Her friends young daughter had attended a feis as a Novice (beginner) and was the only child not wearing a Solo costume. Needless to say she felt that this possibly disadvantaged the child but at the very least made the child feel slightly inadequate.

The particular dance school has a "rule" that dancers cannot wear Solo dresses until they reach preliminary (Intermediate) grade. This sort of rule is very common within dance schools but this particular observer didn't realise this. She therefore opened the debate by asking : Is this common at other schools?

As a parent who has been through the stage of early feisanna the question struck a chord with me. My daughter and her friends have all at some time gone through the same experience and it is only with the benefit of hindsight that the teachers rules begin to make sense. I therefore responded with the following piece in order to try to alleviate their fears, and not expecting much response.

Yes it is!

Many teachers do not want to encourage the financial commitment of a solo dress until the dancer & parents are sure that they are definitely committed to competition. You may attend a few feisanna and decide your child isn't going to be good enough, or they might not like the pressures of competition. Or indeed purely all the cost and hassle involved!

As a novice the adjudicators are far more interested in making sure that the basic steps are done correctly, rather than being impressed by a fancy dress. They expect to see Novice standard dancers and are not going to be impressed by the dresses. For this reason many teachers suggest beginners or novices attend their early feisanna dressed in nothing more than a simple skirt and blouse. When they have established themselves they will then move to a school dress. The lift a child then gets when wearing their first class dress to a feis is amazing.

If a child wears too fancy a dress in the lower grades it could be seen as an attempt to sway the judges. Obviously as the dancer reaches Intermediate (or Preliminary) grade the dresses become more elaborate. A dancer then wearing a basic school dress may be perceived as having only recently entered the grade, effectively placing themselves at the bottom of the grade. A fancier dress gives the illusion that you are an established dancer at these grades, and increases your chance of being watched properly, and being marked on merit. Obviously your dancing has to match the level of costume!

In this respect Solo dresses in Novice grades could be having the opposite effect! Tell your daughter to concentrate on the steps, not the outfit. In Novice grade competitions I frequently see winners wearing simple costumes. Her teachers will advise you when the costume is beginning to hold her back, whether by its design or because it doesn't fit properly etc. Remember that dancing is first and foremost done for fun, so nobody should feel under pressure to do anything or feel intimidated in any way. A little nervousness while competing is normal, so why add more to worry about. The competition is a dance competition, not a costume competition.

I then received a message from a very well known teacher thanking me for posting the response as she felt it would carry more weight if a parent rather than a teacher was seen to give this advice. She said she agreed totally with the sentiment. Of course I was glad that it had been received well.

However.......

Bernadette from CelticCafe picked up on a passing comment I had made and asked the following : Just out of curiosity........how would one find out if the beginning dancer isn't going to be good enough?

This was then picked up on by someone else (Zina Lee) who made some very interesting points about not only what made a good dancer, but what made a teacher pick them out. Her observations were also quite amusing to those who have ever been to their childs classes. She also went on to say that sometimes we can all still assess a child totally incorrectly! She then made the following statement : I have one quibble with your question -- define what is "good enough."

As it seemed clear to me that perhaps my original message had been picked up on in a different way to which it was meant I posted the reply below.

I'm sure many of us relate to the points in your list!

We've all seen most of these characteristics displayed by dancers in some way at some time, and as you say they sometimes suddenly prove everyone wrong. So there is no hard and fast rule!

What I meant in my original response when I said "not good enough" was not meant as a criticism of a dancer. I meant that spending a fortune on a "Championship" style dress when a dancer wasn't yet at the Championship level should be discouraged and parents should not feel pressured. Teachers are rightly trying to get beginners to concentrate on their dancing, not the costumes.

Some children will never reach the highest levels, or become discouraged before they do, or distracted by other interests, and parents should wait until they are "good enough". In my experience in the UK most teachers believe that Irish dance is strictly competitive rather than for fun and therefore dancers who don't succeed tend to drop out. However, there are other teachers who believe the opposite and question the option of "Feis or Fun" . Fancy dresses become less contentious then!

The Feis or Fun article relates to a group of teachers from outside An Coimisiun who feel that dance should be more for fun than competition.(see here for more)

I thought that was going to be the end of the discussion but there's more!

Zina Lee then contacted me with a copy of something she'd written sometime ago about the concept of "Feis or Fun"

With her permission I have posted the article in its entirety with a cross reference to the other article. (see here)

I made no comment on the text at the time but intended to do so later. Unfortunately, Mandy who had posted the original "Feis or Fun" article thought that Irish Dancer was belittling her branch of Irish Dancing in some way, suggesting that the for fun dancers were not up to a high standard.

Her final comment was "The words Fun and skill can actually go together"

This was never the case and we have cleared this up with Mandy.

To close the debate please read our brief editorial here