip is to take it one step at a time. Tell yourself you’re only doing one step, than add another and another.

Do your full dances frequently! You can do as much cardio and strength training as you want but if you don’t practice doing your full dances, your dancing stamina will not improve. I try to do my full dances at least once a day (with a rest day) and coming up to competition I try to bump it up to two or three times a day. Do what’s right for you. It’s important for me mentally to be able to know that I’ve done my fulls frequently.

BREATHE. After each step, I try to check my breathing and make sure that I am actually breathing. I have a tendency to hold my breath and that does not help endurance!

Drink plenty of water.  Make sure to drink plenty of water throughout each day and especially on days you exercise! It makes a bigger impact that you think!

My Favorite Stamina Exercises:

1. Full dances + extra steps: Self-explanatory…Usually I only add one extra step but I occasionally add two steps or go twice through my dance.

2. Backwards Step-About: This one is difficult but rewarding! Start with left foot of your last step, then wait eight bars. Continue with your entire last step, wait eight bars. Add your left foot of your second step into your entire last step, and so on until you end up doing your full dance.

3. Stamina Step-About: This is my favorite at the moment. I do my first step then go directly into 8-16 bars of jogging in place while kicking all the way up behind. I then directly go into my second step and again go into 8-16 bars of jumping jacks, then I do my last step and go into jogging again. Sometimes I do my last step one last time. Feel free to switch out cardio moves! I often just do whatever cardio move I feel like, or sometimes I do basic dance moves instead, like skips.

I hope these were helpful! These are all challenging exercises so make sure to work your way up to them. I am happy to answer any questions!

[rincerepeat]

Here’s sister duo Kara & Clare dancing it up at their photoshoot. 💃💃 

Capture your fams’ dance memories, with a siblings’ photoshoot. rinceandrepeat.com

[abadpoetwithdreams]

Irish dancer problem: wearing blinged poodle socks to the gym because they are the only clean socks you own

[eeoo]

[thekathleenmeyer]

Oireachtas in less than two months…

[glitzjigsandsass]

goodbye.

[rincerepeat]

Sisters that dance together stay together! ❤️

[intheworldofirishdance]

TC when I actually get through a dance without dying

[humusofbandon67]

New things are coming in dance 😍

[kimbellll]

Omg I can’t to see it

[poet-bellefleur]

Seems like a decent amount of dancers are retiring early due to being too injured. Had me thinking, do you guys think as dancers overall we’re pushing ourselves too hard? I mean 20 years ago or more you wouldn’t really hear about this as much. I mean we’re coming up with harder moves and training even more, but when is it enough? Thoughts?

[theshinybuckles]

@poet-bellefleur I think the sport as a whole does not put enough emphasis on training the right way. It’s like you said, we’re doing more difficult moves, we’re expected to jump higher, move faster, and manipulate our bodies to the same extent as gymnasts and ballerinas. But then do we train the same way as these people? We. Do. Not. In ballet and in gymnastics they put a lot of emphasis on strengthening the various muscle groups and stretching. And if you notice just like the greats in Irish dance, the vast majority start young. And thy build on everything in steps. I briefly remember taking ballet as a child, and was I learning leaps and jumps? Heck no. I was pointing, I was taking little steps, and boy did I spend a lot of time on the bar with technique. Now I guarantee that as you move up in levels in ballet and in gymnastics you start strength training and working on mobility. I know gymnastics definitely does. They are required to be able to hold themselves up and train not just certain arm and leg muscles. They also spend a large amount of focus on mobility. While I believe in Irish dance we do spend a lot of time technique, we do not spend enough time strengthening or muscles, or working on mobility. And this is what is bringing us down as a sport. We act like gymnasts and ballerinas. We dance with great speed and technique and we push ourselves to the extent we could rival the Olympians. But we definitely do not train as smartly as they do. And this is what is causing the injuries. On top of that, most dancers do not ask “how” the injury occurred. You get an ankle sprain and you think “oh my ankle is bad”. But I’ll tell you from experience, that my ankles are pretty strong and I have still sprained them. And it turns out, wasn’t my ankles fault. It’s actually a fault in my hips which are extremely tight. And since everything is connected, my ankles took the fall. I also fixed shin splints in the same manner. It was a cause of tight hamstrings and calf muscles. Wasn’t actually my shins. I think with all the latest information we have on cross training, we are moving in the right direction. But it’s happening slow. But I’d bet my hat that in ten/fifteen years, we’re going to see another dramatic change in dance. Until then, I’m going to be sad for every dancer that has to retire due to injury. My heart goes out to them.

[sky-dance]

^^^

[lots-of-treble]

THIS. I’d also like to add that body mechanics are completely ignored in irish dance. When you compare our jumping technique to that of ballet, it is ludicrous. We are expected to jump in and out of a leap with perfectly straight knees, high up on our toes. There’s no cushioning there. The force needs to go somewhere and it goes right to our joints and ligaments. The bigger the leaps, the more this will be a detriment to our bodies.

[fairyoftrickery]

Ashurst Academy

[morgannalyseedance26-deactivate]

No one can be perfect, but if we strive for perfection we may reach excellence…✨ #2weeks #state #fortheloveofdance #dance #progressnotperfection #lovetodance #irishdance #kh23photography #halloranpride

[darcysreeler]

so goooood