By Peter Makem
Irish dancing was very big back in my early days. But it is even bigger now. I remember half a century ago there were two schools of Irish dancing in Keady and they vied with each other for supremacy in local dancing competitions. There was serious pride at stake, especially from the parents. Girls—and boys as well—but not so many seemed to start dancing lessons at a very early age.
It often appeared they could dance before they could walk and out of the blue would go through the steps of a jig or reel, ever aware of their art. Some schools seem to concentrate on the leap as if they were dancing to a set of invisible hurdles. But it was all so intense, such a presence of sheer artistry and status in the local rural and urban homes of Ireland.
Now across Ireland, Britain and in the US it has grown not merely in popularity and intensity of competition, but in the sheer expense of dressing dancers for the occasion. Dresses can cost several thousand pounds, on top of travel and teaching fees. It’s a massive investment. I don’t know when the wigs came in, but suddenly the young girl dancers were like people out of the seventeenth century sporting great wigs that bounce and wave to the rhythm of the feet. Then there’s the fake tan, used more and more by girls looking as if they’d come straight from the Sahara desert.
But the competitive element today has very much intensified in modern times, so much so that an investigation by An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha (CLRG), the Irish Dancing Commission has been launched into allegations of Irish dance competition-fixing. A former Irish Court of Appeal judge has been asked ‘to probe allegations of several grievous breaches’ of the commission’s code of conduct.
It seems that teachers, parents and competitors have for years questioned some results of competitions, suspecting competition-fixing dating, and had set up their own support group last month as they feared making complaints as individuals. A first meeting was held in south Armagh.
They expressed anger at what they believe is a culture of “back scratching” among an element linked to CLRG, which has more than 2,000 affiliated teachers in Ireland, Britain, the US and others parts of the world.
Concern was also expressed about what they described as a ‘beauty pageant” element of competitions organised by the CLRG—wigs and fake tan along with elaborate clothing. They wanted to organise as a group amid concerns that they or their students may be treated “improperly” in future competitions.
On the allegations, the CLRG said in a statement that the evidence apparently dates back several years and identifies individuals allegedly offering various inducements to promote dancers to a higher than deserved placing at particular competitions.
Such concerns over the expense of competing and individuals not being treated fairly drove former CLRG teachers and those from other organisations to establish the World Irish Dance Association in 2004. This WIDA, one of a number of Irish dancing organisations not linked to CLRG, wanted to promote ‘cost effective, traditional dance,’ where the young people and their parents do not need to spend huge amounts of money on dresses and accessories.
Belfast hosted the World Championships in April, attended by approximately 3,500 dancers along with their families. That gives some idea about the sheer size of Irish dancing and the equally massive problems of regulating competition and the taming of costumes that has grown wild.